Actuarial Science to Quant Finance

[Pujan Chitalia]

Actuarial examinations contain alot of advanced statistical concepts like Regression, Generalised Linear Models, Time series, Copulas, Extreme Value Theory, Markov processes, etc. There is also an exam dedicated to Financial engineering which covers topics like Stochastic Calculus and Ito processes, Measures of investment risk, Portfolio Theory, Asset pricing models, Brownian Motion, Martingales, Option Pricing and Greeks, Term structure of interest rates, Credit risk, etc.
Actuarial science is much more mathematical as compared to courses like CFA or FRM.
Do Actuarial examinations help in getting an admit to the top financial engineering programs?

 

[PepeQuant]

no they are very different. Unless you want to be risk quants, pls forget about everything you learn in ActSc first.
and focus (much) more on computer science.

the only thing transferrable is applied math, probability, stat

 

[Pujan Chitalia]

no they are very different. Unless you want to be risk quants, pls forget about everything you learn in ActSc first.
and focus (much) more on computer science.

the only thing transferrable is applied math, probability, stat

Just a follow up question
In computer science, which areas should a person focus on?

 

[gracecgu]

I'm the one that worked in actuarial science for three years and later on turned to quant. I would say that some knowledge such as probability and regression might be helpful but these two areas are really different. so, how to get admitted by financial engineering program? I self-learned programing and attained some math courses and change my job first then later on applied for these programs.

 

[PepeQuant]

Just a follow up question
In computer science, which areas should a person focus on?

sell side quants: data structure & algorithm, numerical algorithms (SIMD/GPU acceleration), C++, OOP/Design Patterns
buy side quants (not include HFT/arb): large scale data analysis, python, SQL

 

[Ali Lawati]

Actuarial examinations contain alot of advanced statistical concepts like Regression, Generalised Linear Models, Time series, Copulas, Extreme Value Theory, Markov processes, etc. There is also an exam dedicated to Financial engineering which covers topics like Stochastic Calculus and Ito processes, Measures of investment risk, Portfolio Theory, Asset pricing models, Brownian Motion, Martingales, Option Pricing and Greeks, Term structure of interest rates, Credit risk, etc.
Actuarial science is much more mathematical as compared to courses like CFA or FRM.
Do Actuarial examinations help in getting an admit to the top financial engineering programs?

Hi Pujan, what is the paper name of the subject you said "There is also an exam dedicated to Financial engineering which covers topics like Stochastic Calculus and Ito processes, Measures of investment risk, Portfolio Theory, Asset pricing models, Brownian Motion, Martingales, Option Pricing and Greeks, Term structure of interest rates, Credit risk, etc." ?

 

[Pujan Chitalia]

Hi Pujan, what is the paper name of the subject you said "There is also an exam dedicated to Financial engineering which covers topics like Stochastic Calculus and Ito processes, Measures of investment risk, Portfolio Theory, Asset pricing models, Brownian Motion, Martingales, Option Pricing and Greeks, Term structure of interest rates, Credit risk, etc." ?

The paper name is CM2(Financial Engineering and Loss Reserving). This exam is offered by IFOA(Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, UK) and IAI(Institute of Actuaries of India). There is another advanced exam related to these concepts, SP6(Financial Derivatives Principles).

 

[MikeLawrence]

no they are very different. Unless you want to be risk quants, pls forget about everything you learn in ActSc first.
and focus (much) more on computer science.

the only thing transferrable is applied math, probability, stat

Many quants have the first couple exams (Full disclosure: I wrote exam P right before/when I discovered QN) it doesn't exactly look bad, it's just not the best use of your time.

My current theory on the quant avoidance of these exams is that it alerts the interviewer that you might not have a great idea of what you're walking into- just because those who really understood the requirements went and did things more applicable with their time. So if you spent four years 'dying to get into the quant space' but most of what you did was graduate undergrad and pass 3-4 actuarial exams (and you still don't know how to code) then your cover is kinda blown and its pretty obvious you still need to sort some stuff out (regardless of how well you mastered the exam material).