Ramesh Vnm Kappagantula
senior technical lead
HCL
Ramesh Vnm Kappagantula is a member of:
Couple of years from now
Once I complete my PhD I want to take the career of a quant in an investment bank.
Challenges
Presently I am working as a techno-functional in Credit Risk Management domain.The job demands not only technical competency but also an understanding of the simulation methodologies used to generate the time-series of risk factors used in the valuation models for end-of-day revaluation. We also need to understand the methodology behind Value-At-Risk calculation. Above all we need to understand the entire trade-life-cycle to face the Business and answer their queries. Unless you know the business it is though to ask appropriate questions during requirements gathering.
Upcoming Trends
I am looking for the technologies that are adopted by investment banks for High Frequency Trading (HFT). As a quant we need to develop various the trading rules by analyzing Big Data of data of various trade types, different currencies etc. Most of the investment banks develop their own proprietary products and I am looking for the programming language and OS used for HFT.As a quant we need to develop various the trading rules by analyzing Big Data of various trade types, different currencies etc to the banks risk policy.
Advice from my side
Don’t run behind engineering. Look out for a PhD in Mathematics or Sciences. Understand how mathematics is applied in finance. Learn Excel and a simulation tool like Matlab. Also learn some high-level object-oriented programming language like C++ or JAVA.
Specilization that I stongly recommend
HFT and Risk Analytics are the areas where the resources are scarce. Every bank wants to maximize their profits and minimize their economic capital satisfying the regulator norms. There is lot of scope for people interested in financial data modeling to arrive at various trading rules and risk calculation models.
Lesson learned
I strongly believe that Newton laws of classical physics are also applicable in your professional life. If you are not having the driving force to do something different you will not come out of the Inertia of the present state (I Law). The magnitude of your driving force to achieve a goal can be quantified as the product of the Importance you have given to achieve the goal (Mass) and the time within which you want to achieve your goal which determines your acceleration towards achieving that goal (II Law). Break the III Law to overcome the forces that drag you in the opposite direction while making efforts towards achieving your goal. Achieve the required escape velocity to reach the sky in your profession.
