How to get a detailed idea of what it's like as a quant trader?

[Peanutlex]

I have a PhD in Astrophysics and have worked as a postdoc for nearly two years. I want to transition into Quantitative Trading.

I love maths and problem-solving. I enjoy working in a team. I have a competitive attitude and an eagerness to improve myself. Based on this, I think it could be a good career path.

However, I still have little idea what it's like to be a quantitative trader. I have been reading The Concepts and Practice of Mathematical Finance by Mark S. Joshi which has given me some idea of the mathematics and ideas used. I have also looked at company websites, such as Jane Street, Optiver, and IMC trading, but they don't seem to go into that much detail. Ideally, I would talk to someone in the industry. Do you know of any events near London where I can meet people in the industry?

Can you recommend any books, blogs, forum posts or videos to give me a detailed understanding of what's involved?

 

[marcusaurelius]

I like this blog from Robert Martin (quant trader at DE Shaw now), @Peanutlex :

Reasonable Deviations · a rational approach to complexity

reasonabledeviations.com

 

[QuantCoach]

Ideally, I would talk to someone in the industry.

As someone in the industry, the reason why there is no 'detailed description of what a quant trader does' is because it's such an open-ended problem: just consistently make money while managing risks. We buy low and sell high and there are infinite signals (of varying quality and complexity) that we find/use to determine if a level is high or low. We also answer questions of how much to buy/sell, what risks are we actually exposed to with our position, is there a good way to hedge that lowers our variance substantially without much cost? There isn't a single 'right' answer and we're given a high degree of freedom of what we can do as long as we can logically justify our decisions.