Hi All,I am a newbie at this forum. I read many topics here and found people really helpful so decided to join.I am going to join ITG(Investment Technology Group) for Summer internship as Technology Summer intern. This internship is not particularly in Algo trading and is more general in nature. However, as ITG is major player in Algo trading, I hope if given a full time offer, I may go to Algo trading side with programming role. (Please comment if you don't agree)I have been exploring a lot for Algo trading and want to know how much is the difference between algo strategies designing side and their implementation side. I believe, I'll be mainly involved with implementation and no algo strategies designing/modeling at all. As most of the Algo trading jobs demand very good skills in programming language, how much is Algo implementation role different from developing Algo strategies?I want to remain more open towards any role in Algo trading. Do you think if I work in Algo implementation for 1-2 years, working on Algo strategies(like Quants do) will become a far fetched dream to me?In sum, I need specific career guidance in Algo trading industry, given my current internship and role. To mention, I have years of programming exp and am very comfortable in programming.I really need this advice before internship. Thanks.

Any expert advice ??

I'm not an expert on ITG, butr here's a few tips...The first goal is to impress the people you get put with, that's a mix of getting on with them, but more importantly demonstrating that you're smart and can actually do things.They already suspect you're smart else you wouldn't have got the internship, but you need to deliver on that promise.You say you're very comfortable in programming which is good, just so long as you haven't stayed too much in a comfort zone...You need to find out what language they mostly work in and if you can't find out (do try hard) then assume C++ and start honing your skills there.That will help you even if the ITG option doesn't expire in the money.

QuoteOriginally posted by: DominicConnorI'm not an expert on ITG, butr here's a few tips...The first goal is to impress the people you get put with, that's a mix of getting on with them, but more importantly demonstrating that you're smart and can actually do things.They already suspect you're smart else you wouldn't have got the internship, but you need to deliver on that promise.You say you're very comfortable in programming which is good, just so long as you haven't stayed too much in a comfort zone...You need to find out what language they mostly work in and if you can't find out (do try hard) then assume C++ and start honing your skills there.That will help you even if the ITG option doesn't expire in the money.Thanks a lot for suggestions. Actually I am more curious to know the careers Algo trading "implementation" vs Algo trading "Strategies development". Do all the firms have different teams for implementation and strategies development or is it that firms have mix and match roles?

It depends entirely on the team/company.

Hansi is right, but very roughly, the larger the firm the more separate the functions which oftend leads to the unintuitive result that a smaller firm will be better to work for.That seems to apply, regardless of your own personal skills mix, though of course it is worse for those bringing technical skills to the party.Larger, more segmented groups mean that individuals understand less about how the system works, which can be an explicit goal of the separation since this is an especially secretive area of the business.Also of course it leads to less efficient systems.There are N broad categories of role...Implementation : focuses on the technology and as above in some cases you will be hassled if you start being inquisitive about the rest of the platform.Strategy development: Turning ideas into things that actually make money and the continual maintenance of strategies to keep them in line with market evolution, some code tweakingCustom IT : Looking after the tick databases and generally humping data around, generally supporting specialist tools and developing s/w for the project, this sounds good and can be interesting but is on average the least well paid of all these roles.Research : The obvious part of that is trawling through data, spotting opportunities, but includes things like market impact modelling, optimisations of various kinds, examining at a very detailed level the technology of the counterparties. These are segmented again, partly because few people know both microstructure and packet sniffing, but again because of secrecy.The tole of traders is often a mix of project management, research and politically supported rent seeking.

Thanks Hansi and DominicConnor.I understand the point. Fortunately, I am also doing an internship in a prop-trading firm, JC Trading Chicago which relies mainly on manual trading. I need to do some research and exploration of algo trading for the firm. I hope I'll get to know algo trading strategies during this internship(this is mainly independent work with time to time guidance from floor traders), then can work more into implementation in ITG.QuoteOriginally posted by: DominicConnorHansi is right, but very roughly, the larger the firm the more separate the functions which oftend leads to the unintuitive result that a smaller firm will be better to work for.That seems to apply, regardless of your own personal skills mix, though of course it is worse for those bringing technical skills to the party.Larger, more segmented groups mean that individuals understand less about how the system works, which can be an explicit goal of the separation since this is an especially secretive area of the business.Also of course it leads to less efficient systems.There are N broad categories of role...Implementation : focuses on the technology and as above in some cases you will be hassled if you start being inquisitive about the rest of the platform.Strategy development: Turning ideas into things that actually make money and the continual maintenance of strategies to keep them in line with market evolution, some code tweakingCustom IT : Looking after the tick databases and generally humping data around, generally supporting specialist tools and developing s/w for the project, this sounds good and can be interesting but is on average the least well paid of all these roles.Research : The obvious part of that is trawling through data, spotting opportunities, but includes things like market impact modelling, optimisations of various kinds, examining at a very detailed level the technology of the counterparties. These are segmented again, partly because few people know both microstructure and packet sniffing, but again because of secrecy.The tole of traders is often a mix of project management, research and politically supported rent seeking.