Italian Actuary and Quant Student - Andres Rossi

I'm excited to have a long-time subscriber and friend, Andres Rossi on the podcast! I have watched him mature and grow from an undergrad student into starting his first job as an actuary after his masters degree in quant finance and actuarial sciences. In our discussion we talk about actuaries vs quants, actuaries in Italy, education, quant finance, data science, and risk management.
I was very impressed with Andres' English as he took a few classes in school but really taught himself by watch videos on KZbin. This is also the first time I have ever had a conversation with him and his first English conversation. We have been in contact over the years through messaging apps but it was great catching up with him on video.
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[@mariogamesrock]

Hey Dmitri, Andres' experiences being similar to mine led me to express my thanks for the work you've done on this channel. I too watched your quant vs. actuary video perhaps 2-3 years ago now and your channel has been the biggest source of my education regarding quantitative finance careers ever since. I studied really hard to get ahead in regards to my actuarial exams, but my actuarial internship after my sophomore year of college made me want to go into a more quantitative field. I likely would have been stuck if I hadn't watched your videos. Now I'm in my junior year and have a "quant" trading internship lined up (since the quant finance jobs you talk about don't offer internships for undergrads), with the awareness that if I don't want to do trading full time out of college, I can likely leverage the experience to do a quant finance masters or just a statistics PhD and end up on a different side of the industry that I enjoy more. It's seriously only thanks to this channel that I have a good idea of what my options are and I'd be quite lost without it. And, on a final note, Andres was a great guest, and it's nice to see young people who were recently in college because naturally their experiences will be similar to mine. Also, his English was great!

[@andresrossi9]

Thank you, you're so generous. But actually, I'm Italian, so I'm terrible at English by definition, it's hard to improve and I get embarrassed. However, the one making a very good job here is Dimitri, he has provided a lot of precious information though his channel and guided students to find their paths into statistical professions.

[@mariogamesrock]

@@andresrossi9 You were great! Your explanation of the Actuarial System in Italy was very good, I thought all of Europe was under the IFoA like the UK, but you taught me (and Dimitri by the sounds of it) something new. I really like how they do it in Italy, as you said here in America you can get a bachelors degree in philosophy, have no masters degree, and as long as you pass a few exams you can get an actuarial job, which I think presents some issues.

[@pierofaedo1055]

@@andresrossi9 ciao scusa il disturbo, anche a me piacerebbe lavorare in questo settore come quant o anche attuario, ora sto finendo la triennale in statistica a padova e sto valutando se fare la magistrale in statistica con percorso finanza oppure provare ad entrare nel master di quantitative finance a zurigo, a me penso piacerebbe di più la magistrale in statistica anche perchè credo sia più versatile se un giorno decidessi di cambiare carriera, il fatto è che non so quanto difficile sia trovare lavoro all'estero, magari a Londra o Zurigo, in un fondo di investimento avendo una laurea in Italia in un università che non è tra le migliori in europa nei ranking, non so magari se hai provato anche tu a cercare lavoro all'estero o sai che tipo di dinamica c'è e hai qualche consiglio da darmi, grazie

[@jakobpirs1392]

Thanks to your channel i applied for the quantitative finance and actuarial sciences degree 👍

[@gabelfra1]

I am from Italy too and I have a statistics master focused on acturial application. I can really relate to the lack of quant jobs in my country. That's why the only reasonable choice was moving to London to find a more attractive job market.

[@pierofaedo1055]

Ciao, posso chiederti dove hai fatto la magistrale? E se ci sono state difficoltà nel trovare lavoro all’estero in questo settore avendo una magistrale fatta in Italia

[@yannickdewildedestmael6635]

Thanks Dimitri and Andres, I was also dying to ask about your thoughts on a master's program that I want to enrol in next year which is called actuarial and financial engineering (2 years) at KU Leuven (#1 university into the BeNeLux area). But I guess my questions have now been mostly answered. It is probably the only "quant" master's degree in Belgium so I have no choice but to attend the actuarial classes. To "max-out" the quant-oriented electives, I get a program with 19 courses spread accross the following: 33% financial engineering; 20% master's thesis; 19% risk engineering; 15% actuarial engineeering; 10% Data science (actuarial oriented). From my perspective, I would probably need to move to London, Amsterdam, Luxembourg or Zurich if I cannot find a quant job in Brussels after my studies (Brussels mostly offers traditional bank roles, so there are a few jobs here and there mostly related to risk).

[@AttilioPitt]

Very grear chats! Thank you really much for the content! Is it possible to know which University Andres had been attended and which site he checked for ranking? Because i’m finding to many controversial versione online about ranking universities. Thanks again!

[@DimitriBianco]

He went to, Sapienza Università di Roma

[@AttilioPitt]

@@DimitriBianco thank you really much!

[@derekrigdom2601]

Hi Dimitri, great video. I really enjoy your channel. I have a question, I'm from South America and have a bachelor degree in economics but got stuck in unrelated jobs and teaching math at high school level, now I'm getting a job as a data scientist and I'm considering studying a master degree. Do you believe that is worth to start a master degree in statistics at 35 years old? or is too late to become a quant?

[@DimitriBianco]

Age wise I don't think it matters. Quants don't really care about age. As for quant jobs, I would consider coming to the US for the masters. There is more opportunity in the US for quants than other countries.

[@cweinberg10]

Hi Dimitri, Could you go through any of the quant books you have recommended? For example, in Shreve's Stochastic Calc book, I have some trouble with the proofs and the use of Borel sets/Lesbegue Integrals.

[@DimitriBianco]

I've been looking into making an online class which would cover some of the textbooks. Unfortunately these videos take a lot more work to create.

[@cweinberg10]

Understandable a lot of the material is fairly complex

[@DimitriBianco]

Take a look at Nathan Whitehead on KZbin. He has a few videos you might like.

[@cweinberg10]

@@DimitriBianco Okay awesome thanks for the recommendation.

[@ABSTRACTSHNITZEL]

In this video, you mentioned that quants in America typically work in places like New York, Chicago, etc. How likely is it for someone to find a job as a quant elsewhere? I know you mentioned in previous videos that you worked (maybe still work?) in Dallas, TX. I live in the midwest and I like the midwest and can't see myself living in condensed large cities like New York or Chicago. I'd like to stay in the Midwest if possible or maybe move down south if I must, but are there opportunities for quants in the Midwest?

[@DimitriBianco]

I couldn't find the video but in one of them I talked about other locations. You can live other places but it limits your options. Look at risk management jobs at larger banks that are federal reserve related. I wouldn't recommend working at an fdic bank as they are too small to do meaningful quant work. Some larger banks in the Midwest would be Fifth Third and Huntington. Other similar sized banks would be Comerica, Regions,Truist, Zions, and PNC. Some large banks have quants in Charlotte or Dallas.

[@ABSTRACTSHNITZEL]

@@DimitriBianco Thanks for the quick reply. I've been binge-listening to your videos/podcasts for the past couple of weeks, so I'll probably come across it sooner or later if you have a video on it. When you say "meaningful," could you be more specific about what you mean by that? Do you mean meaningful in terms of impact, career development, learning opportunities, all of the above, or something else?

[@DimitriBianco]

By meaningful I mean they are really far away from building models correctly. Many small banks use Excel and simple calculations over statistical models or have built statistical models but can't figure out why they don't work. Many are just trying to meet regulatory requirements but don't believe models add value. From a career perspective you get trained to believe models don't work and there is rarely someone around who can help train you.

[@ABSTRACTSHNITZEL]

@@DimitriBianco Ah, okay, thank you for the clarification. While I have you here, I did also have some other questions that arose from listening to your videos and podcasts. I don't know if you have a video on this specifically, but do you think it matters where you went to school? I know in one video you mentioned that the type of Master's degree you want to get may influence which school you go to, but I'm wondering if employers care where you went to school once you've had work experience. I'm from Nebraska and I'm a Math and Data Analytics major from a small private liberal arts college. I'm wondering if employers would care if I got a Master's degree from a generic state school or if they really do value schools that are well known for bringing out good quants. It seems to me, at least in Nebraska, that employers don't care where I got my bachelor's degree from. Does this really change when it comes to Master's degrees?

[@DimitriBianco]

It does matter but not as much as many people think. Being from a well ranked program is the best, being from a well known program is good, and bring from an unheard-of school is okay but many will discount it. The private vs state school won't matter, it's the name of the school and how well they are known for a specific field of study.

[@bhargav7476]

What happens to a long American option when intrest rates go up?

[@andresrossi9]

Lemme teach you a whole stochastic calculus course 🤣👍

[@xzazen]

an increase in the interest rate implies that the price of an underlying asset is *more likely* to increase in the future, so - for an at the money (ATM) long european call option: the value increases as it is more likely in the money (ITM) than out of the money (OTM) - for an ATM long european put: the value decreases as it is more likely OTM than ITM (or you can use the put-call parity argument) I assume this holds for american options too - but I am a little rusty on the american options stuff so please correct me if this doesn't hold for the americans

[@damiano4804]

This guy seems very smart but too "optimistic" about the Italian job market for quants 😂 As many other guys I had to escape from the country in order to land up with a job aligned with my ambition/skillset..

[@DimitriBianco]

Another buddy of mine did the same. Left Italy to come to the US for a quant masters and job opportunities.

[@pierofaedo1055]

@@DimitriBianco Do you think its also possible with a statistics master in italy from a not well ranked university? Or its very difficult to be a quant in usa or uk without a master from a top university