I’m fresh out of school and joining a FAANG in a month or so, hoping to learn a lot and become a better engineer. However, a big side passion of mine is learning about and working with the stock market. I’d love to try to get into the established prop shops in order to combine my software skills with my finance interest (Citadel, SIG, DRW, Optiver, etc.). I could definitely see myself moving to Chicago eventually where most of them are based out of (or Philly for SIG) and wanted to see if anyone could share their experiences and what would be expected out of a software dev there. Thanks!
I see two paths. 1) dev for internal processes and 2) dev for predictive trading. If you have little experience with technical analysis, know you will be competing with physics and math phDs. Dev for trading systems pays much more but is extremely competitive. You would essentially be the brains behind a hedge fund algo... a quant. Nevermind that 80% of funds underperform the S&P. The commissions pay the bills. Note that financial advisory firms will often have small groups of advisors here and there that run their own fund for their high end clients. This is a better starting point, IMO, though you will likely need to demo your own system and clearly show profitability over time to gain trust. Collective2 may be a good way to gain entry as well... https://trade.collective2.com In money management it is common to work for 20 or 30 years to achieve quant status with a CTA designation.
working as a swe at sig isn’t a great job. my friend interned there and was rather negative about it. you play a support role for the traders and build tools for them to do their work
+1 my offer at SIG was even lower than indeed which itself doesn't pay that well
Basically you want to be at the top of the food chain in whichever industry you’re in. That means software engineering at a tech company or trader at a prop trading firm.
Gotta go Citadel, HRT, Jane, Tower, or Jump these days to make any meaningful impact. The industry has consolidated like 75pct since 2009
I think you missed DE Shaw. And isn't DRW also decent?
Learn c++ and python
Any Math Olympiad medals or HYPSM degree with honors?
Top 10 USNWR BS and MS (4+1 program), 3.7 GPA. No math competition accolades under my belt 😅
Actually you’re probably fine. I didn’t see the software engineering interest. I assumed trader.