Useful Practice If You're Interested In Trading

[euroazn]

http://www.tradertest.org/

The trading simulation and mental math portions are of particular use..

 

[euroazn]

Haha, glad you guys like it so much but somebody bump the thread once in a while so other people get to view it

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Maybe the next time some MFE applicant states that he/she wants to become a trader, we can point to this website and let them check out their own mental math skill?

 

[euroazn]

Hahahaha... "I'm not saying you can't become a trader but have you looked at http://www.tradertest.org/ recently?" :P

 

[Saurab]

hey just wondering can all of you guys finish each question in 6 sec.. I takes me way more than that..

 

[euroazn]

hey just wondering can all of you guys finish each question in 6 sec.. I takes me way more than that..

Well now you know what to practice
Which difficulty setting were you on?

 

[Lyosha]

Useful practice if you are interested in trading:

http://ritc.rotman.utoronto.ca

 

[DoubleTrouble]

That kind of "mathematics" gives me the creeps!

I can not for the love of me see how it could be useful to be able to compute 0.009/(-7) * (-2133.81) + (-0.7445) quickly by hand, or in your head. It would be interesting to know if someone here with a quant career experience could explain why this kind of ability would be useful.

I mean, I have studied mathematics at the university for 5 years and I have never had the need to compute anything like that by hand. Whenever I use numbers, I use a computer. And I would imagine that is how a modern quant would work today as well!

Please enlighten me!

 

[JesseLevermore]

This is a trading test not quant, they are two different roles. A trader needed quick calculations to price things in the past. I don't know how much this is true for trading now though but it is still a good way to sift through and find the people with passion. A rare number of people would have the innate ability to pass those exams but almost anyone could study and practice the mental math necessary.

 

[marina]

Knowing option arithmetic is more important than knowing high school math.

This drill is designed to help increase the speed at which you recognize the synthetic equivalent of positions involving options.
Position = Synthetic Equivalent
1) +P =
2) -U +C =
3) +C =
4) -U -P =
5) -U =
6) -C +P =
7) +C -U =
8) +P +U =
9) +C =
10) +U -C =
11) -P =
12) -P +C =
13) -C =
14) +C -P =
15) +U =
16) -C +U =
17) -C =
18) +P -C =
19) -U =
20) -P =
21) -P -U =
22) +U =
23) +P =
24) +U +P =

 

[Freakonometrics]

I would be surprised if there was even 1 person on this earth who could pass the Hard level having less than 6 seconds for each question (without a calculator of course). Without memorizing the actual numbers of course.

 

[euroazn]

I would be surprised if there was even 1 person on this earth who could pass the Hard level having less than 6 seconds for each question (without a calculator of course). Without memorizing the actual numbers of course.

Edit: Actually, you can see the statistics. There aren't lol. http://www.tradertest.org/img_math.php

 

[Sarj]

That kind of "mathematics" gives me the creeps!

I can not for the love of me see how it could be useful to be able to compute 0.009/(-7) * (-2133.81) + (-0.7445) quickly by hand, or in your head. It would be interesting to know if someone here with a quant career experience could explain why this kind of ability would be useful.

I mean, I have studied mathematics at the university for 5 years and I have never had the need to compute anything like that by hand. Whenever I use numbers, I use a computer. And I would imagine that is how a modern quant would work today as well!

Please enlighten me!

This is pretty easy to solve by hand and can be done very quickly if you rearrange the problem.

Much like (a/b)(c) can be written as (ac/b), we can rewrite the first half of the equation as (.009*(-2133.81))/(-7), recognize that we have a negative in the numerator and denominator and it simply comes to (.009*2133.81)/(7).

Next, and I forget the name of the actual rule or maybe there is no rule and it's just a pattern that I have picked up on over the years of doing math, but you simply divide the 2133.81 by 10 (i.e. shift the decimal point over one place to the left) and subtract this amount from the 2133.81 (2133.81 - 213.381 = 1920.429). (you have effectively just found .9*2133.81)

Since what we are really looking for is 2133.81(.009), shift the decimal point on 1920.429 over 2 places to the left and you have 19.20429.

We are now left with (19.20429/7) - .7445

You should be able to do the long division out by hand very quickly, if you just keep mental note of remainders when you divide out and carry down. This division comes to 2.74347

Now do the subtraction: 2.74347 - .7445 = 1.99897
Punch the equation into a calculator and you get the same answer
(.009/-7)(2133.81)+(-.7445) = 1.99897

I know this seems like a long explanation, but this is a very quick computation.

**also, I know that this is an older post, but it was linked in another recent thread.

 

[DoubleTrouble]

This is pretty easy to solve by hand and can be done very quickly if you rearrange the problem.

Much like (a/b)(c) can be written as (ac/b), we can rewrite the first half of the equation as (.009*(-2133.81))/(-7), recognize that we have a negative in the numerator and denominator and it simply comes to (.009*2133.81)/(7).

Next, and I forget the name of the actual rule or maybe there is no rule and it's just a pattern that I have picked up on over the years of doing math, but you simply divide the 2133.81 by 10 (i.e. shift the decimal point over one place to the left) and subtract this amount from the 2133.81 (2133.81 - 213.381 = 1920.429). (you have effectively just found .9*2133.81)

Since what we are really looking for is 2133.81(.009), shift the decimal point on 1920.429 over 2 places to the left and you have 19.20429.

We are now left with (19.20429/7) - .7445

You should be able to do the long division out by hand very quickly, if you just keep mental note of remainders when you divide out and carry down. This division comes to 2.74347

Now do the subtraction: 2.74347 - .7445 = 1.99897
Punch the equation into a calculator and you get the same answer
(.009/-7)(2133.81)+(-.7445) = 1.99897

I know this seems like a long explanation, but this is a very quick computation.

**also, I know that this is an older post, but it was linked in another recent thread.

Thank you for your answer and for your explanation of your method. I wonder if this kind of mental calculations would come up at a quant interview. I mean, as people pointed out above me, I can see how important this must be for a trader position - but not for quant position.

 

[Alexander Krosky]

I would be surprised if there was even 1 person on this earth who could pass the Hard level having less than 6 seconds for each question (without a calculator of course). Without memorizing the actual numbers of course.

What about savants?

 

[alain]

What about savants?

Raymond Babbitt

 

[latency]

I would be surprised if there was even 1 person on this earth who could pass the Hard level having less than 6 seconds for each question (without a calculator of course). Without memorizing the actual numbers of course.

you will be surprised, walk into any good chicago options trading firm...

 

[Byron]

you will be surprised, walk into any good chicago options trading firm...

I had taken a similar test from an options firm - 80 questions, 8 minutes. It was a lot easier than this, easily doable in the allotted time - the emphasis I think was on being very accurate under pressure.

 

[hyhl]

Is the test difficulty level similar to EASY level on tradertest.org?

I had taken a similar test from an options firm - 80 questions, 8 minutes. It was a lot easier than this, easily doable in the allotted time - the emphasis I think was on being very accurate under pressure.

I had taken a similar test from an options firm - 80 questions, 8 minutes. It was a lot easier than this, easily doable in the allotted time - the emphasis I think was on being very accurate under pressure.

 

[Shantanu Kumar]