# What I Do **If you're already familiar with the industry feel free to skip this.** ## What is Quantitative Investing? Quantitative investing is the discipline of utilizing algorithms, models, and statistical forecasting to invest. People with such an investment skillset are known as **quants**. They often have academic backgrounds in computer science, mathematics, physics, or engineering. **Is This New?** Not at all. It's been going on for roughly 40 years. Although, during much of that time the industry was far more secretive than it is now. ## My Job and Skillset I have a BS in Computer Science/Mathematics and an MS in Applied Mathematics. My skillset is skewed towards probability, statistics, machine learning, and scientific computing. I'm a quantitative developer. 80% of my time is spent building software tools that inform high level investment decisions. 20% of my time is spent on the research of new signals. A `signal` is a stock property or mathematical transformation of data that has predictive power. This is a programming heavy job which involves writing high performance algorithms, supercomputing, software design, and machine learning. ## More About Quants There are different flavors of quants: * Researchers * Developers * Traders * Portfolio Managers The knowledge base of all quants is some mix of computer science / mathematics / finance. The weightings vary by role. The industry is extremely small in terms of headcount especially when measured against something like investment banking. According to [this article](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gappy_buy-side-quant-job-advice-activity-7168790731250208768-2QEX/) the total number of buy side quants in the world is around 7,000. The top 5 investment banks hire around 5000 starting IBD analysts globally each year. **So there are more incoming investment banking analysts annually than there are buy-side quants in the entire world.** Hedge funds are already a small niche within finance. Quantitative hedge funds are a niche within a niche. However, there is significant diversity of investment approaches and strategies within the quant space.