Big names in the field of HFT

These names are from my interview with a prop trading firm: Jump Trading, Hudson River, Citadel. Getco seems not to be doing well lately.


These are the HFT firms that lobby the US Congress:
http://www.traderslog.com/proprietarytradingfirms/
These are HFT lobby in the EU
Chopper Trading, LLC
Citadel Securities Europe Ltd.
DRW Investments (UK) Ltd
Flow Traders B.V.
Getco Europe Limited
Hudson River Trading Europe Ltd
IAT International Algorithmic Trading GmbH
IMC Trading B.V.
Jump Trading International Ltd
Knight Capital Europe Limited 
Mako Group
Optiver VOF
OSTC Limited
Quantlab Financial, LLC
RGM Trading Europe Limited
Ronin Trading UK LLP
RSJ a.s.
Spire Europe Limited
Sun Trading International Limited
Teza Technologies LLC
Tibra Trading Europe Limited
Tyler Capital Partners LLP
Virtu Financial LLC
XR Trading LLC

1. Some prop shop are market maker, meaning pay more attention on the order book. Some are price predictor, meaning trying to predict the price for the next 5 seconds.

1. The working environment at prop shop are super cool. When I walked in there was one guy in short and t-shirt going to take a shower. He just did gym I think. The guy who interviewed me surprised me. I ask him do you care about leadership skills soft skills bla boa? He said no. I said but at least one should be good with basic communication skills. He also answer no. All we care is how good you are with maths. I know it was a bit exacerbating, but that I felt warm in my heart hearing that some company don't bother asking question like "Tell me a time when you succeed to communicate effectively". This type of question reminds me of Lil Wayne song "Interviews are like confession get the fuck out of my dressing room confusing me with questions like Do you love this shit are you high right now...". 

1. Prop shop don't really require PhD level. Master is good enough. One thing, all the quant trader needs to code 8 hours a day. Half of the 30 people team are quant trader. Half are support role such as operation, connect to the exchange. 

1. Coolest thing about prop shop: There is no outside investor to please. It is probably the most merit-based place on earth. Bullshiting and politics are kept at a near 0 level. You lose 10k in a day they shut your trading program down and you starts next day. You do well, it is in you profit and loss. There is no Sale guy, no Structure guy, no separate quant and trader role, which brings us to the fifth point

1. Structure of a bank: Client -> Sales -> Structurer -> Trader <- Quant. Structure at a prop shop: Quant Trader <-> Exchange. That's it. For a hedge fund. Investors -> Sales -> Quant Trader. 

1. The office was very nice, has 360 degree view of the whole London. Equipments are like a 5 star hotel. Everything is supplied. I asked the interviewer what is the worst thing about working here. He say no worst thing. One thing is that you are independent. Like you're on your own. Something like that. 

1. As expected all the questions were technical. I have so much fun answering these, learning new things. Surprisingly they didn't ask me to rap, which is why they noticed my CV in the first place :). 

Attis Capital, Automated Trading Desk, Jane Street Capital, Knight Capital (acquired by Getco), Lime Brokerage, Renaissance Technologies, SXP Analytics, Tradebot Systems, Tradelink, Tradeworx, Virtu Financial, and Wolverine Trading, Bluefin Companies, Quantlab Financial


Allston Trading UK Limited

  

What I learn from the interview: