Quantitative Trader

from University of California, Berkeley

The Best Courses for Quantitative Trader at University of California, Berkeley

Updated October 2022

Course Importance and Why
CS 70 Importance: 5.0 / 5.0
  • Foundational discrete math / probability and counting concepts - Steve, class of 2022
PROB 140 Importance: 3.5 / 5.0
  • PROB 140 is like the Holy Grail when it comes to developing the first sense of real intuition for all things probability and statistics. - Prakash S., Jump Trading
  • Prob 140 is pretty helpful long term - Steve, class of 2022
ECON 141 Importance: 3.0 / 5.0
  • Some kind of linear models class is definitely necessary (e.g. Econ 141/142 or Stat 151A) - Prakash S., Jump Trading
  • Provides useful context (macro concepts, how stats is used in economics) - Steve, class of 2022
EECS 127 Importance: 3.0 / 5.0
  • EECS 127 or MATH 110 both work for this (linear algebra view of optimization in general is helpful) - Prakash S., Jump Trading
EECS 126 Importance: 3.0 / 5.0
  • EECS 126 or PROB 140 to get a (necessary) deeper intuition about probability and statistics - Prakash S., Jump Trading

Helpful Tips

Updated October 2022

  • There's a couple quant/trader oriented DeCals (and associated clubs) at Berkeley-- Traders@Berkeley comes to mind. Those are great resources for connections and exposure to industry! - Julius B., UC Berkeley
  • Quite a few trading firms come to campus and host hackathons or competitions of some kind (Kaggle, etc.), definitely participate in those. I found it was pretty helpful down the line for interviews and such. - Julius B., UC Berkeley
  • Stat 154 definitely helped me during interviews. The course fills up fast though... - Steve, class of 2022
  • If you're interested in continuing after undergrad, definitely look into the MFE program, it has historically pretty good placement and it's right in your backyard! (mfe.haas.berkeley.edu) - Steve, class of 2022
  • Berkeley Trading Competition! Definitely apply to it. It's fairly selective but worth it and fun! - Sid, UC Berkeley, PlusAI

Notes from the Field

"Something that really kinda showed me the types of questions asked in quant interviews was the hackathons held by quant firms on campus. Definitely participate in some of them."

- Prakash S., Jump Trading

"Leetcode is (still) important here, most of the screening hinges on algorithm skills (as well as probability/statistics)"

- Prakash S., Jump Trading

"Prob 140 definitely helps one develop the stats/probability intuition needed for quant interviews. I still refer to notes from 140 when prepping for interviews."

- Steve, class of 2022

Opportunities

Coming soon.