I am getting calls from HHs offering jobs on this thing (big and startup HFs). Why the hiring spree on this area, is it a trend toward systematic trading, or just a temporary bubble given everything else is in pain?

I had the same call, in position for market risk in london... funny thing is i work in Middle East. I think HHs are trying to keep there jobs now... or / and making cold call to show there reporting manager....LOLUnless they really serious.

Lots and lots of equity volatility. There are huge profits to be made when it becomes normal for the Dow to go up and down 500 points in one day.Take a deep breath, try to keep your wits, and think about what is going on. Now before everyone has figured out what the heck is going on is the time to make vast sums of money if you can figure out what is happening before the other guy. The news media is always a day late and a dollar short.

Sure, but you don't need a bunch of quants and computers to be long vol, do you?I guess HFs and trading outfits are trying to capitalize on the flood of people let go from bank's prop desks, both big and small. Dominic, any thoughts on this?

It's not just being long vol - when the stock market panics, dynamics of vol become a lot easier to predict, and you can make a _lot_ of money intraday, being short or long as the situation warrants. This however requires your market price fitting setup (vol surfaces etc) to be very robust, to not be broken by the market dislocations, otherwise you'll lose more money than you make, because of acting on bad price feeds. (Yes, I'm working in a group that does that kind of trading). Unfortunately, by the time all the johny-come-latelies that are building a team now get to market, they'll probably be crowding each other so much that it'll be hard for them to make money - and the older groups will probably switch to making money off _them_ .