I got interview from different trading desks. One is quant position in credit derivative trading, another is quant position in statistical arbitrage/Automatic algorithm trading. The first one mainly uses stochastic calculus a lot, more math and challenging than second one. Second one mainly uses statistics knowledge. I am wondering which one will be better in money wise and future career develoment wise in 5 years suppose current package is similair for both positionsThanks

I assume that the compensation can be quite a bit higher in automatic trading assuming you come up with a good trading strategy. But then can also be lower if your algorithm is not doing so well. Overall is probably less stability and job security instatistical arbitrage type of jobs but then designing trading algorithms can be a lot of fun andthere will be a lot of challenging probelms as well. Any other opinions from anybody who actually worked in both fields ?

NSM is right as far as I can tell, though of course how the next 20 years of a business process may perform is way beyond me.When I talk these decisions through with people, one of the quarions I often ask is which of them plays to your best skill ?Both fields are competitive, and you want to be as far up as you can.Also the quality of the company can be critical in this sort of choice. Are they places you can learn from older wiser heads ?All sorts of places do credit in widely varying size and competence, but you can't do stat arb auto trading unless you're big and smart, and even then that may not be enough.Of course your credit place maby be up from your stat arb.As you may have spotted from other threads, I offer my services as a sounding board for people making hard decsions on a job.I'm a pimp by profession, though I have had real jobs...My contact details are easy to find...