PQT
PRINCETON QUANTITATIVE TRADERS
Sept 10th, 2026 · INTRO MEETING
Princeton
Quantitative
Traders
Learn the markets. Compete. Get recruited.
Everyone welcome, no experience required
WHO WE ARE
Meet the officers
Your 2026–27 board. Finding one of us after the meeting is genuinely the fastest way in.
PRESIDENT
Grace Im '29
Direction, sponsor relationships, and the fall competition.
VICE PRESIDENT
Abhi Bansal '27
Programming, partnerships, and keeping the semester on the rails.
HEAD OF EDUCATION
Evan Xie '28, Brooke Xu '28
Weekly curriculum: probability, market making, and Python.
HEAD OF COMPETITIONS & TECH LEAD
Tom Wang '28, Joshua Lin '27
The fall trade comp and our in-house simulated markets.
CORPORATE RELATIONS
Ty Lipscomb '28
Sponsors, firm treks, and speaker events.
TREASURER
Brandon Wilk '28
Budget, travel logistics, and trek applications.
INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT
Graham Smith '28, Daniel Amoils '29
Member development and recruitment prep.
OPERATIONS & RECRUITMENT
Deeta Saravanan '29
Interviews and applications.
CLUB INTRO
Princeton Quantitative Traders seeks to create Princeton’s premier quantitative finance community for students curious about the intersection of mathematics, computer science, and finance!
01
Weekly sessions
Markets, probability, and trading intuition, from zero to interview-ready.
02
Trading competitions
Simulated market-making and portfolio games to build traders’ intuition.
03
Industry access
Private recruiting events, firm treks, and alumni/upperclassmen support.
04
Recruiting support
Resume reviews, mock interviews, and timeline guidance.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT QUANT
Three main roles
Quant Trader
Prices risk in real time.
Quant Researcher
Finds the edge in the data.
Quant Developer
Builds the machine that trades.
WHAT YOU DO
Quote two-sided markets and manage the risk you take on.
Look for signal in historical data, then try to break it.
Build the systems that trade and the tools that watch them.
WHAT YOU USE
Probability, mental arithmetic, judgment under time pressure.
Statistics, machine learning, time series, Python.
C++, Rust, networking, and a great deal of profiling.
FEELS LIKE
Decisions in seconds, feedback in minutes.
Weeks of work for one clean answer.
Microseconds matter and everything is measured.
Typical backgrounds: Math, CS, Physics, ORFE, Econ, ECE.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT QUANT
The industry recruiting timeline
YEAR 1 – YEAR 2 FALL
Build the base
Probability, mental math, Python. Join a club and play games with real stakes.
YEAR 2 FALL/WINTER
Sophomore programs open
Firms run sophomore-specific and diversity programs, roughly January to March.
SUMMER AFTER YEAR 2
Applications open early
Junior internship apps go live as early as July, and close rolling.
JUNIOR SUMMER / FALL
Assessments, then rounds
Timed online tests, then probability, brainteaser and market-making rounds.
JUNIOR SUMMER
Internship to return offer
Most full-time seats convert from the summer internship, decided by August.
PARTNERS
Our Donors
Donors fund the competitions and the treks — and, more usefully, send working traders to campus to talk to you.
Prize funding for the fall comp
Guest traders and office hours
Résumé drops for active members
COMPETITIONS
Last fall's trading competition
01
Market-making round
Teams quoted two-sided markets on mystery assets while news dropped in real time. Wide spreads lose slowly; bad inventory loses fast.
02
Portfolio round
Allocate capital under a hard risk limit, scored on risk-adjusted return rather than raw P&L.
03
Final table
The top teams played live in front of the room, with sponsors judging and narrating the mistakes as they happened.
WHAT WE TOOK AWAY
No finance background needed. Plenty of first-timers finished near the top.
Teams of three to four. Come alone and we will match you with one.
Sponsors watched the final round and talked to players afterwards.
COMPETITIONS
This year: bigger, with real prizes
THE FORMAT
Kickoff and strategy workshop
We teach the game before we score it. Show up and you are not starting cold.
Qualifying round, online
Run over a weekend. The top teams advance to the live final.
Live final on campus
Real-time market making in front of a room, with sponsors in attendance.
Open to all years and majors
Teams of three to four, or come solo and we will place you.
PRIZES
First
$1000
Second
$750
Third
$500
JAPAN · [MONTH YEAR]
TREKS
Japan: how it went
Last year a group of members traveled to Japan home to the world’s second-largest foreign exchange market, for a structured study of arbitrage, market microstructure, and liquidity provision in the yen. We visited major institutions including the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Bank of Japan, and local companies
WHERE
Tokyo, Hakuba, Osaka
WHO WENT
6 freshman, 4 sophomores, 2 juniors, 1 senior
THE HIGHLIGHT
THE FOOD AND SKI!!
TREKS
Next up: Switzerland (Winter 2027)
Member-only. By application.
WHY SWITZERLAND
European trading hubs: a different market structure, a different set of firms, and names most Princeton students never hear.
A small group, selected by application, because we want people who will actually use the contacts.
Members only. Coming to sessions this semester is what makes you a member.
HOW TO APPLY
01
Be a member
Be active and show up!
02
Submit the application
Short answers + club performance
03
Decisions
THIS YEAR
What we're focusing on
01
Education
Probability and expected value from scratch · Market microstructure and market making · Python for data, backtesting and analysis · Guest lectures from sponsor traders
02
Interview prep
Mental math drills, every single week · Brainteaser and probability problem sets · Mock interviews with alumni in seat · Résumé reviews before applications open
03
Simulated trading comps
In-house market-making games · A running leaderboard across the semester · Team practice ahead of the fall comp · Inter-collegiate competitions
THIS YEAR
Schoolwide Events
Open to all students, regardless of application.
01
Game Nights
Poker, Board games, Probability Trivia
02
Sponsor Visits
Info sessions, Recruitment talks, Q&A Sessions with our Sponsors
03
Fall Trading Competition
Inter-collegiate competition hosted at Princeton, prize pool $20k+
No experience required, and no penalty for showing up halfway through the semester.
JOIN US
Our recruiting timeline
SEPTEMBER
10
Open house
Meet the officers, ask anything, commit to nothing. The lowest-effort way to start.
SEPTEMBER
15
First Round Interview
Behaviorals + Brain Teasers
SEPTEMBER
17
Second Round Interview
Technicals focused on probability, statistics, math,
SEPTEMBER
12
Applications Due
Short resume drop, by 11:59 pm.
1st Round Application
OFFICER CONTACTS & Q&A
Questions?
PQT
PRESIDENT
Grace Im
gi8733@princeton.edu
VICE PRESIDENT
Abhi Bansal
ab4386@princeton.edu
EDUCATION
Brooke Xu
bx1786@princeton.edu
HEAD OF COMPETITIONS
Tom Wang & Joshua Lin
tw6600@princeton.edu
CORPORATE RELATIONS
Ty Lipscomb
tl1996@princeton.edu
TREASURER & OPERATIONS
Brandon Wilk
bw7496@princeton.edu
pqt@princeton.edu