2027 Institutional Equity Strats Summer Associate Program (New York)

Institutional Equity Strats Summer Associate Program

The Institutional Equity Strats Summer Associate Program is an intensive 10-week program that provides Summer Associates the opportunity to work alongside full-time professionals on impactful, quantitative projects. Summer Associates will work within an assigned team for the entirety of the program.

The program includes senior strat speaker series, product area training, networking events, and community service. With individual coaching and continuous feedback, Summer Associates will gain insight into what a long-term career with the Firm entails.

Placement and Duration

An intensive 10-week program.

Training Program

The Summer will begin with a week-long introductory training program providing institutional context to the work Summer Associates will perform. Training includes market-knowledge training, finance workshops, coding, and product training. After the training week, Summer Associates will receive individualized, on-the-job training as they join their assigned desks and begin daily work and projects.

Summer Associates will have a direct manager and a program mentor, who will serve as key resources throughout the program.

Responsibilities

Morgan Stanley operates teams that require expertise in statistical analysis, applied mathematics, computer science, and computational finance. These teams support leading trading platforms, market making operations, and derivative structuring, pricing, and risk management. The mathematical problems in these areas are subtle, complex, and require a broad range of technical skills.

As a Summer Associate, you will leverage your technical expertise to address applied problems. Many of the applied problems and processes you will work on are still unsolved and are yet to be optimized.

Institutional Equity Strats focuses on enabling sales and trading to innovate and scale business activities using cutting-edge technologies and world-class infrastructure. Primary responsibilities include:

• Creation of data and analytical decision-making tools
• Conducting analysis and presenting research ideas
• Developing supporting frameworks and workflows
• Delivering valuation and risk management systems

Team Options

Summer Associates sit in one of the following three groups of Institutional Equity Strats. You may be selected to interview with multiple teams.

Derivatives

Multiple teams dedicated to Derivative businesses (Vanilla, Corporate, Exotic Derivatives, Quantitative Investment Strategies). Derivative Strats are responsible for implementing and supporting quantitative models used in pricing, risk management, and trading activity optimization.

Delta One

Businesses covering cash products (e.g., common stock, funds, and related assets), with a focus on enabling sales and trading to innovate and scale business activities using cutting-edge technologies and world-class infrastructure.

Primary responsibilities include creation of data and analytical decision-making tools, conducting analysis and presenting research ideas, developing supporting frameworks and workflows, and delivering valuation and risk management systems.

Quantitative Research

The Quantitative Research (QR) group designs, builds, and maintains the models that drive Morgan Stanley’s equity trading engines. The systems are used globally by both internal trading groups and clients of the firm. The team uses systematic, evidence-based approaches to understand how markets work and applies those insights in practice.

The team spans finance, econometrics, statistics, mathematics, computer science, and data science, and many team members are versed in multiple areas.

Qualifications and Skills

• Pursuing a PhD or a Master’s degree in Financial Engineering, Mathematics, Financial Math, Physics, Statistics, Engineering, Quantitative Finance, Computer Science, or another related quantitative field
• Completing your degree (including PhD defense, if applicable) between December 2027 and June 2028
• Excellent programming skills in C++, Java, Matlab, Python, R, or Scala
• Strong mathematical academic training
• Keen interest in financial markets
• Drive and desire to work in an intense, team-oriented environment
• Excellent decision-making abilities
• Strong communication skills

Application Process

• Deadline to Apply: Wednesday, October 14 at 11:59pm ET
• There will be two waves of application reviews; candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as ready.
• An online assessment is required for the application to be considered complete.
• Invitations for the online assessment will be sent to eligible candidates starting in early September.
• The online assessment is 1 hour.
• First-Round Interviews: conducted via Zoom starting in late September.
• Superdays: conducted via Zoom starting in early October.

If you have competing deadlines or questions regarding the application process, email qfcampusrecruiting@morganstanley.com.

Compensation

Expected base pay rates for the role will be between $72.12 and $84.14 per hour at the commencement of employment. Base pay, if hired, will be determined on an individualized basis and is only part of the total compensation package. Depending on the position, total compensation may also include commission earnings, incentive compensation, discretionary bonuses, other short and long-term incentive packages, and other Morgan Stanley sponsored benefit programs.