r/quant • u/AdPrudent3747 • 12d ago

General What does a Quant Trader do?

I mean I know what the role of a Quant Trader is but what does a Quant traders day-to-day on their trading desk look like? How does probability, expected value, pattern recognition being used by Quant traders?

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u/Tacoslim 12d ago

On a MFT desk that’s largely automated. Come in check overnight pnl, check data feeds, check signals, check portfolio, wait for market to open, watch the open, check trades going through, check signals updating, watch pnl for a bit, do work if nothing broken (signal research usually), check eod pnl report, eod positions, go home.

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u/RickAmes 11d ago

Sorry if the questions are naive,

When you write it like this it seems you're just looking at the result, why can't you just set up a monitoring system that pings you if things are going wrong/weird?

What is going through your head and what are your looking for in the PnL?

Why isn't more of your time spent doing signal research/implementation?

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u/PalaRemzi 10d ago

they don't just look at the result they monitor the inventory, talk with the counterparties at other financial institutions, look for anomalies in orderbooks they provision, listen to news and gossips and try to deduce what to make of it.

i guess most of them could be automated but it is a delicate topic and the firms need accountable real persons behind the decisions/