CMU Quant Club

The Quant Club of Carnegie Mellon University focuses on the study of quantitative finance, more specifically areas in finance where the study of mathematics and other computational aspects are emphasized. In addition, we host events that provide opportunities for members to get familiar with the quantitative finance industry. Signature events we hold include the Quantathon, Market Making Game, Mock Interviews, Resume Workshop, lecture series, and seminars.

To join the club/subscribe to our mailing list, please do so here: https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/cmu-quant

Alternatively, you can email Justin Oeni, our VP of Public Relations, at joeni@andrew.cmu.edu for requests to subscribe.

Signature Events

Quantathon

Quantathon brings together students from a variety of backgrounds to tackle interesting and challenging problems in computational finance. Quantathon is usually held during the spring semester.

One of the founders of Quant Club, Sijie Wei, said:

We love working around great minds to solve great problems... This competition is a great opportunity for students to apply their quantitative skills such as mathematics, probability, statistical analysis and so on in the field of finance. Knowledge in finance was not required, and students with all backgrounds were welcome to participate.

One sophomore math major who won the first place in Quantathon 2019, Gunmay Handa, said:

There’s a sense of satisfaction that comes from putting ideas together from different areas of math and pushing harder and harder until you finally solve it... Our solution was very collaborative because there was a lot of probability involved, but there was also combinatorial knowledge you needed in terms of algebraic summations and other techniques we had to apply to evaluate what we came up with.

Market Making Game

The Market Making Game is a thought-provoking event combining estimation, negotiation and optimization. It is usually held during both semesters.

Twenty-five teams started the game with contracts and some (fake) cash. Throughout five rounds of play, teams had to use their cash to buy contracts or sell contracts to make more cash. However, there was a catch. They didn’t actually know the value of the contracts. Instead, each round rotated through questions about the economy, mathematical puzzles and general trivia that teams had to solve to reveal the price of the contracts.

A senior computational finance major, Dallas Foster, said:

The most challenging part is the uncertainty that comes from not knowing the exact value of the contract and having to trade it anyways if you want any chance to make money. It wasn’t about whether the traders knew they were 100% right but whether they had a good feeling that they were more right than others. That line of thought applied to the game as well.

Read more about the 2023 Market Making Game here.