What It’s Like to Be a Quant Trading Analyst

By DRW

Summary

## Key takeaways - **QTA monitors systems and manages risk**: I'm responsible for monitoring the trading systems and our analytical tools. I also look at our positions and I manage risk. [00:20], [00:26] - **Identifies opportunities and implements strategies**: I identify any potential trading opportunities and collaborate with the traders on my team. And I also carry out my own research to identify possible trading strategies and then implement those through our algorithms. [00:26], [00:37] - **Collaborates with developers and researchers**: As a QTA, I work closely with developers and with quant researchers. Even though we build our own tools and research signals on the desks, if we find that we can scale these across other teams, then we share our ideas with developers and researchers and we try to come up with solutions together. [00:37], [01:00] - **QTAs make live decisions vs researchers' models**: As a Quant Trading Analyst, I make live trading decisions and I also need to manage positions. Whereas as a Quant Researcher, you work more on developing models that can be applied to many different desks and products. [01:21], [01:39] - **Internship path: test, interviews, coding**: For my internship, I needed to do a numerical test after which I got an invitation for a first round interview. And after that, there is a final round which consists of three interviews and a coding challenge. [01:50], [02:03] - **Don't assume mentors know all answers**: The advice I want to give to anyone who wants to do a Quant Trading role at DRW is that you shouldn't assume that your mentor supervisor knows the answer to every question. They want you to come up with your own solutions and approach problems without any biases. [02:08], [02:27]

Topics Covered

• QTAs Research and Implement Strategies
• QTAs Make Live Trading Decisions
• Solve Problems Without Biases

Full Transcript