I heard from someone that algo tradng is a niche area saturated with masters/PhDs in math, finance, Comp Sc with tons of AI/ML experience and therefore very hard for soemone experienced in non-finance background to enter. Please advise how to approach this, I am ok to start as a free lancer or any junior position.
Dear Sudhindra,
I hope you are doing well. Great to see your question.
We have been helping our students with many opportunities. As you are an EPATIAN, I will mark our placements team who will guide you better with relevant information.
Thank You!
Thank you The placement ream is already in touch with me. I just wanted to know from the professionals if the area is indeed saturated.
Hi Sudhindra,
The quantitative finance space, just like any other professional space is competitive. If you have the right skillset, you should get a break soon!
Best wishes!
I can tell you about quants desks at big banks (take it with a grain of salt as its been a while since and things change fast in this space). The quants are the layer that often does POCs and acts as a layer between programmers and the traders - some times there are "desk quants" as well (especially if the desk is making a lot of money). Most of these quants are masters and often PhDs in some STEM areas. I have not seen/ known anyone with AI/ ML backgrounds (strong or week). On the quant buyside or HFTs, the quants and traders separation becomes a bit blurry (more so for HFTs). You will still find mostly masters and PhDs in big name shops. I think AI/ ML adoptation is relatively new, and still minority of strategies in big names. I personally think someone without a strong masters or PhD or a lot of experience to show off, will definitely not be head-hunted. The best strategy will be to reach out to small and mid size buyside shops or HFTs. If you do not have relevant degree or experience, make sure you have solid content and have the ability to display your capability and hard work. This includes very good command in programming, and keeping yourself abreast with the latest research in the area (with proofs - for e.g. impressive github repos). I think there will always be a dearth of great quant traders who can span the whole gamut of ideating, testing/ selling the idea, and implemeting it.
Thank you, that makes sense. I know software developers use github to show off their skills but if someone has a good algo trading stategy, do they really put it in github? Are they not concerned that their intellectual property is on public display and anyone can copy it?
You would probably never put a strategy that works great on GitHub, it will not be much helpful nor very impressive. If a shop is hiring you, that may not be for the strategies you have built in the past (they probably already tried all of that), but your ability to do research and program them into life. For example, what about something implements concretely a few (or many) latest research papers results and compare with the reported results. Or an implementation of a known market making algo that is more efficient. Or many other things, if you explore.