NANYANG Financial Engineering

From Aerospace Engineering to Financial Trading, NTU alumnus Prasad Sawant gets off to a flying start with NTU’s MSc in Financial Engineering

Prasad Sawant stumbled upon the world of financial trading quite by chance. After completing his bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Prasad landed his first job at a global FinTech services provider because of his strong quantitative, problem-solving abilities and programming skills. He programmed algorithmic strategies on options for clients, interacted with traders, started learning the quantitative aspect of trading and was drawn towards gaining a deeper understanding of the mathematics of markets.

Prasad aspired to become a trader and eventually run his own hedge fund. He initially thought of pursuing an MBA in Finance but on doing research, he came across the MSc Financial Engineering (MFE) programme, which he found better suited to achieving his goal.

With a view to gaining global exposure and practical experience, Prasad seized the opportunity offered by his employer to transfer to the Singapore office. His plan was to pursue a master’s on a part-time basis while working, as it would allow him to keep up with the markets and see real-life applications of the concepts learned in class.

Prasad chose the MFE programme offered by Nanyang Technological University because it offered him the flexibility to continue working while studying and gave him a comprehensive understanding of all aspects related to trading. He found the courses were well designed and arranged in a good sequence. Prasad enjoyed Machine Learning, and the Stochastic Calculus courses and their implementation in the financial world were his personal favourites. Courses like Corporate Finance. Derivatives, Asset Pricing Theory, Bond Pricing, Risk management helped strengthen his conceptual understanding. Case study discussions in Prof. Nilanjan Sen’s classes were a great way to mould theoretical principles to solve problems in the finance world.

One of the highlights of his master’s experience was the seven-week term at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where he got to expand his knowledge, learn from great faculty and apply it to real life scenarios in the trading world. Courses and assignments at CMU like the Interest rate derivatives course case study as final exam, live trading, industry experiences shared by the Energy Derivatives visiting professor were invaluable. Prasad was thrilled to earn a gold medal during the CMU semester!

Reflecting on his academic journey, Prasad feels the MFE programme has strengthened his knowledge of financial markets, and instilled confidence to push forward in his new career as a trader. Today, he is excited about writing algorithms for his own strategies and coming up with his own ideas. He believes that for future applicants to get the most out of the programme it is important that they really understand their short term and long term professional goals.

To learn more about the MSc Financial Engineering programme, please visit our website.