some of it is operation. But not backoffice. Traders also come up with the strategies and ideas. If it's all operations then there's no way they would pull down the 7 figures. Some aspects of it is somewhat operational.
ideas are a dime a dozen (who cannot come up with an idea). you need to prove your ideas. how? quantitatively via programming.
you really dont know any real quant traders do you? babysit watch execution no they have algos that do that since the trades are lightening fast and might be arbing 4 to 9 legs without getting hung on the cme soybeans vs the brazil soybean futures while simultabeously spreading usd vs real currency in order to hedge out currency risk all at the automated speed of light. no one gets paid 500k to babysit. you keep earning your keep. the mkts change and daily weekly nuances n volatilities must be constantly hedged out and thats what you do everday and you are a quant you love working with data and have a never ending supply there is no such thing as a bored quant ever.
Such a clueless mindset. Just fucking clueless. I am certain you know absolutely nothing about quantitative finance too. DE Shaw has almost 10,000 employees. It is like saying Jeff Bezos wouldn't be able to make it selling baseball cards at a flea market. Who cares. What can possibly be less relevant to their business.
Without Simon’s inputs into the models rentech would make a tiny fraction of what it makes now. There’s a reason no one at rentech has gone on to have a massive fund. They aren’t talented traders without Simon’s secret sauce.