December 1st, 2007, 11:55 am
FI Quant research at BNPP is undoubtedly one of the best FI Quant teams in the street.The guys build some of the most sophisticated FI Exotic Models I have ever seen. Needless to say SABR was a genius. A great cumulative effort from one of the smartest quant minds in the world and a great trading team that put it together. When it comes to questions with the Quant team you should be comfy with notions of probability and stoc calculus and also hardcore c++ programming. I guess these are the standard skillsets required for all quant desks . Also make sure you understand the basics of FI Models. i.e. whats a 1F/2F/3F Model , why would you want to use 1f.2f.3f , what kind of products you want to use it for etc Whats a copula for example.. as a quant you are expected to know the math in deep detail of course but at the same time you should try and understand why you want to use a certain copula etc i.e. they wouldnt expect you to perhaps know the product names and risks etc (since this is something you learn on the job) but I can assure you that they also place a lot of emphasis on intuition on their models and why or why not things might work they do or do not etc. For example does a Gaussian copula work for all products , why or why not . will a 1F model be sufficient for pricing products that have forward time value (eg Bermudans), why or why not..things like that for example..also try and think through stuff on IR correlation and on simple calibration techniques and what might work and what might not.. (Read Pat Hagans paper called Adjusters....... this should put you in the right direction of thought)They WOULDNT expect you to have all the answers and the right ones at that but they WILL expect you to think and form OPINIONS and express them well. I am not a Quant but having spent a lot of time with the guys there I can assure you that they are a unique bunch , a great bunch with a rare combo of hard core math skills and technical intuition.I wish you luck.