The Quant Pipeline
Everything you need to go from never having heard of a quant to working with a mentor. Follow the curve from left to right.
Swipe sideways to follow the whole path.
Stage 1: learn the skills
20 tracks in three groups. Each one is a set of short lessons where you read a little, then do something: run code, play a game, answer a question. A quiz ends each track.
Foundations: the math and the code
1 What is a quant
What the job is, the kinds of quants, and how firms use math to make decisions with money on the line.
- Researcher, trader, developer
- How a market works
- Thinking in bets
2 Math for quants
The handful of math ideas everything else leans on: functions, growth, logs, vectors and rates of change.
- Functions and slopes
- Exponential growth
- Logarithms
- Vectors and matrices
- Rates of change
3 Probability
The language every quant question is asked in. Learn to put a number on how likely something is and what it is worth.
- Independent events
- Expected value
- Risk and spread
- Conditional probability
4 Statistics
Learn what data can and cannot tell you: the bell curve, sampling, confidence, testing and regression.
- The normal distribution
- Sampling
- Confidence intervals
- Hypothesis tests
- Regression
5 Game theory
How to choose when your result depends on what someone else chooses. You play each game before you learn its name.
- Dominant strategies
- Nash equilibrium
- Auctions
- Bluffing and signaling
6 Python
The language most quant research is written in. Start from zero and finish by simulating ten thousand coin flips.
- Variables and loops
- Functions
- Lists and data
- Simulation
7 R
A language built for statistics. Summarize data, run a simulation and plot the result.
- Vectors
- Averages and spread
- Simulation
- Plotting
8 C
How a computer actually runs your code, and why a few millionths of a second matter when you are trading.
- Types and memory
- Loops and functions
- Arrays and pointers
- Why speed matters
Quant skills: what the job is made of
9 Markets and trading
How trading actually works: order books, market makers, going long and short, returns and arbitrage.
- The order book
- Market making
- Long and short
- Returns
- Arbitrage
10 Bonds and interest rates
Why a dollar today beats a dollar tomorrow, how bonds are priced, and why interest rates move every market.
- Present value
- Bond pricing
- Yield
- Duration
- The yield curve
11 Options and pricing
The contracts quants are famous for pricing. Build payoffs in code, then price an option three different ways.
- Calls and puts
- Put-call parity
- The binomial model
- Monte Carlo
- Delta hedging
12 Portfolio theory
How to combine investments: weights, the efficient frontier, beta, and what the market pays you for.
- Portfolio weights
- The efficient frontier
- Beta
- CAPM and alpha
- Index funds
13 Risk and portfolios
Staying in the game matters more than any single win. Measure risk, spread it out, and size your bets.
- Volatility
- Diversification
- Correlation
- Kelly sizing
- Value at risk
14 Strategies and backtesting
Turn an idea into a trading rule in Python, test it on past prices, and learn how a backtest can fool you.
- Moving averages
- Trading rules
- Backtesting
- Sharpe ratio
- Overfitting
15 Time series
Data that arrives in order has its own rules. Find trends, test for random walks, and trade mean reversion.
- Trend and noise
- Autocorrelation
- Random walks
- Mean reversion
- Pairs trading
Going further: sharper tools, and getting hired
16 Algorithms and speed
Write code that stays fast as the data grows: searching, sorting, hashing, recursion and a tiny order book.
- Counting steps
- Binary search
- Sorting
- Recursion
- Heaps
17 Machine learning
Teach a program to find patterns, measure whether it really learned, and see why markets are a hard case.
- Training and testing
- Fitting a line
- Measuring error
- Classification
- Nearest neighbors
18 Trading psychology
The mistakes every human trader makes, why quants build rules to avoid them, and how to judge your own decisions.
- Loss aversion
- Overconfidence
- Anchoring
- Herds and bubbles
- Process over outcome
19 Quant interview problems
The puzzles trading firms really ask: mental math, dice, Monty Hall, and making a market on the spot.
- Mental math
- Estimation
- Dice and cards
- Monty Hall
- Make me a market
20 Getting there
The firms, the roles, what to study, what to build, how hiring works, and the rules every trader must follow.
- Kinds of firms
- What to study
- Projects
- The interview process
- Ethics and rules
Stage 2: come to a seminar
Once a month we hold a live online seminar with someone who works as a quant. They explain what their job is really like, walk through a problem, and answer questions from students.
You get a code during the seminar. Enter it afterwards and this stop on your map is marked as done.
Stage 3: request a mentor
The last stop unlocks once you have finished skill tracks and attended a seminar. You tell us what you are interested in and what you want help with.
Our officers read every request and match you with a professional we have vetted. A parent or guardian is included on the introduction.