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If there is one comment that can send markets into a frenzy of activity it's talking about the need for interest rate rises. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen - who is also a former chair of the Federal Reserve - has done just that by mentioning the need for a potential interest rate hike in the near future. However, although her remarks certainly triggered some activity it wasn't quite as extreme as it could have been. While the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite took a dive the Dow Jones Industrial Average actually rose a bit. What's been highlighted as interesting by many commentators is the way that hedge funds have been 'extreme' in selling stocks, although this is something that was already under way even before Yellen made her comments about interest rates. Selling was focused mostly in areas that experienced a boom during the pandemic such as information technology and communications services. Whether it's Yellen's comments or not, whatever is specifically making hedge funds nervous right now will probably be revealed in the coming weeks.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on many different areas of our lives. Perhaps one that may not have been predictable is the effect it's had on the way that women in India are approaching the stock market. When India went into lockdown in March 2020 many people found themselves with a lot more time on their hands and, according to local stockbroking businesses, this has resulted in a rise in the number of female investors.

Bitcoin is an area of financial technology that continues to evolve, often outside of the parameters of historic expectations. Dogecoin is a prime example of the unusual ways in which such an emerging market can take off. It was established in 2013 as a joke but is now the sixth largest digital coin and has a total market value of $42 billion. The coin draws inspiration from the 'doge' memes and has recently hit a record high thanks to some serious celebrity endorsements on social media. With Elon Musk and Mark Cuban both recently tweeting in support of this meme-inspired currency, Dogecoin hit a record high of 45 cents in April.

We have reached a phase in finance where machines have no doubt become the dominant traders in markets such as London and New York. However, human beings are still very relevant and a new study has identified that emotion in particular could be a big factor in moving markets. The emotions in question are those revealed in the human speech of central bankers. Algorithms are already being used to parse the speech of key figures in banking, seeking out information in conversation and mostly looking for buy and sell cues.

This is a great time to be a quantitative analyst - even the impact of a global pandemic has barely slowed the demand for talented people. In fact, as a quaint recruiter we have noticed that many of our liquidity providing clients had one of their best years in decades in 2020, and expect this to continue throughout 2021. There is obvious resilience in this area of banking and financial services and there are two key skill sets that are likely to be in demand across the buyside and the sell side throughout the year. The first of these is portfolio construction/optimisation, which is being driven by a focus on creating novel portfolio construction and optimisation techniques now that uncorrelated alphas are proving increasingly hard to come by.

Bitcoin has hit a lot of headlines as its popularity has grown but recent events indicate that it's moving towards a much wider acceptance in the financial markets. In April 2021 bitcoin hit a record high of just under $65,000, which may prove to have been a landmark on its journey into the mainstream. This is just one of recent events that has fed more fuel to the bitcoin fire as increasing numbers of large companies, banks, investors and payment processors get on board. In February this year the car maker Tesla, for example, announced that it had bought $1.5 billion in bitcoin and also made a statement that those looking to purchase its cars would soon be able to pay using the cryptocurrency. In April 2021 the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc ended its Nasdaq debut valued at $86 billion, which is the largest listing yet for a crypto business.

Quantitative analysis is the use of mathematical, statistical and financial methods. Those looking for careers in the field are often quantitative analysts or more frequently termed, a quant. In general, quants tend to specialize in specific, career defining areas which include, derivative structuring or pricing, risk management, algorithmic trading and investment management. The occupation has often drawn similarities to those in industrial mathematics in other industries. For candidates able to search vast databases and identify patterns, such as correlations among liquid assets or price-movement patterns, (trend following or mean reversion) the quant sector is ideally suited. Additional roles also include, statistical arbitrage, quantitative investment management, algorithmic trading, and electronic market making.

Since 2004 the Selby Jennings Quantitative Analytics team has been a foundation of the success of Selby Jennings and the Phaidon International Group as a global organization. Thanks to 15 years of experience in recruiting quants at all levels, the team at Selby Jennings pride themselves on their best-in-class and unrivalled knowledge of the quant sector as well as a diverse client network. As a leading US quant recruiter, Selby Jennings' candidate database consists of over 400,000 professionals that work in quantitative roles ranging from derivative desk quants, modelers, developers, researchers to portfolio managers and quant traders.

As we make headway into 2021, we look back at 2020 which was arguably one of the most volatile and uncertain years in recent history. Interspersed by a global pandemic, social unrest and an unprecedentedly disruptive US election cycle it's not surprising that investors in risk assets have retreated in a meaningful way to the side-lines. Established in 2004, Selby Jennings have been a leading specialist recruitment agency for banking and financial services for more than 15 years. In this time, Selby Jennings have opened offices throughout the US enabling a mass elevation of services to clients and candidates integral to these markets.

When it comes to quantitative analytics some of the main takeaways to consider are; a quantitative analyst is a professional who uses quantitative methods to help companies make business and financial decisions. This also extends to the trading world, where quantitative analysts are in especially high demand. Risk management is a field of quantitative analysis that has grown exponentially since the financial crisis of 2008.