Quant Researcher career questions

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fena43

New

fena43
Mar 22 6 Comments

I'm an incoming quant research intern at one of the tagged firms (HRT/JS/2S), and I'd love to hear some advice. Apologies if these questions seem naive, I am still an undergrad and have 0 yoe in the field. Thank you in advance.

Are there any overarching differences between alpha research at a top quant hedge fund and at a top prop shop? What about in portfolio optimization research?

Will one be more advantageous if I am planning on gaining experience in both alpha research and portfolio opti before trying to run my own quant portfolio (say at a multimanager)?

Thanks again.

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    dental

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    dental
    OP what is your major and what did the interview consist of? Just curious how one gets into this
    Mar 22 5
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      dental

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      dental
      So linear algebra, real analysis and probability theory would be the most important subjects? Ive read about the MFE but would just a masters in math be adequate? I didn’t do any extra math as an undergrad so need to catch up and coursera stuff just doesn’t do it for me
      Mar 22
    • New
      fena43

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      fena43
      OP
      Probability theory, statistics, and coding are essential. Being able to hold up in the discussion-oriented open-ended modeling interviews is also essential, which basically means you should be familiar with machine learning. Linear algebra is basically essential since it's a fundamental math course.

      The other stuff isn't "essential" but the chances you are asked a question from at least one of these topics is 100% (from my small sample size) from every firm. This would be real analysis, higher-level statistics (e.g. linear regression theory), higher-level linear algebra (matrix stuff, theory), more advanced ML.
      Mar 22