A lot of the posts on the Quant Forums are by people who are actual quants, working for Financial Institutions or who want to become quants. How about going your own way? As in, be a broker, and a quant?I would imagine that if one want to be a true broker, with his fingers in every well regulated global financial pie, you would need to have an:1. Online Brokerage account on:a. New York Bourses.b. LSEc. Chicago and London commodities exchanges.d. Currency Trading Accounte. Perhaps an account for trading Japanese securitiesf. Accounts for CAC/DAX/Milan trading.--------------------------------Q1. Can anyone come with suggestions as to what constitute superior online trading options, non-online(or proprietary) trading for trading in the above?Q2. What kind of a corpus of funds would you need to reasonably profit in the 50-100K range on an annual basis.Q3. Is it feasible? Why doesnt everyone become a freelancer? Pro's and Cons?----------Thanks,Prasenjit

Lol! Lots of reads but no answers. After some digging on google I came up with this small list:Q1. Good Online/Other brokerages:a. http://www.consumersearch.com/www/inter ... e-brokers/ (List of Reviewed Brokers with rankings)b. Europe: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Charles_Schwab_Europe__60170(Likes the Schwab!)c. http://www.dailyforex.com/ (List of Forex Brokers)d. A good stock or commodities broker Q2. To make an income of 50-100K one needs ..a. To have an investment corpus of about 1 mill USD, and has to beat the Index and expect 10-12% annualized returns on average. This allows for reinvestment of about half the capital gains, and additional income of 50-100K for yourself, most years, less taxes.b. Park 50% in bonds for security and to mitigate risk.c. Appetite for risk for the other 50% you're investing on the market.Q3. Pro's and Con's.a. Its all about appetite for risk.-----------Where are all the gurus lol?

QuoteOriginally posted by: prasenjitmedhiQ3. Is it feasible? Why doesnt everyone become a freelancer? Pro's and Cons?My instincts are as yours: all things being equal, I tend to prefer being enterprenuerial and a freelancer. However, you may have answered your own question earlier in the post where you pointed out how well-regulated the financial markets are. Generally, the purpose of government regulation is so the big boys can keep freelancers out..

In comparison to markets in the Third World, US/Europe/Japanese markets are well regulated and much more transparent.I dunno, I prefer transparency and regulation over anything else. Better transparency than not knowing if the company who's shares you're buying happens to be owned by an Ivar Krueger wannabe who fudges accounts, for example. Not that messups dont happen in the West, such as Enron .. But they happen with less frequency than in, say, India. In India, I dont doubt that a few listed companies to a lot of active 'tax planning', for example. But even in India, the more transparent and well run companies such as the Tatas seem to do better. Perhaps transparency and honesty go someways to ensuring success, apart from entrepreneureal ability?

Forgive my ignorance if this is a stupid question. I am still somewhat new to this profession. What type of demand is there for self-employed quants? I mean....there are many small firms who manage large amounts of money, but may not have the need for a full time quant. However, they may find that they need some superior math finance skills from time to time to properly hedge a certain position or contruct an optimal portfolio. Is there a real demand for this type of work?

You could go contracting/consulting, set up your own hedge fund, or create your own trading strategies and become a day trader .