It is more useful if you have phd first. You can always become a trader later on after you finish phd.

Desk quant can do trade as well from time to time. You will work out from the ground, calibrate/calculate models, backtesting strategy and may have an opportunity to trade directly with your results and see how your calculation work in real life.

<t>the PhD is considered by a lot of people that it was irrelevant to the finance industry. I have a different idea that the phd program actually prepare you for that kind of works. There is a period of up and down on emotion and frustration with the lengthy period to finish the thesis that has no c...

I am in agreement with MJ and Cuchullain that PhD is not intended to be a coursework, but research work advancing the new idea.

Having a phd is alway advantage as it shows you have a ability to learn and drive yourself to finish it. I never regret doing my phd before working as a quant.

I like being both a quant and trader. I learn a lot faster what works and not works in real world. Intellectual and money is a good combo.

<t>QuoteOriginally posted by: DCFCThe obvious answer is yes, but if you have a good HH he will be telling you that you must have a formal offer and a contract before opening the hatch.That is the way of things at the moment.Although cuts are on average a bad thing, they can be good for the survivors...

<t>QuoteOriginally posted by: acastaldoQuoteyou can actually now buy an ETF on one popular model - the currency carry trade.You are referring to Deutsche Bank's DBV ETFThe methodology for this strategy is fully disclosed, and worth reading. We shall see if it continues profitable or if, as you suuge...

...uhm...

S+/R is great statistical softwares as long as you know what you are doing. For quant works, I would recommend them as it quicker and easier than programming languagues.

that only the surface... look deeper... may be you find it or not.

I agree with cemil. I also have both reuters and bbg. bbg is generally good for work and following the general market. Reuters is far better if you looking something that more specific topic and research.

It depends on what types of analysis you are doing. BBG has very quick and easy interface which helps if you are speaking to non-quant friends. If you have very good programming experience and like to custom made app, then Reuters will have advantage over BBG.