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OTHELLA
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Joined: August 12th, 2010, 3:00 pm

Moving to the buy side

November 11th, 2020, 11:33 am

After more than 10y in a sell side FO quant role i'm thinking about moving to the buy side. Not sure how many funds out there still need derivatives pricing quants but your suggestions are welcome? How compensation comapres to banks? cheers
 
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DavidJN
Posts: 241
Joined: July 14th, 2002, 3:00 am

Re: Moving to the buy side

November 12th, 2020, 2:11 pm

I would imagine the money is less. And you'd have to work among people who have dated and even incorrect ideas about pricing (I am thinking specifically of insurance here). Trying to change that mindset is a steep hill to climb. Good luck. 
 
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OTHELLA
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Joined: August 12th, 2010, 3:00 pm

Re: Moving to the buy side

November 12th, 2020, 3:47 pm

thanks for the input. I'm targetting hedge funds only not even asset managers.
 
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bearish
Posts: 5180
Joined: February 3rd, 2011, 2:19 pm

Re: Moving to the buy side

November 12th, 2020, 4:43 pm

There is actually pretty good money to be made for quants in traditional asset management, but details of the skill set matter. Clearly less focus on traditional (or, for that matter, modern) derivatives pricing and more on data analysis. More focus on making directional calls (which is hard), less on basis point precision in relative value estimates. At least in the fixed income world you have to deal with the fact that most bonds trade by appointment, if that. Insurance companies typically have some pretty smart people around, they are just smart about totally different things, or sometimes the same things from a totally different perspective. But not usually an easy environment to adapt to for a sell side quant. On the other hand, most hedge funds are simply too small, and the regulatory requirements and the role of consultants and other gatekeepers for institutional money keep on making scale more important in that space.
 
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OTHELLA
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Joined: August 12th, 2010, 3:00 pm

Re: Moving to the buy side

November 13th, 2020, 3:42 pm

thanks