What is Quantitative Finance? How does it differ from Finance?

Quantitative finance is a specialized area in finance. Similar to finance, quantitative finance covers the fundamental areas in finance, such as corporate finance, investment, portfolio management, fixed income securities, and derivatives. Beyond this basic training, the two areas offer students different paths of learning experience. While a finance student will take more courses in finance and economics, a quantitative finance student would focus on acquiring the mathematical, statistical, and programming techniques required to support financial decision making, such as development and valuation of financial assets, investment strategy, portfolio management, trading, and risk management of those decisions.