How’s the journey going?

hope you are doing great!

Left the industry to become an entrepreneur. More fulfilling and more rewarding financially

@@realcristiansanchez Hello Cristian! Im a rising sophomore and one of my biggest goals is to become a quant trader. Do you have tips from your own journey ? And did you only major in finance? Hope everything is going well!

Thanks for the feedback and the subscribe!

Thanks Tek! It was always a pleasure working with you.

Thanks!

Thanks! Are you THE Mr. Guest from Hamblen?

Yep that’s me!

Thanks for subscribing and being a part of the channel!

Thank you

It's never too late if it motivates you!

You're welcome.

I've used a combination of books, friends, and online materials. KZfaq has been an amazing place though (see channels below). I also have book reviews in a playlist on my channel if you are interested. Math: "Patrick JMT" Programming: "TheNewBoston" Stats: Ben Lambert Financial Engineering: Nathan Whitehead

I would agree 100%. Self drive is 90% or more of the success in life.

Thanks for sharing your story. I think it's beneficial for others to see the unique journey we end up taking.

Overall this is a tough decision. Below are the options I see that you might considered. 1) Self learn quant techniques and add them to your current career. You may never get a full time quant job from this option however it can make your current path more interesting. 2) As you mentioned, you could do an online degree such as the CQF or another online degree. This could pay off given you already have experience in the industry which would make getting a job easier. It's cheaper and easier however it isn't looked highly upon by the industry. 3) Part-time MFE. A part-time MFE is still expensive however it allows you to get a brick and mortar degree. NYC is the perfect location for this option because Baruch, NYU, Columbia, and Rutgers all have part-time students. These programs are designed for current practitioners like yourself. 4) Full-time Masters. You can allows get a full-time masters degree however it will be expensive and you won't have a job. Given your situation I would do the part-time degree instead of the full-time degree. 5) Get a PhD. This route is most likely not what you were wanting but if done correctly you can get a PhD for free but you would be a full-time student. Given your situation I would do the part-time MFE if you really want to make the career switch to quant finance. Doing an online degree would be my second choice. Some employers might not ask if it is online or not if you take it from a program that has a brick and mortar version of the same degree. There are a handful of these programs in the US that I think would look better than the CQF. The last option I would consider is doing self learning or the free WQU masters. The WQU won't teach you everything you would need so you would have to do a lot of self studying which can be challenging given the lack of materials. This route would require a lot of self marketing to convince others you can do the job even with a free online degree. As for being 30, no it's not too late. A lot of quant teams have a few young guys that are between 25-35 and then a group in their 50's. Most places I have worked don't have a clear promotion path as a lot of us are all doing the same work regardless of age or seniority. As for, "is it worth it?" That's really a personal decision. If you find the quant finance intellectually stimulating and something you would enjoy doing the rest of your career then I would say it is worth it. If money is really important to you then your current route might be a better option. If you want to being surrounded by other quants then getting a degree can be worth it however if you are just interested in applying and learning new techniques then staying where you are and self learning might be a better option. I've had many jobs where they were doing things in Excel or using not very technical methods and I had convinced them over time to switch to more advanced methods. One example was doing macro economic data cleaning in Excel for hundreds of variables and then plotting them to see if there were data quality issues. I ended up automating the process in SAS which would plot everything and then generate messages regarding potential data quality issues. In general I would take some time to really think about what you are giving up and what you would be getting in return.

@@DimitriBianco thanks a million for taking time to give me a detailed and thorough response. Will definitely take your advice into consideration!

For quantitative finance I don't think age is too big of a hurdle. Many PhDs are older by the time they start. It will take time and money though, so I would think hard about why you are interested in quant finance.

I took a semester off to study and I already had a programming background. Even with those two factors it was a lot of work and a mental struggle.

It depends on the quality of the grad program. If you take enough math and stats through your undergrad you should do okay but you might need to study a little between the programs. Some of the programs have a summer boot camp. There is also a good prep book available. If you're interested I can post a link to it.

As long as you do well on the gre and write a good statement of purpose you should be able to get into a few good programs.

@@DimitriBianco Thanks a lot for your answer! Yes, it would be great. Another small question, what knowledge in maths and stats do I need to get to good quant programs or where can I find exact requirements? On admission websites they just write "good knowledge of math is required..." but do not specify what math...

Yes, I will be having more videos focused around this topic. There should be a video coming out within the next month on setting up self learning projects.

Take a look at Stony Brook and Baruch. Both programs are known to either be cheaper or provide good scholarships. Both are solid programs as well.

They can be a route to break into traditional finance but not quantitative finance. I think getting an MBA from a top program would be a better choice though for traditional finance and banking.

One of my cousins got his CFA and he works for a quant hedge fund

That's a tough question. The people I have met in the industry with strong math backgrounds tend to like their jobs however I am guessing that those who didn't like the industry probably left. Different areas do different amounts of math and to different degrees. For example, someone who engineers derivative products (proprietary pricing equations) would do more hands on math than someone in risk management who would spend more time with programming statistical models. I do spend time on some projects breaking down final equations to see how they work on a more simplistic level but this isn't a daily task.

The age factor definitely makes is more challenging. A guy in my undergrad was similar. He served in the army for some years before deciding to go to college. He was really nice but he didn't fit with a lot of people due to age.

If you are wanting to learn on your own then books are your best bet however I have videos and you might like Nathan Whitehead's ( kzfaq.info ) KZfaq channel as well. If you want to be a quant professionally...then you need at minimum a Masters degree in not a PhD. Most get degrees in financial engineering (financial mathematics, computational finance) or statistics. This is the start to some of my more technical videos. I also have one or two on binomial asset pricing. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ntyohNOZybjehYU.html

No. But I was around 1,400 out of 1,600 if I remember right. The scores are based on the old exams which were 800 per exam.

This has really stemmed from the academic community however I think a lot of industry quants continue to hold this belief. Universities usually have a specific focus and slant (their own view on a subject). By attending the same university you will miss out on different perspectives. Economics is an easy example to see as some schools are classical, Keynesian, or Austrian (there are also other groups). When this comes to other areas such as math, science, and engineering some people assume it is fact based and there are not different views however once you get into these academic areas you will see the feuds between different ideas and approaches. I've seen a similar situation in the industry as well where someone was turned down for a manager promotion because they didn't have outside (other banking) experience.

Lol, that's a typo. Let me see if I can fix it.

PS: i wanted to that thank you for your videos, they helps to determine the directions