Quant Traders Please Read

I am considering going back to school for a quantitative finance degree. My goals with this degree are to land a well-paid job and have the option of becoming a career trader using strategies based on quantitative finance.

About myself, I have a BS and MS in engineering from GT. I have considered getting an MBA in finance. But after many conversations and alot of thinking, I am feeling lead to get a quant degree.

Currently, I am working on an algorithmic trading strategy based on TA which is showing promising results during the backtesting phase. I hope to move to paper trading in the next few weeks.

All quants, please let me know you are out there. Let me know a little of your backstory and trading successes/failures. Tell me if I am on the right track or heading down a dead end.

Any and all comments will be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

You must be around 30ish...it is most likely too late to break into wall street.

 

1) Another engineering education squandered. Join the club. :eek:
2) Is "GT", Georgia Tech?

 

How do you not have a well paying job now

unless GT stands for Guantanamo Tech...Dude if you can't find a job with your current pedigree then you have bigger issues that yet another degree won't solve

 

I think he means instead of a six figure job he wants seven figures.

 

(a) - you are probably wasting your time. In general, MS in quant finance does not teach you anything of value unless you are looking to become a quant developer for a bank or a fund.
(b) - you can land a well-paying job in finance as is, just need to look around and leverage your existing skills. If you know ML, statistics etc, there are plenty PMs at hedge funds or prop desks looking to hire someone like yourself.
(c) looks like you got plenty education as is - my general experience has been that you need a degree to find your first job.

 

trade crude oil (physical) at Glencore.

Average senior crude oil trader makes $19m per annum.

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I think he means instead of a six figure job he wants seven figures.

 

that's sick, wonder how much of that is by riding customer orders and/or inventory manipulation

 

I think you either get a PhD or you become basically a quant-oriented programmer. The latter, maybe you already have the education for - maybe just get a certificate from someplace like CMU MSCF or other?

Too bad Tepper dropped their Investment Strategy Track MBA, it seemed like a good blend between quant and trading:
http://tepperinvestmentstrategytrack.s3.amazonaws.com/curriculum_2012_2014.pdf
http://tepperinvestmentstrategytrack.s3.amazonaws.com/Investment_Strategy_Track_2011_2013.pdf