Send us a text Tribhuvan Bisen is a co-founder of Quant Insider. We learn about his journey from his education to working at Deutsche and then starting Quant Insider. We also discuss the quant job and education market in India and what it takes to be a quant. Quant Insider: https://quantinsider.io/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/quant-insider/ Tribhuvan Bisen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tribhuvan-bisen/ OVVO Labs is a proud sponsor of Talking Tuesday with Fancy Quant! www.OVVOLabs.com Support...
Aug 19, 2025•44 min•Season 8Ep. 6
Send us a text Fred Viole is the founder of OVVO Labs and has been putting together a complete statistical framework using partial moments and nonlinear and nonparametric statistics (NNS). He also has an R package which is free called, NNS. The application of NNS to finance is proprietary and what OVVO Labs uses to sell macroeconomic forecasts, a utility based portfolio optimization tool, and an option pricing tool. From the horse race tracks to trading and to the chase of an entrepreneurial jou...
Aug 05, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 8Ep. 5
Send us a text Project Phoenix is me re-organizing my life. I got an offer to be a CRO and instead of taking it, I quit my job, sold my honeybees, and decided to run a half marathon. I started my own business called, "Fancy Quant LLC" where I will consult in quant research, risk management, career development, and academic program consulting and advisory services. For opportunities contact me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitri-bianco/ OVVO Labs is a proud sponsor of Talking Tuesday...
Jul 29, 2025•18 min•Season 8Ep. 4
Send us a text Raphael Douady is a French mathematician who works in both academia as well as quantitative finance. His specialization is in chaos theory and financial mathematics. In this interview he shares how he got into mathematics and why he left for quantitative finance. We also briefly discuss AI in the finance space as he has a paid seminar on July 31st called, "Opportunities and Challenges in Leveraging AI for Financial Markets." The conversation is a fun discussion of the challenges o...
Jul 22, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 8Ep. 3
Send us a text I sit down with Data Bento's CEO, Christina Qi to discuss how she started Data Bento and why their product of providing data is the best. It turns out there are a lot of features that firms want such as how data is structured, cleaned, and transferred which make a big difference especially in the finance and investing space. Learn more in this episode about Data Bento's focus on driving innovation instead of producing a low quality knock-off product. OVVO Labs is a proud sponsor o...
Jul 15, 2025•49 min•Season 8Ep. 2
Send us a text Welcome to Season 8 of Talking Tuesdays with Fancy Quant! This season I will bring in more guest speakers from the quantitative finance community to talk about data, business, math, stats, and their journey's through life. OVVO Labs is a proud sponsor of Talking Tuesday with Fancy Quant! www.OVVOLabs.com Support the show...
Jul 08, 2025•4 min•Season 8Ep. 1
Send us a text This is the presentation I gave at the Quaint Quant Conference 2025. The goal of the conference is to bring together more people to share ideas and collaborate. I touch on some of the main groups of people in the quantitative finance community and what each group can do to build a better community. The four groups are outsiders, academics, students, and practitioners. Website: https://www.FancyQuantNation.com Discord: https://discord.gg/8822pYKNrn Support the show...
May 18, 2025•1 hr 14 min
Send us a text As there has been some discussion around H1Bs and immigration, and a subscriber asked me to talk about it, here is my perspective. A few high points: - Immigration is a key part of America. - Great people should be allowed to immigrate and not just whoever decides they want to come. - The H1B system needs to match the number of people coming as well as a clear and simpler path to a green card. Support the show...
Jan 05, 2025•21 min
Send us a text I brought Patrick Zoro from Lehigh University on the channel to discuss jobs, hiring, program rankings, networking, and just to catch up with him on a personal note. Some interesting takeaways include how programs gather and report graduate income. For example, the data is self reported by the students and then self reported by the universities. Some universities have third partis that do the work to reduce over stating salaries while others directly report. Another interesting pi...
Dec 24, 2024•1 hr 21 min
Send us a text There is a lot of confusion on how admissions is done at quant finance masters programs in the US. Every program will do it differently however today I got the opportunity to learn about the admissions process from one of the top programs (Carnegie Mellon University). Emily Wertz is the director of Admissions and Recruiting at CMU's Masters of Science in Computational Finance program and has worked there for over eight years. We cover: 1) Academic Readiness 2) Career Readiness 3) ...
Dec 17, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Send us a text An interview with valuations expert, David Shimko to discuss what he has been up to. He's teaching a quantitative focused financial valuations core course at NYU Tandon and he has been working on a new company called, Wall Street Scholars. Wall Street Scholars is a consulting, research and publishing organization, whose scholars are renowned for their expertise in applied finance and economics. Our distinguished panel of scholars and practitioners offers tailored solutions for com...
Sep 18, 2024•1 hr 7 min
Send us a text I had another great conversation with Agus Sudjianto around machine learning models, LLMs, risk management, model validation, and building culture. Agus recently retired from Wells Fargo and is now enjoying a variety of side projects including working at H2O.ai, teaching model validation at UNC, and I believe a few other projects which may come to light within the next year. Website: https://www.FancyQuantNation.com Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/fancyquant Quant t-shirts,...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr 9 min
Send us a text Zach Creighton is a quantitative finance recruiter and founder of Hemans. Hemans is a premier staffing and search agency with specialization in the Financial Services Corporate Governance sector. Zach talks about his journey into the career of recruiting, misconceptions about recruiters, sourcing talent, and tips for those looking for jobs in the quantitative finance space. Zach's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachary-creighton-14b080a0/ Hemans: https://www.hemanstalent.co...
Aug 27, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Send us a text I had a great time talking with Stan Uryasev and learning about his journey to quantitative finance. Stan is one of the authors of the original paper on Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR). CVaR is taught in almost every finance program and has had a large impact on the finance community. Stan is also a professor and endowed chair of Stony Brook's Quantitative Finance program which includes a Masters program and a PhD program. We will also discuss some mathematical art from his wife ...
Aug 13, 2024•58 min
Send us a text From 2020 until today (7/21/24), the economy has really come into the main conversation especially with inflation as bad as it has been. I bring on economist and personal friend C.R. Olschwang to discuss what is currently happening as well as some general economics around labor, supply, demand, consumption, and business. Support the show
Aug 10, 2024•1 hr 23 min
Send us a text A fun interview with Alexander Unterrainer on KDB and building careers in quantitative finance in London. I have heard a little about KDB over the years but have never used it. Today I sit down with Alexander to learn a bit more about it and how he has built a career on it. He has also been blogging for over a year on how to program in KDB+ which is also known as KDB or q. KDB Learning Blog: DefconQ https://www.defconq.tech/blog/Go-To%20KDB/Q%20Learning%20Resources Connect with Al...
Jun 25, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 7Ep. 14
Send us a text Jonathon Emerick is an energy trader and quant who also has a YouTube channel (QuantPy). We discuss his journey coming from chemical engineering to quantitative finance which included a Masters of Financial Mathematics. Topics covered in our discussion range from energy markets to risk management to YouTube and day trading. Jonathon Emerick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathon-emerick-407224119/ https://www.youtube.com/@QuantPy Support the show...
Feb 28, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 7Ep. 13
Send us a text Since I just turned 35 years old, I figured I would a podcast episode on the journey and the lessons I learned. It was a mixed bag of great years, some struggles, and now coming out the other side. Quantitative finance is a wild ride and never the same for any two professionals. Reflecting on 30 Years: The Journey to Becoming a Quant https://youtu.be/rGdfR66Dl4c?si=4A4hWtK8uP3KJQSB Support the show...
Jan 30, 2024•38 min•Season 7Ep. 12
Send us a text As many of you know I work in a high paying field and rub shoulders with many wealthy people. That being said, I didn't grow up around Wall Street or any other high powered field. I was an average American who took an interest in quantitative finance and ended up falling in love with statistics and economics. I tend to understand people from a variety of backgrounds because I wasn't sheltered in one group. This perspective has allowed me to understand some of the biggest issues Am...
Jan 22, 2024•34 min•Season 7Ep. 11
Send us a text Should you have friends at work? Of course! You need a network around you. You need people to talk to who can relate to you. It makes work easier as you understand your colleagues better, it helps find work in the future, and it makes it enjoyable to go to work. That being said, I rarely ever hang out with my colleagues outside of work. However I do grab lunch with past colleagues and my Santander friends did all text and call congratulating me on my new daughter. Website: https:/...
Jan 16, 2024•21 min•Season 7Ep. 10
Send us a text A subscriber asked how I paid for my masters degree as they are very expensive. The short answer on how I paid for it was working part-time and taking out government loans. For my undergrad my parent's paid the first 1.5 years and then I got married and was poor so the school covered my tuition. I also worked two part-time jobs during my undergrad to pay for rent, books, food, and other necessities. I would recommend students really focus on their school work when possible however...
Jan 09, 2024•25 min•Season 7Ep. 9
Send us a text A subscriber asked how I manage my family, working as a quant, two YouTube channels, and a fair amount of hobbies including my homestead. There are really four tips that allow me to manage my schedule. It is also important to realize I do not succeed at everything. Social media makes it look like everything is running smooth with minimal stress however my life can be very stressful however I find the rewards from juggling so many thing worth the effort. So here are me four tips: 1...
Jan 02, 2024•14 min•Season 7Ep. 8
Send us a text An industry professional asked me why is it so hard to get changes made within a company. They had made some suggestions for improving model validation however they were told there were resource constraints. Resource constraints are very real however this often includes company politics. For example, even if your team can make changes that will improve efficiency, save money, and great better outcomes it will disrupt other teams. As a manager or department head you now have to con...
Dec 20, 2023•26 min•Season 7Ep. 7
Send us a text In quantitative finance I hear a lot of students say, "I love money" implying that will make them good at quant finance. It is a very shallow statement and one that shows the student hasn't thought much about that statement. The students that do truly love money for the sake of money are shallow people that won't make it in quant finance. Now that being said, I think many students making the statement either find economics interesting which covers how money transfers value, stores...
Dec 12, 2023•10 min•Season 7Ep. 6
Send us a text The biggest lie in quant finance is that you can do everything required at the highest level of a model. This includes data engineering, model development (quant research), implementation (quant dev), and be the end user (often a trader or operations team). This full stack quant does exist however they are never the best at everything and they often work in a very specific niche. Examples of a niche could be, auto loans, equity HFT, commodities, securitization, or etc. The systems...
Nov 29, 2023•10 min•Season 7Ep. 5
Send us a text For this Thanksgiving season I would like to express my gratitude for my dad. My dad was a traveling salesman and the reason my mom was able to be a stay at home mom. The one skill that I am most grateful for is my work ethic. I learned to work along side my dad as a kid growing up. The example my dad set helped engrain in my the need and desire to work. I spent a lot of my childhood working on our house, cleaning cars, or traveling across the country for my dad's job. Support the...
Nov 22, 2023•14 min•Season 7Ep. 4
Send us a text As Thanksgiving is this week I wanted to reflect on my gratitude for my mom. My mom was a stay at home mom and was lucky enough to be able to stay home and spend a lot of time with me as a child. Many of the life lessons around manners, religion, and domestic skills such as cooking and cleaning all came from my mom. My mom's attitude towards education is also what kept me somewhat engaged as a child with school even though I did not like attending when I was a kid. Having kids of ...
Nov 21, 2023•16 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Send us a text Understanding performance reviews is challenging especially if you have not worked at a variety of firms. There will always be a human judgement portion which is not a hard science. That being said, reviews should be very specific to each position. When I moved from an individual contributor to a manager role, I was not happen that my annual review was average. Over the last 5 years I had always performed above average. What I didn't understand was that I was now being judged and ...
Nov 14, 2023•15 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Send us a text Many things make legends who they are. It seems the commonality is the ability to perform at a very high level over an extended period of time. Looking at Fischer Black, Peter Carr, Rick Rubin, George Box, Gilbert Strang, and John Nash it is interesting to see so many difference between them yet they have all had significant contributions to their area of expertise. Soft skills seem to play some part of this title of being a legend. There are many people who made one contribution ...
Nov 07, 2023•31 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Send us a text As grad school programs and undergrad programs are starting up it is important to get the most out of the time you are there. School seems like it goes slow however by the time you graduate and have been working a few years it seems like long ago. 1) Network with a wide range of students. 2) Do informational interviews with alumni and industry practitioners to learn what specialty you want to work in after graduation. 3) Lean In! It is very challenging to balance the social aspect...
Aug 02, 2023•7 min
