The Quants Have Taken Over Wall Street

Data scientists' algorithmic trading are the new standard of the investment world.

May 22, 2017 9:19 am
The Qaunts Are Taking Over Wall Street
(Suzy/Flickr)

The quiet, nerdy mathletes from high school are finally meting out their revenge—and its happening on Wall Street.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the quants—or experts at managing and analyzing quantitative data—are unleashing their algorithmic dorkery on the investment world. They are modernizing the buying and selling process to the point where less human interaction actually has to take place.

The slick executives of Wall Street are finally having to share office spaces with said quants, who have created algorithms to do the once bro-only work for them.

There’s also clear evidence that the quants aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. “Quantitative hedge funds are now responsible for 27 percent of all U.S. stock trades by investors, up from 14 percent in 2013,” notes the Journal, citing Tabb Group research.

This has led to an influx of new hires and positions at hedge funds for data scientists, who wouldn’t have normally had a shot at shot at that caliber job. And at least one executive, cited in the story, encouraged economics majors to learn programming languages so that they might be better equipped to land Wall Street jobs upon graduation.

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