Quant Trading Live Report

The Truth Behind Quant Interview Prep Programs

Join Brian from quantlabs.net as he delves into a fascinating topic introduced by a helpful viewer: the world of quant interview preparation. Brian discusses a YouTube video from The Quant Guide channel, which features a mock interview for a 2024 Citadel Quant Training position. This episode is a must-listen for aspiring quants, especially those with strong backgrounds in programming, math, or physics.

 

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The video highlights the rigorous nature of quant interviews and the importance of having a deep understanding of math and probability. Brian scrutinizes the legitimacy of The Quant Guide's program, which promises to prepare candidates with over 500 real interview questions and detailed solutions. He raises concerns about the high price tag and the potential marketing tactics involved.

Brian advises listeners to critically evaluate such programs and explore free resources like Reddit and LinkedIn. He emphasizes the importance of having a strong educational background and showcasing coding skills online to succeed in the highly competitive field of quantitative finance.

Tune in to get an insightful take on whether these costly prep programs are worth the investment and how you can better prepare for a career as a quant.

How JPMorgan Measures Success: Insights from Investor Day

In this episode, Bryan from quantlabsnet.com delves into a fascinating article from eFinancialCareers.com on how JPMorgan measures the success of its software engineers. Discover the metrics and methodologies JPMorgan employs to gauge productivity, including the importance of Agile practices and quick implementation of new features.

 

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Brian discusses the high expectations and pressure cooker environment within the financial sector, emphasizing the need for engineers to balance speed and safety in their work. Additionally, he shares insights on the evolving 24/7 market influenced by crypto and the critical role of safety and security in code management.

 

Inside the JPMorgan Chase Careers Source Code Machine: How They Measure Software Engineer Success (quantlabsnet.com)

 

Tune in to learn about the lucrative but demanding world of finance engineering and how you can thrive in it. For more information and to access the article, visit the new website at quantlabsnet.com.

A Day in the Life of a Quant Researcher at Citadel Securities

Join Bryan from quantlabs.net.com as he delves into the intriguing world of a Quant Researcher at Citadel Securities in Miami. Discover the daily routine of Will Softhold, a PhD physicist from the University of Cambridge, who now thrives in the high-frequency trading (HFT) environment.

 

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From early morning swims to late-night coding sessions, this episode provides a detailed look at the challenges and rewards of working in one of the most prestigious financial firms. Learn about the importance of supervisory roles, the dynamics of team collaboration, and the critical role of systematic trading algorithms in the FX market.

A Day in the Life of a Quant Researcher at Citadel Securities: Decoding the Algorithmic Magic (quantlabsnet.com)

Whether you're an aspiring quant or just curious about the inner workings of finance, this episode offers valuable insights and practical advice. Tune in to understand what it takes to succeed in the fast-paced world of quantitative research.

Harnessing Volatility: Trading Insights from Rob Hanna

Good day, everybody. Today is May 30th. This is now Bryan from quantlabsnet.com. Our platform is transitioning to a new web domain, and the previous one will be phased out within the next 30 days. Let's dive into an insightful article from Bettersystemtrader.com titled, A New Approach to Trading Volatility with Rob Hanna.

The article highlights the inverse relationship between the VIX and the S&P 500, and how traders can use VIX signals to time their trades on the S&P 500. Interestingly, a similar inverse relationship exists between Bitcoin and the US dollar, providing another avenue for trading strategies.

Another key point is that using the S&P 500 to time its own trades can be more effective than relying on the VIX. The article suggests that short-term indicators for the S&P 500 are better predictors of VIX movements. Additionally, traders might find value in using the S&P 500 to time the VIX, potentially reducing the length of drawdowns.

For a deeper understanding, the article includes video clips explaining these concepts. If you're into algo trading, these insights could be particularly beneficial. To stay updated, visit quantlabs.net/book and join the email list.

Rust Revolution: Inside Dubai’s Secretive HFT Firm

In this episode, Brian from quantlabs.net delves into a fascinating article from eFinancialCareers.com about Better Hand Financial Technologies (BHFT), a high-frequency trading firm based in Dubai. BHFT has been making waves with its remote work model and strategic hires from top competitors.

 

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Key hires include Ilya Malinovsky, former head of HFT at Tower Research Capital and Credit Suisse, and Ruslan Reskipov, previously head of derivatives and algo trading at Renaissance Capital. The firm has also attracted talent like Rook Teeter, former managing director at KCG Holding and Tower Research.

BHFT stands out by using Rust instead of the traditional C++ for its trading systems, attracting a diverse team that includes chess champions, martial arts winners, and world-class math and science talents. Despite the remote work setup, the company boasts a friendly, multicultural team with a modern tech stack.

The episode also covers BHFT’s current job listings, including roles for senior quant traders and researchers, with a notable focus on the Chinese and Indian trading markets. Brian wraps up by sharing updates about his new website, quantlabsnet.com, and invites listeners to join the new community group.

Unlocking Financial Analysis: Excel for Non-Programmers

Good day, everybody! Brian here from quantlabs.net. In today's episode, we're diving into an often overlooked tool for financial analysis: Microsoft Excel. While many focus on programming and high-frequency trading, Excel provides a powerful platform for non-programmers to conduct financial research and analysis.

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We'll explore various uses of Excel, such as data gathering and cleaning, trend analysis, and fundamental analysis. Learn about essential Excel functions like XNPV, IRR, VLOOKUP, and HLOOKUP, and discover how to leverage Excel's powerful features like Power Query, macros, and add-ins for advanced financial modeling.

 

Powering Your Research: Using Excel for Financial Analysis - QUANTLABS.NET

If you're interested in enhancing your financial analysis skills with Excel, this episode is for you. Plus, don't forget to check out our free trading books and stay updated on our upcoming website changes by joining our email list at quantlabs.net/books.

Thanks for tuning in, and have a great day!

10 Insights from the Man Who Solved the Market: A Deep Dive

Good day, good day, everybody. Brian here from wantlabs.net. Today is May 28th. I'm going to have some big news coming down the pipe soon. So keep your eyes and ears and all that peeled out for it. Anyways, I came across another interesting article. I do like this BetterSystemTrader.com podcast. It's pretty good. They did a posting called 10 Insights from the Man Who Solved the Market. This is referring back to the book Jim Simons Medallion Fund. It's the book put out by Gregory Zuckerman a few years ago. So this guy, Andrew Swan Scott, read it and thought he'd provide his insights. So let's go through these.

 

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The first one is originality matters. Ignore conventional wisdom about the markets. Innovate and explore unique trading strategies and ideas. Look at the market differently from the herd. I totally agree with that because when you look at the markets, there's usually a star performer out there if you go out and dig for that among all the different data sources. And it could be a long-term trending strategy that you could use based on that. A good one in the past was USD Japanese Yen. Another one that was lesser known was USD Turkish Lira or Euro Turkish Lira. They did really good over the years, but now central bankers have stepped in and taken away those opportunities. Now, I don't know about the yen. That could continue, but that could lead to something that could be the next big catalyst to take us all down. But at the end of the day, looking for those sort of things, finding them, that's what gives you what they call trading edge for sure.

Number two, collaborative success. Partner with talented individuals. Foster a collaborative environment to enhance problem-solving and innovations. Again, I cannot stress this. We're hoping to have an interview with Ernie Chan and other people that have kind of trailblazed the whole quant trading space, specifically for those that are coming from the retail trading space. Because as we know, to do true HFT, high-frequency trading, and true low-level quant research and that, people can kind of do it, but you have to have a fairly big account to take advantage of it to really do the pay-to-play thing directly right on the exchanges. As a retail trader going through a retail trading broker, that's pretty hard to do. So you have to find people that are kind of in the same area as you in terms of your account size, maybe your technical chops, as well as your mathematical experience. For myself, I guess I can share this now is that I will be moving my site over to a better technology, to Wix. I'm hoping to build out a better group community through that. That's part of the WIC's features, I guess. I did have an amazing group a few years ago. They're still around. I just want to bring more people together so that they can engage with each other behind the scenes. All at a paywall, but membership privileges have its costs. So that's where you get the collaborative success. So that's what I'm hoping to bring to the table.

Okay, number three, embrace scientific rigor. Apply a rigorous scientific approach in model Model testing and validation ensuring robustness and statistical significance. This isn't really HFT, but to make life easier for a retail trader, I find using tools, very popular, very in-depth tools like TradingView helps you here. You can see instantly without going through any of the wonky backtesting packages out there, frameworks. works. Out of the box, you're ready to go. When you're working with an open source trading strategy, if you build your own, buy one, lease one, whatever on TradingView, you get the ability to see it. What's its profit potential? What is its profit factor? Which is another way of saying, if I'm going to put a dollar in, how much can I expect to get return from that via the profit factor? These are right there out of the box. So when you have these sort of instantly viewable to you from a high level, it makes your life a lot easier and a lot less stressful. A lot of people want to build and roll their own solutions. I'm not against that. But when you get up to my age, you will start to see how valuable time will be. That's all I could tell you. Efficient capital allocation. Okay. Develop systems to optimize capital allocation across various strategies to maximize returns and manage risk. One thing I can mention here, a lot of the boutique hedge funds, boutique AGFT shops, a lot of them will trade in the space of options. I don't think you can operate under a really successful trading strategy with a $1,000, $5,000 account. You need to have something fairly significant to play those kind of, I don't want to say gains, but kind of strategy capabilities. You need probably $20,000, $25,000 because you have to add all your premium and all that fun stuff. And that's why one of the reasons why ETFs are popular because they're not really risky. You can dream like a stock and there's no margin requirement any of that so these sort of things matter but if you do do the options training you can do very well if you get something that actually actually works okay let's talk number six leverage with caution use leverage strategically to amplify your returns now most people i talk to who keep their account in check from early blowing up. One of the things they do is they use no more than six times. I've seen in crypto years ago, finance would have 100 times and so on. And that's high risk when things are not going your way, especially when the assets are in a consolidation phase or downward spiraling or falling knife environment. You don't want to use leverage there. If it's a long-term trend and it's doing well, then yeah, add your leverage. Some people may go up to 12, let's say, but no more will not go more than six.

Data quality is key. Prioritize the acquisition and cleaning all extensive data sets for accurate model development and testing. Again, this is where I like TradingView. you. You can get all kinds of data sources. You'll get, let's say if you're using free data sources like Yahoo Finance, expect to get the gaps. The gaps are going to be deadweight to you and they're going to be hard to work with. So you got to use good quality data. Obviously, there's lots of sources and most of them, I think all of them are going to be paid. And if you're not willing to do that, you're going to, I don't know, if you're just playing around and experimenting, fine. But if you ever want to get serious, you got to pay for the data. And as I say what you get what you pay for is what you get so if you're going to get free stuff I expect to have a low quality. Experiences and results that's all I can tell you they have the ability to enable you to have. Enable you to have decent success there. But obviously, you got to find your proper strategy. Short-term focus, number eight, concentrate on short-term trading opportunities where predictive power is stronger and more actionable. I know one successful trader, he most likely will hear this, he's trading on one minute. Now, he's probably successful there based upon his experience, based upon his history, and he's probably blown up a lot of accounts. So the short focus can help, but this is, again, for a guy who's built and defined high-frequency trading. And obviously, sub-second, sub-minute matters if you're successful. If you're coming from the free trade world, you want to work with basically. Basically long-term, daily, four-hour. When I was writing for Seeking Alpha, they wouldn't accept articles that timeframes less than four hours. So that's just to give you a scenario depending upon who you are and where you're coming from in terms of knowledge in the world of trading.

Execution matters. Invest in technology and processes for efficient trade execution to minimize market impact and slippage the one i've come up with between trading view and the auto trading that's how trading view defines it with something like traders post is exceptional i could be sleeping at night and it trades and it's 100 fully synced that's all i can tell you there unless you try it you're not going to know except luck's rule there is a lot of luck i'm not going to deny that to you and yeah so we'll leave it at that you know basically it's like betting in a casino where if you're betting. If you're betting in Vegas, well, that means you may be riding on luck. You may have to do 10 little trades, take 10 little losses, but maybe that 11th trade may be the big one that you're seeking. But how often does that happen? No one knows. If you have a strategy that may be able to predict that, fine. And then you can work off of that for luck. So basically what this guy was saying, the author of this article here, Peter, this Andrew guy said, what Simmons, Simons and his team achieved is remarkable. We'll probably never see anything like this in our lifetime. Who knows? Computers may come up and do stuff and they may be doing it already through the AI, but we just don't know about it because these are not publicly known. They're not going to go on the internet and say, hey, look at me. I bought a Ferrari because I made an amazing AI trading solution. And if they are, they're just probably BSing. And if they're not showing they're creating journal to achieve that, well, there's a problem there. We may never know the details, but there are enough hints to guide all traders. Very true.

Yeah. And then there's interview posted here with the guy, Gregory Zuckerman. Also, I think I can say about this is that Simons was very reluctant to do the interview and to do the book. And apparently, there are some parts in the book that Simons didn't want to get revealed. But this Zuckerman still went ahead and published it. And I don't think Simons was too happy about it. I wanted to leave that as well. And I'll talk to you soon. Have a good day. Remember, get on our training books, quantlabs.net slash books. That may change soon. So do it while you can. Over and out. Thank you.

Weird NASDAQ Algo Strategy and New Website Updates

Hello everybody, Brian here from quantlabs.net. Today is May 23rd. I just wanted to go over two podcasts I'm putting out today. I haven't done anything in a while. If you want to know why, just hold out to the end and I'll fill you in.

 

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Weird Algo Strategies, Controversial Claims, and Exciting Website Updates! - QUANTLABS.NET

One of the sources that I use is bettersystemtrader.com. And the title I thought was interesting. It's called Weird NASDAQ Algo Strategy. It's a bit weird, but it's also quite profitable. There's an associated video with it on YouTube. The creator, Thomas Nesnidal, shares the source code in easy language for TradeStation. He explains why you shouldn't be afraid of strategies like this and how they can work on multiple markets.

Another topic I cover is about a controversial video quoting Jesus, where the creator claims to be better than 99% of all hedge fund managers. He talks about learning programming in three months and making money through ETFs and high-performing ETFs based around big tech, using Robinhood.

I also provide an update on the new website coming, which will be 100% custom coded by myself using Python Django with Wagtail. I've been looking for a new web hosting provider and decided to move to DigitalOcean. The new website will be more news-driven, focusing on various investment sectors and providing free samples to generate responses.

Additionally, I discuss my new deep scanning analysis for ETFs, which involves analyzing ETFs globally and categorizing them into different sectors. This method helps identify high-performing ETFs based on profitability percentage and profit factor.

Lastly, I mention the importance of transparency in trading. I plan to sync my trading account with TraderSync to share my performance and learnings with the community. The new website will also feature a big news section, moving content from my Discord channels to the public site.

Thank you for listening. If you want to know more, I've got my newsletter and trading PDFs at quantlabs.net/books. Stay tuned for more updates!

Breaking into High-Frequency Trading: Essential Career Insights

Join Brian from quantlabs.net as he delves into the complexities of high-frequency trading (HFT) and provides valuable insights for software engineers aiming to transition into this competitive field. This episode covers the essential technical and trading concepts you need to grasp, from order books to matching engines, and explores the specialized knowledge required to excel in HFT firms.

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Breaking into High-Frequency Trading: Essential Career Insights - QUANTLABS.NET

Brian discusses the journey of transitioning into HFT, misconceptions about the field, and the key areas of expertise needed. Topics include order book dynamics, pricing engines, option pricing, and the intricacies of protocols like FIX. Additionally, he shares practical tips for impressing in interviews and thriving in the fast-paced environment of HFT shops.

Don't miss this comprehensive guide to navigating the world of high-frequency trading and setting yourself up for success in one of the most lucrative sectors in finance.

Insider Trading for Renaissance Tech with GameStop and AMC meme stock trade?

In this podcast, we discuss a recently published Hedgeweek article focusing on Renaissance Technologies, also known as Rentech, and their acquisition of GameStop and AMC shares. These shares surged in value, prompting questions around the validity of Rentech's actions and whether this was a calculated investment decision or potential insider trading.

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We delve into the intricate mechanisms of the stock market, highlighting how Rentech's sophisticated quantitative modeling and data-driven investment strategies could have possibly predicted and benefited from this phenomenon. However, with a focus on potential insider trading, we question whether the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should be investigating this situation.

 

Renaissance's Meme Stock Bet Insider Trading or Savvy Investing? - QUANTLABS.NET

The podcast also considers the broader implications of Rentech potentially being involved in this 'Meme Stock' rally, discussing the potential damage to their reputation, potential regulatory changes, and the effect on the general stock market. The participation of other traders and potential collusion via social media are other facets explored in relation to this complicated issue.

The potential consequences of the SEC finding evidence of wrongdoing within Rentech are also considered, with the discussion speculating on the possible outcome of hefty fines, criminal charges, and reputational damage. We emphasize the broader message such verdicts would send to other hedge funds and the critical importance of ethical investing.

Despite the potential risks, the discussion acknowledges the possibility that if no wrongdoing is found, this venture could be considered a successful well-timed strategy, which could inadvertently solidify the reputation of Rentech.

The podcast concludes with the potential impact this 'Meme Stock' saga might have on future regulations aimed at preventing market manipulation and protecting investors, acknowledging that increased participation of retail traders, prompted by social media, could influence stock market volatility and unconventional investment strategies.

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