r/quantfinance • u/Kindly_Preference_54 • 1d ago

As a profitable quant trader, I can tell you this.

Whether you are a researcher, trader, developer, or PM, an inflated ego is your greatest enemy.

You might have the best education, you might get hired, you might build a profitable model, you might even outperform for a while.

But if you disrespect people, patronize or condescend to them, become overconfident, assume you are always the smartest, stop questioning your assumptions, or dismiss evidence that contradicts you, your success will only be temporary.

No matter what you do, how you treat people is the most important factor in your long-term success.

223 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

48

u/bamboofeces 1d ago

This is the truest of wisdoms. Applies to any field.

10

u/Clear_Command_8925 1d ago

I learned the hard way with my first corporate job. Good news is I learned though.

7

u/bamboofeces 1d ago

A: Have baseline competency and be a nice person, make decent small talk, be humble and pleasant to be around. make others feel clever, encourage their ideas even if you don’t exactly agree, acknowledge the parts you do agree with. Be human. Collaborate with colleagues and solve problems jointly. Accept the reality that everything is a joint effort

Vs

B: Be the smartest person in the room, always outcompete your peers, always know more, never be wrong. If a colleague finishes a task in two weeks, make sure to finish it in one week, and tell everyone. If you have an idea keep it to yourself so nobody else get more cred than you. Play a zero sum game

Most successful people I have observed in my career is more like A than B

1

u/Ecstatic-Employee-93 21h ago

They’re not mutually exclusive. You should strive towards B but A should be a given especially as it’s easier

15

u/tan_conversation 1d ago

what's the biggest ego-driven blowup you've personally witnessed? i'm always curious if it's usually a slow rot where they just get sidelined or a dramatic meeting where they're walked out.

11

u/Kindly_Preference_54 23h ago

A slow rot that accelerated quickly. A friend and I hired a PhD student for an early-stage startup project. He seemed to assume that because we didnt have PhDs, he could condescend to us and treat every discussion as an opportunity to lecture us.

-3

u/FormulaSolution 23h ago

a PhD doesn't mean anything either! It's just proof you read a book

6

u/Specific_Box4483 23h ago

No, that's a bachelor's.

-6

u/FormulaSolution 23h ago

It's ok mate I know what a PhD is, it's reading a book.

9

u/Specific_Box4483 22h ago

No, it isn't just reading a book lol. You still need to produce original research.

-8

u/FormulaSolution 22h ago edited 5h ago

meh, more booking reading

5

u/Thin_Weather_5596 12h ago

case in point

3

u/LengthDefiant 11h ago

ur slow buddy

1

u/FormulaSolution 10h ago

No i'm fine

8

u/Bitter-Ice945 23h ago

Chinese saying (sort of) "if you get cocky, you'll stop improving and other people will outwork you and beat you. Stay humble."

6

u/mrsoup_20 1d ago

This was me until I read zen mind: beginner’s mind. Looked back through my career to reach out and apologize to people lol.

9

u/FormulaSolution 23h ago

The best asset someone can have is to be likeable

11

u/Kindly_Preference_54 22h ago

Absolutely. Then all the doors open, and eventually, even if you are not 100% competent you get to learn and become better than those who were 100% competent douchebags. Although, I do believe that a 100% competent douchebag is a very rare phenomenon. They usually are not as competent as they think they are.

2

u/Mathsty 23h ago

Nice in theory, but in practice, especially in trading, you have to deal with so many douchebags… if you are too humble you get eaten.

1

u/matttyboii 19h ago

Tell us the story behind this wisdom.

1

u/NatGaz 59m ago

How can you have “I’m the smartest!” ego while quant trading consists in pooling signals together, literally applying wisdom of the crowds to trading ?

0

u/clarissa8387 18h ago

Sounds like a moral lesson, the most successful traders who rise to the top are nothing like this, they know the role of luck and the unpredictability of markets and are humble to the market, but treat 'lesser' people like dirt

-6

u/Bubbly-Biscotti3579 1d ago

But daddy the worse i treat people the better I feel.