What is Quantitative Analysis?

Quantitative analysis (QA) is a methodology that makes use of mathematical and statistical modeling and research in order to understand behavior. QA is used to express a given reality using numerical value and can be applied to measurement, performance, and valuation of different financial instruments. In finance, QA is used primarily to help predict the price of different financial instruments like derivatives, stocks, assets, and even entire economies. QA is also often used to predict changes in gross domestic product (GDP) for specific countries and to compile different financial data sets for certain regions around the world.