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Comment by mydriasis | Hacker News Reader

This is what I wanted to do when I was getting my math degree! I wanted to be a quant. Things went a different direction and I'm a programmer now. Is there any hope for me? Think I could still chase it down in my spare time, or is it something I need, say, a master's degree for?

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You will be better off going independent, than trying to break into the industry (unless your PhD was from a top program, and you're on the younger side).

In that vein, Ernest P. Chan's books will give you the toolkit to begin, and then you can figure out the rest as-needed. Quantitative Trading (2nd), Chan I believe is the first in the series. Algorithmic Trading I believe is the second. And Machine Trading is the last.

That's awesome, I appreciate it. Do I need a ton of money to start off? Is it better _not_ to have a lot of money to start off to create less trouble for myself?

> Do I need a ton of money to start off?

well the best way to make a small fortune is to start with a large fortune ;)

I'd heavily advise not to do what they're recommending, and try out applying to trading firms if you want to break into the industry.

I work at a trading firm and a decent number of our quants were all just programmers beforehand with no trading experience. Additionally, there's no downside to applying to a bunch of them and seeing if you get an offer, but there's a HUGE downside to gambling your own money in a field you don't understand.

You could also do what I did and apply for a normal programmer role at a trading firm. Then you'll get some exposure to the quant world and if you want, you can try to pivot internally (I haven't done the last part and am not super interested, but plenty of people I know have).

>Independent

Really? Everything I've ever seen recommends against this.

Don't do it if you need the money.

At that point, it's like any other hobby: horse-racing, sports-betting, or purchasing YCH commissions to hang up on your dining room wall.

Hi there! I'm the author of the article.If you have a programming skills and a mathematics background, it is possible to break into the industry. Even better if your current role is as a data scientist of machine learning engineer.

I work as a quant on a second tier hedge fund. The pool of potential firms is actually pretty big, but most people think that the only shops out there are citadel, two sigma or rentech. That is definitely not the case, and the salaries are still excellent (comparable to FAANG).

What are the noncompetes like? I've heard that once you work for one shop, you basically can't work/apply your knowledge & skills anywhere else, which leads to stress about keeping your job.

That's not true, NCs / gardening leave last about a year.

The fail rate for traders in a real trading firm is something like 50% anecdotally (i.e. 1/2 of those hired don't make past 12mo mark)

The fail rate for retail traders without the professional environment backing them would be >95%.

That is to say the best thing you could do to increase the probability of your success is to get in the door at a reputable place.

https://robotwealth.com/ is probably the only source of information for a retail trader that I'd recommend. It's still far inferior to actually getting a seat at a real shop.

There's plenty of work for programmers in trading companies too - much better job stability than for traders.

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