I dont know if you ever checked out the site www.albournevillage.com or eFinancialCareers.com. These sites have dozens and dozens of job listings oriented towards quantitative system development. The postings typically give very specific background requirements for applicants as well as salary details. There are really an abundance of good opportunities in the space your moving towards. I think browsing through some of the listings posted there for a few days will answer your question.
Typical of these threads. You have to sift through a lot of garbage to find the occasional hidden gems. Aside from reading through all the damn ego bashing that goes on.
You need discipline to exit trades, as for example if you have made a good profit and do not wish to exit the trade when you could have made a huge profit. You require big winners to cover for drawdown. Hence, you do not want to stop following the system because you are afraid that the profits might slip out of your hands. It is all a part of the trading game.
Is becoming a quant a waste of time? In reply, I ask you: "Is becoming a software engineer a waste of time?" Software engineers employed at Google may answer one way, software engineers employed at Boeing may answer another. Similarly, quants employed at Renaissance Technologies may answer one way, while quants employed at Bear Stearns may answer another.
tell you what fatrat, i dont care "neither does the market" about your degrees. get over it and quit using "degrees" as an excuse. you yourself eluded to this so maybe your on the right track. heres the deal you either have the passion or you dont. you either want something bad enough or you dont. you want to get into automated trading systems, do it nothing will stop you. first i would seek out and hang around some model builders. i would spend all my time looking for a position with someone who actually makes money trading systems and or developing systems for high end traders. if you want to learn you need peers at least for a while. the worst thing would be to think your going to come out the gate and do it yourself cause your so smart. fact is being a true quant is half art and half science. mab quote "i think successful system developing is an art which is defined by math" systems = pre art/post math, at least this is the way i do it. consider this i have a cray computer many know this, it is my 3rd since 1992. i spend weeks and months to just setup an optimization run which will calculate a truly "emotional and tear generating beautiful" astounding, incomprehensible and unworthy to the human mind mass of data. only to deliver to "i" the infidel a diamond of information which was compressed by mountains of seemingly worthless market information. the machine does what a machine does, relentlessly churning out revelations which the mind can not - will not understand nor even deserve. its there, its for you, grab it and revel that no one else finds it valuable - save others who are just as crazy and out of their mind as you are. mb
Beautiful post, I love it!!! Fully agree, not sure what made you ask this question here. ET Is for your tea break to have a good laugh. Post it on Wilmott or Nuclear Phynance. Good luck.
Surprised someone resurrected this old thread. IMO, the "waste of time" aspect has nothing to do with the profession itself and more so the actual job market. I just think that if you calculate the number of job postings for the quantitative stuff vs. the number of people entering degree programs (either for PhD or MSFE), you might be horrified. I'm sitting in my classes going through the grueling math, getting my As, and so on and so forth. However, the opportunities are still very limited. Some places have told me, that despite my masters, I'll still need to throw more time in and get a PhD. We're looking at a 10 year commitment either way. I did come to a decision, for what it's worth. I decided I'd just drudge through my PhD and work on trading systems independently. Whether I will be employed as a quant or not, I don't actually know. More importantly, I don't actually care anymore either. If I can be a security guard at a retirement home and collect $10/hr while sitting around pretending to observe cameras while I actually do quantitative research, so be it.
Interesting.. You'd certainly know better than I, but perusing through the various financial job listings these days, roughly 80% appear to be quant positions. Upcoming supply far surpasses present and future demand?
funny. go look the topic up on nuclearphynance. you might be surprised at their opinions i found it refreshing to see quant practitioners take a non-judgmental stance towards it