But if you want to be a quant polishing fixed income risk management models in some bank,
What kind of social skills does that require? My impression is that this is the modern equivalent of court astrologer and requires some similar skills, i.e., cold reading.
Not much—the usual ones for holding a corporate job (wear business casual, look neat, don’t smell, don’t be a weirdo). Quants are expected to be nerdy/geeky.
My impression is that this is the modern equivalent of court astrologer
Not at all. Finance has the advantage of providing rapid and unambiguous feedback for your actions.
Finance has the advantage of providing rapid and unambiguous feedback for your actions.
If you’re trading yes, although the feedback is extremely noisy. If you’re designing models not so much. Incidentally a lot of the quants I know are also good at doing Tarot readings, whether they believe the cards have power or not.
That very much depends on what kind of strategy you’re trading. For example, HFT doesn’t have problems with noise.
If you’re designing models not so much.
Yes, so much. Your model has to work well on historical data and if it makes it to production, it will have performance metrics that it will have to meet.
What kind of social skills does that require? My impression is that this is the modern equivalent of court astrologer and requires some similar skills, i.e., cold reading.
Not much—the usual ones for holding a corporate job (wear business casual, look neat, don’t smell, don’t be a weirdo). Quants are expected to be nerdy/geeky.
Not at all. Finance has the advantage of providing rapid and unambiguous feedback for your actions.
If you’re trading yes, although the feedback is extremely noisy. If you’re designing models not so much. Incidentally a lot of the quants I know are also good at doing Tarot readings, whether they believe the cards have power or not.
That very much depends on what kind of strategy you’re trading. For example, HFT doesn’t have problems with noise.
Yes, so much. Your model has to work well on historical data and if it makes it to production, it will have performance metrics that it will have to meet.