algorithmic trading

kefa · February 1st, 2006, 5:56 pm

hi all,i have an opportunity to get into algorithmic trading for a sell-side broker house.does anybody know how quant this area is?kefa

DominicConnor · February 1st, 2006, 7:17 pm

Can be extremely quant, the gang we're recruiting will be all PhDs doing hard things with signal processing and volatility surfaces.At the other end some systems are essentially real time technical analysis.As I suspect you've worked out quant systems are a better thing to get into. The skills you will pick up are more portable between jobs & firms. There is a trap of becoming an expert for the inhouse system, which is great until it stops being a money source.A key issue here is who you will be reporting to. If it's IT then you need to be very careful.

tags · November 14th, 2013, 6:49 pm

At a conference on (grain) trading I attended, one speaker argued that the era of algorithmic trading is now over citing several algo trading companies in Chicago that have made huge losses lately and other that just stopped their activity. I was surprised to hear that.What's the reality of the automated trading industry, today? Do we see fewer players as time goes by (the issue of industry maturing and concentrated apart, I mean) ? Is that specific to commodities (and more specifically grains)? Thank you.

Hansi · November 14th, 2013, 7:08 pm

The barrier to entry has gone up a lot both in terms of hardware and expertise needed to seen any profit as the market profits are controlled by the few giants that are well established in terms of hardware, software, expertise and capital to face more and more regulatory issues. But it depends on the asset class, there are still some smaller places that can still make money, question is for how much longer.Most of the smaller shops I know of that were started in the 2008-2009 era; when I was looking into whether I should join the scene are gone.