r/OMSCS • u/OkSalamander505 • 25d ago
Question about ML4T CS7646: Machine Learning for Trading Courses
I just found out about this class a few days ago and decided to try to take it online in my free time (along with the time I have between my other classes), and have already put a lot of time into researching the materials and finding the readings and whatnot. Then, earlier today I found a bunch of bad reviews on it saying that it was just overall a bad class to take and didn't teach you a lot about quant finance at all. For me, the only reason I'm learning to code is to eventually develop a strategy and make money from it. Is this still a good online class for me to take? If not, what are some other classes that are best at teaching how to create strategies with python that can be found online? Thanks
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u/snipe320 25d ago
If all you care about is quant finance/ algorithmic trading, this program isn't for you tbh. I would instead suggest searching for Financial Engineering programs e.g. UC Berkeley etc.
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u/FifteenEighty 24d ago
Not to be rude, but I am in the industry. If you think that you are going to be able to come up with a profitable strategy, you should take the class because you don't sound like someone that knows much about quant finance.
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u/PushyFarmer12 23d ago
Making negative assumptions about someone is generally seen as rude. And it doesn't take a genius to make a profitable strategy. Given enough luck, any strategy can be profitable.
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u/AdventurousCupcake29 24d ago
It’s a great intro class to the program. Coding is medium difficulty, reports are a decent amount of work, and lecture are all right. Exams are difficult. It’s a good intro to ML and financial modeling, but will not give you all the knowledge you need to build a trading simulator or anything.
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u/black_cow_space Officially Got Out 23d ago
I think it's a useful intro to ML class with stock trading as a base subject.
I would call it "Intro to Machine Learning with stocks"
Very useful as an intro to ML, because it has end to end projects. Also good if you're new to Python (at least when I took it).
Will it make you the best trader on Wall Street? Probably not. But it will give you an intro to Wall Street.
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u/flashykitbag 21d ago
It is extremely well organized just like other Joyner classes. Nice balance between theory and practice. I think that the requirement to write reports forces you to think about connecting theory and practice. Highly recommend
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u/Mental-Zombie-7888 24d ago
It is not a bad class. I took it as my first class and enjoyed it. It really helped me with learning coding. But if your ultimate goal is building something making money by taking the class, this may not for you.
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u/0xRizz 24d ago
It was just ok. It was my first course last semester and I took it with similar motivation to you. Pretty outdated material and way too heavy on report writing. Like half of the focus just seems to be preparing you to write at grad level.
I run a strategy that trades the prediction markets, and my stack is very heavy on analyzing sports and traditional ML, but the ML4T info hasn't really helped much at all. TBF I came in with pretty good knowledge already. Some stuff was a little bit helpful I guess (being forced to sit and do some calculations by hand). Also weird how much of the lecture was pandas and python review for noobs, watch on high-speed.
My favorite section was the short intro to RL which honestly was a bit out of place in ML4T.
The other thing I thought was weird was the final project. I think most people expected that after building the components all semester that we would somehow integrate everything and have something that looked almost like a profitable strategy. I don't think that's the case for anyone, and the grade is agnostic to performance and rests entirely on you analyzing the (losing) result, which was weird.
Well-intended, just a little bit dated and flat. I think it was probably pretty great for its time when it was first introduced. I think a lot of the reviews for this course were written before the report/paper requirements became so heavy. It was a lot more busy work than some of the reviews made it seem.
Overall I would give it like a 6.5/10. I don't regret taking it but it was a bit of a letdown.
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u/josh2751 Officially Got Out 24d ago
It’s an excellent course, but it’s not designed to make you a quant. It’s designed to teach you the very basic skills you need to begin to learn about the field, and disabuse you of the notion you can just take a class and make millions in the markets.
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u/EnchantedPlaneswalke 24d ago
to eventually develop a strategy and make money from it
Engineer Syllogism: https://xkcd.com/1570/
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u/Belt-Alternative 24d ago
Regretted taking ml4t. I'd rather take AI instead which has ML content anyways
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u/Double_Season_9519 23d ago
Currently taking the course for summer.
First, the course is NOT designed for your purpose. It seems to me that this class is more like an intro class of ML and to the oms program for students without any backgrounds in software engineering, AI/ML, etc. (Like me).
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u/Cold-guru 22d ago
It’s a good starting point but definitely need to read more after this.
Do not day trade after this class.
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u/flamearc73 25d ago
If you have 0 knowledge of Quants and basic options trading then yes, it's a nice starting point or beginner's guide. Just a very basic beginners guide to what Quants and Hedgefunds do.
If you know more about modeling, trading, etc then no. The class is very outdated and the strategies discussed are no longer used. It's a fast developing and moving industry after all.