Any opinions/views on Paul Wilmott's 7City Certificate in Quants Finance (CFQ)?I am currently working in Product Control but want to move to Front Office. I have MEng in Computing from Imperial (with a lot of mathematical options) and am studying for CFA. I am considering all MSc optios in London (CASS and LBS mainly).However, this CFQ has recently got my attention and am wodering if its worth it. I think CFA and this CFQ would make a great combination (CFA being broad and CFQ being quantitative).Let me know what you think.Rish

A CQF is mainly meant for people having some 10 odd years of experience in Finance who want to brush some derivatives, etc. I would say instead go ahead for a masters in finance/math,etc. I don't think that is enough but it would be better than what you can get out of the Certificate program.

The CQF is designed to fit in with having a real job, which rules out many masters programmes.One thing I've observed is a slightly greater chance that your employer will pay for a CQF than a MSc.Obviously I have to declare an interest in the CQF...The ideal thing for you should exist, but doesn't.All the masters level prgrammes seem deficient in programming, either in quality of quantity. There reallyt ought to be a masters in financial programming, (as opposed to computational finance), but if one exists, it is very well hidden.With all due respect, and not knowing you personally, the lowest quality programming teaching from any place with an otherwise good name is at Imperial. One bunch of IC engineers I dealt with a while back had done "Delphi". Yes, really, and no there degree wasn't in Astrology.I'd guess your best bet is to try an undo the damage done at IC, and really put the effort into mastering C++, with a nice soft wooly wrapper of Excel. At the same time you can get your numerical methods up to speed.That would make you a good candidate for a front office quant developer job. At your current job you can make sure you understand how to suck data out of Bloomberg, Reuters et al.

It is extremely well hidden, but UCL seem to have decided to grab a share of the MFE market.The course has not yet been formally launched, so very little reliance should be made on the details so far, buthttp://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/financialcomputing/should give some info. Not sure it's quite an MSc in Computational Finance though

There is an open evenining for the CQF tonight at 6:30, 7City Chiswell StHere

QuoteOriginally posted by: dj99bIt is extremely well hidden, but UCL seem to have decided to grab a share of the MFE market.The course has not yet been formally launched, so very little reliance should be made on the details so far, buthttp://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/financialcomputing/should give some info. Not sure it's quite an MSc in Computational Finance thoughand it includes a course in Islamic Investment !It seems to be for folks who want to be IT developers at banks as opposed to quants

QuoteOne bunch had done "Delphi". The architect of Delphi and C# are one and the same person...The specific language is not the most important issue, it is the tool that the craftman's masters and cajoles to create wonderful applications.It is also not my cup of tea but it is very popular.QuoteDelphi exhibits the following advantages:Rapid Application Development (RAD) Based on a well-designed language A large community on Usenet and the web (e.g. news://forums.borland.com and Borland's web access to Delphi newsgroups) Can compile to a single executable, simplifying distribution and reducing DLL versioning issues Many VCL and third-party components (usually available with full source code) and tools (documentation, debug tools, etc.) Quick optimizing compiler and ability to use assembler code Multiple platform native code from the same source code High level of source compatibility between versions CrossKylix - a third-party toolkit which allows you to compile native Kylix/Linux applications from inside the Windows Delphi IDE, hence easily enabling dual-platform development and deployment CrossFPC - a sister project to CrossKylix, which enables you to cross-compile your Windows Delphi applications to multi-platform targets - supported by the Free Pascal compiler - without ever leaving the Delphi IDE Class helpers to bridge functionality available natively in the Delphi RTL, but not available in a new platform supported by Delphi The language's object orientation features only class- and interface-based polymorphism The following are disadvantages:Limited cross-platform capability for Delphi itself. Compatibles provide more architecture/OS combinations Access to platform and third party libraries require header files to be translated to Pascal There are fewer published books on Delphi than on other popular programming languages such as C++ and C#