Q: Nikita – why did you decide to produce a conference for students? Aren’t there already plenty in the calendar?
A: While there are other finance events that cater to students, they often cover much broader topics and rarely get into the nitty details of quantitative finance. The quantitative finance industry is very secretive, and with all hedge funds actively trying to preserve their “edge” it is difficult for students to get a glimpse about what exactly hedge funds are doing, which means there isn’t really any conference for students that focuses solely on this field. As a result, many students – of many disciplines – may not be aware of this rewarding and intriguing career path. This is why we want to bring distinguished academics and inspiring practitioners together; to nurture students’ learning first-hand and spark their interest.
Q: Tell us about some of the speakers that you have recruited so far.
A: We’re off to a great start. Thomas Babbedge Chief Scientist at Gresham Investment Management, Grant Fuller CEO of Blue Lion Research, Michael Halls-Moore of Quantstart.com are among speakers that we have recruited thus far. We think that having a cross-section of speakers from both the industry and academia will enable us to provide to our audience with different perspectives and hopefully some great insights. We are excited to announce more speakers very soon.
Q: And what topics are you going to address?
A: Our speakers will expand on the future of the industry and its future innovations with lectures ranging from artificial intelligence and machine learning, cryptocurrencies, data science, statistical analysis, all the way to the more financial based hedging techniques and risk management. By gathering together these problem solvers and creative thinkers from undergraduates to postgraduates and industry participants, we aim to spark new dialogue and concepts about quantitative finance.
Q: Who will be coming to the event?
A: It’ll be mostly students from undergraduate to postgraduate, who have a quantitative background but we encourage everyone to apply. We are also expecting to have industry professionals who will make up around 10-20% of the total. The conference will be an excellent opportunity for professionals to network with university talent.
Q: Where and when is the conference will take place and how can a student get involved?
A: The conference will take place on the Friday 27th of October in the office of Bank of America Merrill Lynch at 2 King Edward Street London. In order to ensure diversity criteria and get the best quality students we will have an application system. Students will submit their CVs and we will let them know about the outcome.
For more information, visit our website TheQuantConference.com and follow Facebook page facebook.com/TheQuantConference
