Traders at Berkeley

Introduction to Quantitative Finance

A student-led DeCal introducing applied quantitative finance to all UC Berkeley students.

A student-led DeCal · UC Berkeley

Course description

Quantitative finance has a high barrier to entry: mastery of several technical subjects is required for a career. We hope to bridge the gap between industry expectations and our students' potential career paths by exposing them to an overview of the topics that drive quantitative finance. Through technical lessons, applied exercises, and guest lectures from industry partners, students will gain a broad understanding of quantitative finance and begin developing the technical maturity and market intuition needed to explore the field.

This DeCal is offered as IEOR 198, previously known as STAT 198 and CS 198-134.

The DeCal runs each semester. Applications for the next offering are not open yet — the course meets weekly, and the first lecture is open to all; subsequent lectures are open to enrolled and auditing students only.

Follow us on Instagram for application dates and lecture details.

Course materials

Course materials are posted on EdStem instead of the website for ease of use. Anyone is welcome to join the Ed workspace to view the materials. Communication is done primarily through Ed — contact staff there.

Join EdStem Recommended resources

Course at a glance

Prerequisites

None. Anyone with an interest in learning about quantitative finance is encouraged to apply.

Format

Meets once a week for two hours — roughly half lecture, half hands-on work — plus an hour of weekly office hours.

What we cover

We cover a broad range of foundational topics, including market making, game theory, risk management, pricing models, options theory, statistical models, and machine learning.

What you'll leave with

  • Understand vital discretionary trading intuitions
  • Navigate the modeling problems in quantitative finance
  • Build systematic trading software

Grading

This course will be graded on attendance, participation, weekly assignments, and a final project.

Participation and attendance — 40%
Students will have one excused absence for the semester. Attendance is extremely important to understand the course material and to stay on track. Every unexcused absence will result in a 10% reduction in the final grade.
Weekly assignments — 30%
There will be weekly assignments testing practical applications of each week's course material. Assignments will be a mix of content quizzes and applications of classroom concepts in Jupyter Notebooks. Assignments will be assigned during each class and due the following week on Gradescope. Students will receive feedback on their assignments by Sunday at midnight.
Coding project — 30%
This will be a cumulative final project that students will work on throughout the semester. It will test their knowledge and understanding by applying the course material to a real-world trading environment.
Pass / No Pass
In order to pass the course, you need at least 70%.