Has anyone on the forum had any experience with market making firms and/or willing to share some tips for a soon to be grad-school graduate (PhD in physics)? I'm looking seriously at market making as a first job out of school, and wondering how and what the average MM looks for and perhaps other suggestions for the first job. I really want to have a trading role and options are my interest, but I lack the usual quant background most of the forum seems to have. All of my QF has been from self-study as well as my programming (I'm an experimentalist and tend to build a lot until recently the experiments are done and getting into the analysis). I'm hoping to be finished at the beginning of the fall and looking for advice from some experienced ones. I already have a place I'm very interested at working and from the listings they offer, I think a PhD is a bit overkill. I'll leave this first brushing to the forum, get some thoughts and comments started.res

Just got back to check on things...sent you a reply PM...thanks

Uhm.. it seems that you're working for "experimental particle physics". Right?If you're working for the particle reconstruction using neural network, likelihood-method, kalman filter and so on or the trigger, you will be easy to jump to the market. It's dependent on your experiences while you're in Ph.D. I'm not sure how much they will care about your own study....

You are correct that a PHD in particle physics is a bit of overkill for options market making. The truth is that options market making is still a relatively insular community. When I got into this business well over a decade ago, the ONLY place to learn the ropes and become an options market maker was Chicago. If you wanted to trade equity or index options, you became an assistant trader on the CBOE and worked your way up. If you wanted to trade futures options, then you went to the CBOT or CME. That was it. The advent of electronic trading and the ISE have changed that somewhat. You are starting to see active market maker communities in other cities now, including NYC, Philadelphia, etc. However, the nerve center is still Chicago. If you are serious about getting into this business and want to train to become a market maker, then fly out to Chicago and apply to one of these firms:Wolverine TradingPeak 6Chicago Trading CompanySusquehannaThese firms have established training programs and are great places for novice market makers to cut their teeth in this business. Also, the realities of the business have changed so much over the past decade that it is no longer practical to train with a small market making firm, for the simple fact that they are vanishing rapidly. If you are going to be a successful liquidity provider in this dangerous climate, you need deep pockets and the ability to spread your risk across dozens, if not hundreds, of products. Large firms have that capability. ;Another thing to be aware of is that the nature of providing liquidity has changed. The largest market maker on all of the exchanges these days is not a market making firm. It's a hedge fund - Citadel. I have no idea if they offer training for new market makers, but my guess is no. They are playing a different ballgame than the other firms and they want to keep their voodoo to themselves. Just a few suggestions for you. Good luck with your new career.