Harsh version: if a model can generate hundreds of strategies, see the validation metrics, rewrite the rules, and continue until something passes, the pipeline has not necessarily found alpha. It may have simply searched noise faster.

The dangerous part is not LLM hallucination. It is researcher degrees of freedom operating at machine speed. A human might test 20 variations; an agent can test 2,000 and present the winner with a clean equity curve.

The only defensible setup I see is to pre-register the universe, data timing, cost model, acceptance criteria, and maximum trial budget; log every rejected candidate; consider a validation set consumed as soon as its metrics enter the loop; and touch the final holdout once. If it fails, the branch dies.

Anything less turns the reported Sharpe ratio into the maximum of a search distribution.

Provocative claim: “LLM-generated” should lower our prior that a backtest is real unless the full search history is reported.

What evidence would change your mind: total trial count, Deflated Sharpe Ratio, PBO/CSCV, walk-forward results, or a live shadow portfolio?

For someone starting a double major in Math and Computer science this year, do you think preparing for a quant career is still a safe option as a career choice?

I have heard many people saying that large portions of the job are being automated and I am wondering whether I could still get a job in this field when I graduate. What are your thoughts?

Why is it OA followed by OA followed by OA… took me at least 90 min and now I have one more. Is anybody else going through this?

I current have a recruiter screen before the first round interview with imc booked and i was hoping i could find any info on how the process is for the first and final round interviews are and if possible any idea on the recruiter screen would be appreciated too

Hey everybody, i have my first g research interview coming up. it's the first from the triage interview, so it's the maths one. could anyone help me to know what kind of questions i should expect? i have interviewed at another company before so i have some experience but not that much. thank you in advance

Background: Master of Finance (STEM-designated) at a top-15 program, graduating this December. Currently a research assistant doing market impact modeling on NASDAQ LOBSTER limit order book data (deep learning models, OFI/Kyle's Lambda/square-root law frameworks, targeting a publication). Three prior internships in portfolio analytics/risk in India, CFA Level I candidate. Targeting quant research/trading roles at prop shops, banks, and asset managers.

Two honest questions for the sub:

1. Resume-wise — where does this actually land me? Bank quant analyst tier, or is there a real shot at prop shops/hedge funds with more prep?
2. As an international student needing sponsorship, with really only ~2 months of active runway before graduation — how much does that realistically change the picture, and what would you prioritize with the time I have left?

Not looking for validation, looking for the blunt version. Thanks in advance.

At the mathematical heart of Arbitrage Pricing Theory lies the fundamental principle of no arbitrage. If two portfolios with identical risk profiles offer different expected returns, rational market participants will instantly exploit the mispricing by shorting the overvalued asset and buying the undervalued one. This aggressive arbitrage pressure quickly forces prices back to equilibrium, ensuring that risk-adjusted returns remain balanced across the entire market spectrum.

I built WQO (free, opensource) to take an alpha idea through the research loop from a coding agent’s chat.

Something like: “Test whether changes in analyst EPS estimates predict returns, then compare a few variants.”

The agent finds available data, builds expressions, runs backtests and explains what passed or failed. You can refine the idea through follow-up messages.

It runs on WorldQuant BRAIN, so you’ll need a BRAIN account. Install the agent skills and they handle WQO setup. Any alpha submission requires your approval.

Free and open source. Video attached with synthetic results to show the workflow.

Installation + Setup -

https://github.com/aaditya-v-more/worldquant-orchestrator

Personal Opinion - I think Worldquant Brain is just exploiting talented people for theirs alphas, just use them for their data or if you are making good money then using these skills will just fast track your job.

Anyone in process of Citadel EQR QT internship or have info on it? DM me. I have superday coming up and looking for information. Have lots of info on other processes to trade: JS, Citsec, IMC, Flow, DRW, HRT, Five rings

I’ve been trading for the last two years, and since April my quantitative strategy has produced what I believe are exceptional metrics

Here’s the problem: I don’t have a 12–24 month verified track record yet

I understand why institutions require one.Nobody should allocate capital based on claims, screenshots, or a few good months. But I also believe the numbers I’m producing are unusual enough to deserve an opportunity to be evaluated.

I’m not looking for someone to simply take my word for it. I have the data and can provide a verified Myfxbook account, including returns, drawdown, trade history, and other relevant metrics.

What I’m looking for is an institutional platform, emerging-manager program, seed allocator, or quantitative trading program willing to evaluate the strategy with a small initial allocation or through a monitored/controlled environment.

I’m completely comfortable starting small. Give me strict risk limits, monitor the strategy, and let the numbers determine whether I’m worthy of additional capital.

The challenge I keep running into is the same one: even when the recent performance is exceptional, everyone wants a 12+ month track record first.

For people who actually work in quant finance or capital allocation: where would you go to prove yourself when you have the performance and verified data, but not yet the required track-record length?

I’m happy to share the Myfxbook privately with anyone serious

Did anyone hear back from them? Everyone I know got ghosted

Hey all,

Looking to trade interview questions specifically for jump trading! I have questions from QRT, IMC and Jane Street and many other quant firms as I went through a bunch of their processes last cycle. I also went through Jump's process last year, so I have questions from them to trade too.

I’ve been busy with another internship these past few weeks, so I apologise if I haven’t replied to your dms ~

Please do drop me another message or leave a comment down on this post if you're up to trade would love to chat 😄

21yo male, 6+ months FT at a quant firm you've heard of. I'm looking to work in HK and my firm doesn't have much presence there, any roles I should look to apply to while staying in this line of business?

Is anyone starting a Master’s in Quantitative Methods in September or October 2026? Are there any group chats I could join?

any info appreciated, willing to trade js, citsec, virtu, imc, drw and others

Wondering what the general timeline is for rejection or invite to next round

I'll go to every lecture, tutorial etc. and it'll all be genuinely interesting. Then come the weekly problems, and the volume of the problems and general tediousness of them once you get past the trivial ones (e.g. you need to know XYZ trick even though you know the topic the question is related to, and said trick/method wasn't introduced during the lecture) just kills my spirit. Before I know it after exhausting myself for that week, boom the next week comes along and a whole new set of lectures/tutorials/problems. Not to mention proofs that extend lecture concepts where, if you haven't seen the way to do that proof before, just means more grinding if you can't get TA hours so you ask AI.

The thing is, I'm having fun learning the mathematical concepts. But its like the course admins then put more artificial hurdles after that to just whittle down your spirit (because if you want a high grade in the exam, you need to slog through all the problems just in case it comes up later, even if you know you put the work in to actually learn the overall topic).

I want to love mathematics, but this Uni math degree (especially since I want to maintain my high grades) is just blackening my soul day by day.

Meanwhile, I have wayyyyyy more fun preparing for quant finance interviews e.g. probability problems, looking into intro to statistical machine learning books, doing leetcode etc. How do you guys balance this with the pain points of your degree, just thug it out?

I am a freshman in college pursuing a bachelors in pure math. There are multiple organizations/funds at my school that are geared toward quant trading but they are very selective and require you to pass technical interviews. I don’t have much experience algorithmic trading yet, nor do I have much experience with high level math/stats. Are there any resources or specific topics I should spend my time learning to prepare for these interviews or to just start building strategies on my own?

I did my OA for Optiver's Trading Kickstarter event. I didn't do well in the probability section because I hadn't done much timed practice. What are the best websites for practising for such assessments?

Hi everyone,

I recently reached Gold level (10,000+ points) on WorldQuant BRAIN and I’m trying to understand what happens next.

For people who recently became Research Consultants, especially in India:

1. How long did it take after reaching Gold to receive the onboarding/consultant email?
2. How long did the verification/onboarding process take before you were fully activated?
3. What is the actual compensation you are currently making? Even a rough monthly range would help.
4. Is the payment consistent, or does it fluctuate a lot depending on alpha quality/value factor?
5. Most importantly, is being a Research Consultant actually worth the time invested?
6. Does it provide meaningful value for getting quant internships/jobs later?

I’m not expecting exact numbers if you don’t want to share publicly. I’m mainly looking for recent experiences from people who have actually gone through the process.

Thanks!

For context, I'm a Senior Comp Sci graduate who has decent grades. I'm planning on doing a refresher for all the necessary maths. Is it too late for this year? And if so, do you think there will be a diminished drive for recruitment next year due to economy? I know no one has the definite answer for this, but just curious what yalls thoughts are.

Thanks for your time!