نظرة عامة على البرنامج
Quantitative Finance Program
The Quantitative Finance program is designed to equip students with a profound understanding of financial instruments and markets, preparing them for careers in finance. The program focuses on combining financial models with computational skills, allowing students to apply their knowledge in real-world environments.
Specializations
The program offers two specializations: Science Track and Industry Track.
Science Track
The Science Track prepares students for an academic career, with advanced courses in finance and numerous electives. Special emphasis is placed on academic literature research and scientific writing. Students attend a weekly research seminar held by the Vienna Graduate School of Finance (VGSF), participating in the Department's productive research culture.
Research Seminars
Two seminars are available:
- Research Seminar in Statistics and Mathematics: Wednesdays, 17:00-18:30
- Finance Research Seminar: Fridays, 11:00 to 12:30 (organized by VGSF)
Students can decide which seminar to attend each week.
Activities
- Attend one research seminar unit per week
- Read and prepare papers for the respective upcoming session
- Participate actively in discussions about presented papers
- Provide a list of 7 papers at the end of each semester; three will be selected by course instructors
- Write synopses about two of the selected papers, present, and discuss them
Paper Reading and Writing
This course enhances students' ability to read and review finance papers critically and makes them acquainted with modeling practices in selected areas. Students start working on their master's thesis project and are guided in developing a research idea.
Electives
Students choose 5 electives from the following:
- Advanced Topics in Computing
- Data and Text Mining
- Machine Learning in Finance
- Financial Time Series Analysis
- Bayesian Econometrics
- Advanced Topics in Continuous Time Finance
- Quantitative Risk Management
- Credit Risk
- Financial Engineering
- Optimization
- Advanced Mathematical Methods
- Portfolio Management - Applications
- Sustainable Finance
- Advanced Topics in Banking
- Market Microstructure: Theory and Applications
- Game Theory
- Empirical Methods in Finance
Industry Track
The Industry Track is for students seeking a career as quants in the finance industry. This track focuses on combining financial models with computational skills, allowing students to apply their skills and knowledge in real-world environments.
Industry Lab
The Industry Labs are comprehensive, challenging projects where students apply the skills and knowledge acquired in the first year of studies. Industry Labs usually start in September/October of the second year of studies and are to be completed by May at the latest.
There are two types of Industry Labs:
- External Industry Labs: Students solve a specific problem raised by the industry partner.
- Internal Industry Labs: Students solve a problem appearing in the financial industry raised by the course instructors.
Students work in small groups of about 3 to 5 students, formed by the program management through an allocation process.
Current Industry Labs
- Erste Group
- Erste Bank
- d-fine
- fin4cast
- KPMG
- OeNB
- PwC
- Quintik Capital
- Raiffeisen Bank International Advanced Analytics
- Raiffeisen Bank International Market Risk Management
- smn Investment Services
- ZZ Vermögensberatung
Electives
Students choose 5 electives from the same list as the Science Track.
Program Structure and Content
The program is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of quantitative finance, including advanced courses in finance, electives, and research seminars. The program's structure and content are tailored to prepare students for careers in finance, whether in academia or the industry.