Quant Roadmap Instructions
This is the Quant Guild roadmap, created by Roman Paolucci, a recommended order of study with clear goals at intermediate stages.
Your objective is to learn and be capable of applying the tools you learn in the real world - to do this you must understand NOT memorize or just "try and pass" a class.
is always available with adaptive practice, async and live courses, lessons, and more to provide you with materials so you can spend more time learning and practicing and less time searching for materials.
🚀 Master Quant Skills on Quant Guild
Stages to Learning Something New
3 Stages to Learning Something
1.) Studying It (Lecture, Reading, etc.)
2.) Practice It (Problem Sets)
3.) Applying It (Real World Problems)
Quant Guild has you covered for (1 & 2), step 3 is all about coming up with your own projects applying what you've learned to the real world. Experience is quite literally the best way to learn.
Where Do I Find Resources If They Aren't Listed?
I likely have a free YouTube Video dedicated to the subject.
Check Out Quant Guild on YouTube
Many of these topics are found in courses in High School and College. You should be enrolling in a quantitative degree program where you can master the relevant skills in each discipline, you can then supplement your knowledge gaps (these will always naturally arise no matter how hard you study) with material (like on Quant Guild). It is a marathon, not a sprint, remember this and keep learning.
How Much Do I Need To Learn?
Do I Need to Learn Everything?
This depends on your goal, you don't have to learn everything, but I would encourage you to learn as much as possible. I would recommend the following minimum levels for each role. . .
Quant Trader
- Math: Level 2
- Computer Science: Level 2
- Machine Learning: Level 2
- Probability & Statistics: Mastery
Quant Developer
- Math: Level 2
- Computer Science: Mastery
- Machine Learning: Level 3
- Probability & Statistics: Level 2
Quant Researcher
- Math: Mastery
- Computer Science: Level 3
- Machine Learning: Level 3
- Probability & Statistics: Mastery
Level 2 Learning Goals
Understanding allows you to think critically and create NEW extensions
At this point, you should be able to. . .
- Computer Science Goal: Understand data structures, algorithms, time/space complexity etc.
- Probability & Statistics Goal: Understand assumptions and violations in real world modeling and the purpose of real world modeling
- Machine Learning Goal: Understand model development pipeline
- Finance & Economics Goal: Understand modern financial theory is largely nonsense (EMH, CAPM, etc. alpha exists)
- Mathematics Goal: Be capable of establishing and solving deterministic problems with calculus
Level 3 Learning Goals
New quantitative ideas come from MASTERY of foundational material
At this point, you should be able to. . .
- Computer Science Goal: Understand search procedures and the connection to policy search and optimization in machine learning and RL
- Probability & Statistics Goal: Understand basic statistics and regression can outperform many machine learning models in the context of finance and trading (its all we need to discern our edge, not necessarily produce signal)
- Machine Learning Goal: Understand model development pipeline in the context of a time series and valid approaches to backtesting and alpha (structural in the time series vs ensemble crossectional returns)
- Finance & Economics Goal: Be capable of hypothesizing what MAY happen and the various likelihood tying in statistics/probability to make model informed decisions - this is your bridge from the classroom to the real world
- Mathematics Goal: Apply stochastic calculus to pricing and understand the theory in financial mathematics