CQF as a good refresher for an experienced professional and CFA Charterholder?

Water Cooler Careers
#1

Dear AnalystForum I have a question about CQF (Certificate in Quantitative Finance). But first some background:

  • I am in my late thirties.
  • I have worked for over 10 years in a large Bank.
  • I have been programming for over 25 years and I am very good at it.
  • My first university education was a 5 years engineering degree leading to MSc in Computer Science and Engineering, I also did a Master in Business Administration after that to round things up.
  • I am a CFA Charterholder, this this program when I already had 5+ years relevant experience.
  • I am since a couple of years a trader and part of my job is to build up the quant/algo trading business within the product class I work in.
  • I earn too much money to take a year off to do a MFE.

IT was many years ago I did the engineering mathematics and I never really had to use advanced mathematics in my career until now. Therefore my maths is a bit rusty (I was very good at maths and physics in school though). I used a Matlab and similar tools a lot during university time, but I only have a bit of practical experience in newer languages like Python and R. I have a feeling that brushing up advanced maths within the context of finance could help me do my current job better, i.e. design better trading algos and improve my chances of fruitful cooperation and collaboration with the pure quants in my area. Now to my question: Would you say the CQF program would be worth the time I would have to invest in it? Would it likely help me to become a better algo trader, algo designer and leader/manager in my area? Note, the cost of the program is not an issue for me. Time is. Thanks in advance for your advice

#2

The point of paying for the certificate is to prove to others you’ve completed the work and iirc a bit of networking help.

If your interest is just knowledge, you can complete the work at a fraction of the cost given all their coursework is listed. In today’s world there’s also a host of cheaper online courses covering similar material.

I would do my best Will Hunting impression and just work through it myself.

#3

http://www.cqf.com/program-structure/course-modules

I’m just going through the course modules. It seems like a pretty good program to be honest. People always say you should just read it yourself, but I never get around to it - I don’t know about you. Most of this stuff is probably too superficial to be directly useful (Willmott has no idea what Susquehanna or whoever is doing these days in algos), or is outdated (you probably don’t want to learn about Basel 3 implications from this course), but it is probably a good launching point to learn this stuff from further reading.