Where can I learn the very basics of Finance and Trading?
I will not have time to study these fundamentally or from first principles so I only want to learn the very basics (like what's a market maker, order book, etc.) -- just enough to be able to answer basic questions for Trading firms like Citadel, Jane Street, Jump Trading, etc. (Applying for an SWE role but sometimes they ask questions like these to assess how interested the candidates are). Specifically interested in short books (e.g. <20 books) or articles which assume (please no Investopedia, each article has 50 terms that I don't know) no prior knowledge. I watched Bloomberg's Market Concept but it's not very trading-specidic, misses some basics like how exchanges work, how trades are made using order books, and skips over some important details. (Also assumes some prior knowledge so a lot of the assumptions I don't understand). TC: not enough #interview #citadel #janestreet #trading #finance
Very simple. Buy QQQ and or SPY for the rest of your life and don't do anything else unless you enjoy losing money.
ime for swe roles I've never been asked about finance concepts. Being a good SWE is important enough.
Thanks! Interviewing with Optiver soon, may I PM you? :)
Yes sure
Investopedia has numerous resources.
I don’t think we ask finance questions at all. We hire lots of devs who don’t care about finance at all.
Thank you! Interviewing with Jane Street soon, may I PM you? :)
Sure
I have never asked a finance question in an swe interview and I don't know anyone else who has either. Unless you're interviewing for a role where some business knowledge is expected (ie, QR or trading) or you have relevant work experience, we don't expect you to know this.
Thank you! I am interviewing with Citadel soon, may I PM you? :)
I got asked personal questions like do I trade in my free time 😂. I was like bruh I'm a student, I have no money.
A book called “Blue Chip Kids” is a good resource. Goes over a lot of the basics and some more intermediate concepts.
Thanks for the recommendation! It seems to be 250 pages long so I doubt I will have time to read them during my interview period :(