Quant case studies, worked step by step

Cases
100
Traced to a firm
43
Topics
11
Hard
30
Topic
All topicsSignal research and data tasks10Options and volatility trading10Market-making games14Portfolio construction10Strategy evaluation and backtests9Execution and market microstructure8Fixed income and credit8Regression and model review8Risk measurement and limits9Statistical arbitrage and event trades8Position sizing and bankroll6
Level
AnyWarm upCoreHard
Source
AnyReported at a firmStandard
Showing 21–30 of 57 · filtered from 100Clear filters
  1. 038You are short 1,000 calls struck at 500 on a stock at 500.2, thirty minutes before expiry, hedged with 500 shares. What is your exposure after uncertain exercise, and would you close the position?Options and volatility tradingCoreOptions market makingRisk quant
  2. 039A market maker's quotes update 200 microseconds after the index future moves. Faster traders pick off 30% of its stale quotes over 50 moves a day, each costing 3 ticks of 5 paise on 500 shares. What does latency cost a year, and is a Rs 2 crore co-location upgrade worth it?Execution and market microstructureHardExecution and microstructureOptions market making
  3. 040Daily card-spend data covers 8% of transactions for 60 listed retailers and arrives with a 3-day lag; results come out 45 days after quarter end. How long is the information window, and how precise can the estimate be?Signal research and data tasksCoreQuant researchSystematic hedge funds
  4. 041A company's 5-year bond trades 450 bps over government with 40% recovery assumed, while a structural model on its equity implies a 3% annual default probability. Back out the market-implied default rate, compare the two, and say which instrument looks mispriced.Fixed income and creditHardFixed income quantQuant research
  5. 042A manager runs a 3% tracking-error budget with equal active positions in five stocks, each with 30% idiosyncratic volatility and uncorrelated. How large can each active weight be?Portfolio constructionWarm upPortfolio constructionSystematic hedge funds
  6. 044A book holds Rs 100 crore of equities on Rs 25 crore of capital with a 15% maintenance margin. What fall triggers a margin call, and what daily volatility would make that a one-in-twenty-day event?Risk measurement and limitsCoreRisk quantSystematic hedge funds
  7. 045A trader with Rs 50 lakh of risk capital stakes 5% of current capital per trade at a 52% win rate with even payoffs; the desk stops her at a 30% drawdown. How likely is the stop, and what changes at 2%?Position sizing and bankrollCoreProp trading firmsQuant trading
  8. 046The near-month index future is at 22,150 and the next month at 22,280, 28 days apart, with funding at 6.8% and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Is the calendar roll rich or cheap, and what does the roll trader do?Statistical arbitrage and event tradesHardSystematic hedge fundsQuant trading
  9. 047You track the hedge ratio between two cement stocks with a Kalman filter: prior beta 1.00 with variance 0.04, process noise 0.001 a day, and a new observation implying 1.20 with noise variance 0.02. Run two updates and explain the gain.Regression and model reviewHardQuant researchQuant trading
  10. 052A signal has an information coefficient of 0.06 at one day, 0.045 at five days and 0.03 at twenty days. Cross-sectional daily volatility is 2% and a full rebalance costs 20 bps round trip. Should you rebalance daily or weekly?Strategy evaluation and backtestsCoreSystematic hedge fundsQuant research

Company names and figures are illustrative.