Hello !I'm a PhD (Physics) with a couple of years of exp. in mathematical modelling (PDE/C++). I'm interested in moving into a "quant" role (otherwise I would be here ... I've read *the* books (Wilmott, Hull etc) and it was interesting to learn about all the models and the techniques used in this field (Ito, Monte Carlo etc ..) but now my questions are now much simpler:* what does a quant *exactly* do ?* what about different roles in front/middle office ?* could someone describe his role/contribution to the group in a couple of sentences ?* where could I find more info about that topic ?Thanks !!

Hi,"Quants" do a number of things. Certianly 15 years ago the role was much more limited and Quants were largely involved in regressions for mutual funds etc. The derivatives business certianly added a big change to all that, and many are now involved in pricing derivative type structures. For a while Weird exotics were the vogue, however Gibbson greatings cards and Orange county sort of put to an end of it in the USA. Perhaps the most exotic structures now are Convertible bonds with their weird tax tweeks. In the fixed income world I would say the Mortgage backed securities area.New areas now include Risk management, this has certianly been given a push along with the new Capital requieremts from Basel, Tier 1 and Tier 2. A good risk system allows more efficient use of capital, read lower capital requirement and hence more profits.An other area is also now Hedge funds, with the usual equity markets in a down turn. Quants are not looking at trading strategies in the market. More pattern recognition etc.I hope this somewhat broad brush answer has given you some color for you.warmest regards, Hobbes.

Well put that the most exotic products in the US include mortgage-backs, etc. Note to Paul: Please include this fascinating topic in the Q & A section!!!

Hobbes, informative, but I don't think that still really answers "what" they do - not "where"(i.e.,which market) they do it.

Can someone clarify what a quant is? A lot of people are Quant developers but call themselves quant!

My short answer is that a "quant" is generally someone, who could be performing any of a wide variety of jobs, whose approach to financial problems is predominately quantitative, rather than fundamental or technical.Some of the work I can see them doing off the top of my head:Front office/Trading Desk:- Pricing and getting greeks for optoins and other derivatives- Creating and analyzing new structures- Looking at the risks of a book and finding optimal ways to hedge themFor a portfolio manager/buy side/prop desk:- Constructing factor or alpha models for certain instruments- Optimizing portfolios and calculating marginal risk/return of an additionThose that I call "empiricists":- Perform statistical time series analysis to figure out underlying probability distributions and possible scenarios of financial variables- Developing AI or machine learning programs to find trading patternsSo as i see it, being a quant is more a matter of the tools at your disposal and the methods of your madness than your specific job. HTH

Peter Jaeckel refers to it as turning maths into money.* where could I find more info about that topic ?You ought to come along to a Finance Focus or Random Walkers event.