Aradhana Singh explains how even non-coders can learn quant finance and become successful using WorldQuant BRAIN.
Where did you grow up? What city do you currently call home?
I grew up in Lucknow, a historic city and the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Lucknow, which is called “the City of Nawabs,” is North India’s artistic and cultural hub and is famous for its Adab (“manners”) and Tehzeeb (“hospitality”). In 2015, I completed my Bachelor’s in Technology in Electrical Engineering from MJP Rohilkhand University, Bareilly. Currently, I am living in Noida, which is a satellite city of the national capital of Delhi. Noida is a very planned city, with lots of greenery and a growing industrial and commercial hub.
How did you get interested in quantitative finance?
I became interested in investing during my last year of college after attending a student-run seminar on financial literacy and personal finance. My friends and I learned more about finance and started to invest in Indian stocks. We did our own fundamental research and invested in good companies. Then a classmate of ours told us about WorldQuant’s research consultant program and encouraged us to participate in its daily competition. I learned about technical analysis and alpha* research through WorldQuant’s training programs, which helped me achieve “gold” level status, after which I was onboarded as a research consultant. The platform was built in such a way that even a non-coder could attempt to generate good quality alphas.
Why did you want to become a BRAIN consultant?
In my three years as a WorldQuant consultant, I developed lots of alphas using price-volume, fundamental, sentiment, analyst estimates, relationship and other datasets. My prior experience was wonderful in terms of learning and also earning. With a new and upgraded platform, BRAIN offers many new opportunities, and I am really excited for my alpha research again.
What is your favorite part about being a BRAIN consultant?
The best part of being a WorldQuant research consultant is the freedom. You get to choose where you work, as well as your pace and schedule.
What do you like most about the BRAIN platform?
The platform is great for alpha research because it doesn’t require any coding prerequisite. It also has a lot of financial datasets, backtesting, production correlation, performance metrics and many different kinds of tests. Multi-simulation helps speed up the whole process.
What is the most challenging part about doing quantitative finance research?
The biggest challenge is making a robust model that performs well across both in-sample and out-of-sample data and across different universes. To do that, you need to avoid overfitting, understand the alpha signal well and making a generalized model. Group neutralization based on custom groupings can also be helpful.
How has your experience working with WorldQuant helped shape your career goals?
Being a research consultant enabled me to become independent and gave me the opportunity to explore new things in life like traveling to lots of places, enjoying time with my family and friends and pursuing my hobbies.
What advice would you give others considering getting involved with WorldQuant BRAIN?
Have patience. Keep exploring and keep trying.
What do you like doing in your free time?
Spending time with family and friends. Also, I love to watch and perform bhangra dancing.
*Alphas are mathematical models that seek to predict the future price movements of various financial instruments.
