quants
Wall Street statisticians
Quants are quantitative analysts—specialists who apply mathematical and statistical models to financial markets.
They build algorithms for trading, risk assessment, and pricing derivatives.
The term emerged from Wall Street but extends to anyone doing heavy computational work in finance: The quants at the hedge fund developed a new trading strategy.
Quant can also be short for quantitative in academic contexts: quant methods, quant research.
Science of quantity and structure
- statisticsCollected numerical information
- probabilityQuantified chance of occurrence
- programmingWriting software instructions
- PythonLarge nonvenomous squeezer
R · MATLAB · C++ · econometrics · calculus · modeling · SQL · Excel
Exchanging for value
- arbitrageExploiting price discrepancies
- derivativesThings derived from another
- optionsAvailable courses of action
- futuresContracts for future delivery
securities · volatility · portfolio · equities · bonds · leverage · commodities · Renaissance
Finite instruction sequences
- backtestingValidating strategies using history
- optimizationMaximizing efficiency or performance
- simulationImitation of real processes
- time-seriesData indexed by moments
stochastic · regression · Bayesian · heuristics · calibration · correlation · covariance · interpolation
Organized digital records
- analyticsSystematic examination of datasets
- visualizationForming mental or graphical images
- forecastingEstimating future conditions
- inferenceConclusion reached through reasoning
sampling · variables · clustering · classification · multivariate · p-values · ANOVA · logistic
mathematics
Science of quantity and structure
- statisticsCollected numerical information
- probabilityQuantified chance of occurrence
- programmingWriting software instructions
Python · R · MATLAB · C++ · econometrics · calculus · modeling · SQL · Excel · Bloomberg
trading
Exchanging for value
- arbitrageExploiting price discrepancies
- derivativesThings derived from another
- optionsAvailable courses of action
futures · securities · volatility · portfolio · equities · bonds · leverage · commodities · Renaissance · Citadel
algorithms
Finite instruction sequences
- backtestingValidating strategies using history
- optimizationMaximizing efficiency or performance
- simulationImitation of real processes
time-series · stochastic · regression · Bayesian · heuristics · calibration · correlation · covariance · interpolation
datasets
Organized digital records
- analyticsSystematic examination of datasets
- visualizationForming mental or graphical images
- forecastingEstimating future conditions
inference · sampling · variables · clustering · classification · multivariate · p-values · ANOVA · logistic · correlation
- finance prosfinancial analysts, investment bankers, stockbrokers, stock brokers, traders
- Quant Tradingalgorithmic trading, high-frequency trading, trading bots, backtesting, arbitrage
- math peoplemathematicians, mathletes, math tutors, professors, researchers
quantsfundamentalists
Rigid interpreters of doctrine
stock pickers · value investors · floor traders · chartists · activist investors
quantsrainmakers
High-value business attractors
dealmakers · salespeople · schmoozer · glad-handers · MBAs
- quality over quantityPreferring excellence to abundance
- unknown quantityUndetermined value or factor
- known quantityEstablished, predictable element
- quantitative reasoningProblem-solving through numbers
- quantitative easingAsset purchases to boost economy
- quantity discountPrice cut for large orders
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