u/Alone_Jellyfish3977

Hi, I need a good source to study Stats and Probability for Quantitative Finance. Please suggest books, courses, online material, YouTube, anything works.

Quick Background - I am an IT'25 major from India. Currently working in an Investment bank as a Ops BI analyst. I want to transition to QR. From what I have read online, its pretty difficult. I have been doing some self-study but wanted to know if a masters would help, if so, should i do an MFE or find a good core Math masters program.

Hi, I need a good source to study Stats and Probability for Quantitative Finance. Please suggest books, courses, online material, YouTube, anything works.

Quick background: IT engineering grad (2025) from a tier-2 college in India, currently working back-office (Global Markets ops) at a big investment bank. Not from a target school, not from a quant background.

Over the past few months I’ve been self-studying seriously — going through MIT’s 18.642 (Mathematical Finance) topic by topic, building small Python projects alongside each module (bond pricing, YTM via bisection search, etc.) to make sure the concepts actually stick.

Long-term goal is something like:
MFE → Quant Researcher → Trader → PM at a multi-strat fund.

I know that’s a long runway from where I sit right now, and I’m not delusional about how competitive it is, especially coming from a non-target/back-office background.

A few things I’d love input on:
**Masters programs** — which MFE/MFin programs are actually worth targeting for someone with my profile (cost, placement, how much they care about pedigree vs. skill)? Trying to figure out where I’m realistically competitive vs. where I’d just be wasting money.

**What actually moves the needle** for someone trying to jump from back-office to a quant-adjacent role before/instead of doing a masters — is there a realistic middle step (risk, trading support, data/quant-lite roles) or does back-office pedigree just not translate at all?

**Self-study vs. structured program** — for someone bootstrapping this alone, are there specific courses that actually carry weight with hiring managers, or is it 100% about the masters + strong GitHub/project work?

Not looking for hand-holding, just want a gut check from people who’ve either made this jump or sit on the hiring side. Appreciate any brutal honesty.

Quick background: IT engineering grad (2025) from a tier-2 college in India, currently working back-office (Global Markets ops) at a big investment bank. Not from a target school, not from a quant background.

Over the past few months I’ve been self-studying seriously — going through MIT’s 18.642 (Mathematical Finance) topic by topic, building small Python projects alongside each module (bond pricing, YTM via bisection search, etc.) to make sure the concepts actually stick.

Long-term goal is something like:
MFE → Quant Researcher → Trader → PM at a multi-strat fund.

I know that’s a long runway from where I sit right now, and I’m not delusional about how competitive it is, especially coming from a non-target/back-office background.

A few things I’d love input on:
Masters programs — which MFE/MFin programs are actually worth targeting for someone with my profile (cost, placement, how much they care about pedigree vs. skill)? Trying to figure out where I’m realistically competitive vs. where I’d just be wasting money.

What actually moves the needle for someone trying to jump from back-office to a quant-adjacent role before/instead of doing a masters — is there a realistic middle step (risk, trading support, data/quant-lite roles) or does back-office pedigree just not translate at all?

Self-study vs. structured program — for someone bootstrapping this alone, are there specific courses that actually carry weight with hiring managers, or is it 100% about the masters + strong GitHub/project work?

Not looking for hand-holding, just want a gut check from people who’ve either made this jump or sit on the hiring side. Appreciate any brutal honesty.