Hi traders, I am a college student interested in a career in algotrading. I want to apply to some internships in the US and the EU but being in a top school in a developing country makes it really hard to establish connections and being accepted for an internship. I have been reading a lot of books and papers about testing algo strategies, risk management and market microstructure. I also built a basic backtesting program using R with packages like quantstrat, PortfolioAnalytics. I am now on the path to build a more capable platform using Python with paper trading capabilities using a free live data provider based on a web scraper utilizing Yahoo or Google Finance. Coming to the purpose of the post, I wanted to ask you guys whether the aforementioned experience with algotrading is enough to impress any quantitative hedge fund or proprietary trading hirers? In addition to that, if you were a hirer yourself, what might you impressed by if you saw it on a CV or a cover letter? I will try to learn and apply them to my trading strategy development methodology. Any help is deeply appreciated, thanks.
I would like to tell you how I landed a job as a trader for one of the largest traders in the world. A mutual trader knew the both of us and said we should meet but I was determined to trade for myself and not work for anyone. One of the big traders broker called me one day and we chatted, he ask me to call in some of my trades to him. I did and after a few weeks right in the middle of a losing trade, I just stopped calling and lost interest. The broker called me and asked if the position had changed and I said yea just now. He hung up on me and called back to set up an face to face meeting. They had been actually trading my signals and three weeks later I was offered 1mm in a trade account to trade. Not impressed enough? I am a high school drop out. MB PS I will help you out further - make yourself valuable - you can go where you want. If you have no value then better start developing some skills of some sort. Passion is the key to effortlessly developing skills. Passion is contagious people are attracted to it, so are you passionate about trading or needing a job? You have the ear of one of the foremost algo traders in the world right here and now.
Thanks for the very informative answer. It was just demo trading for me till now, but I will start building a track record using an account in a broker in my country. I have the passion, now I know what to do to prove it. If you don't mind me asking, are you a discretionary or a quantitative trader?
Also check out quantstart, quantnet and nuclear phynance. That should be enough to guide you to your goal.
I just went through this process myself. I got an internship at an entity much like the one you seem to want to be in for this year. A couple notes: - very difficult if you don't have a STEM major or two a from a top school. - probability is probably the most important math class that applies here, followed by linear algebra. Just know the most important formulas. Permutations, combinations, bayes rule, sum 1+,...,+n mentally, mental two digit arithmetic...I can't stress that one enough. I got caught unprepared there and it cost me. Some will ask questions like "explain linear programming" and stuff like that. Just roll with the punches and talk them through stuff to the best of your abilities. That one you should know honestly, but if you don't know one, just be cool about it and don't show frustration. - software development skills are very important. R is good, but they want OOP and ideally memory management understanding. You'll need to have a strong grasp of data structures and algorithms. Trees, Hashmaps, binary search, sorts, queues, stacks, linked lists...these are must knows. You should know the basic interview questions that come up in every programming interview: - reverse this linked list - write a tree class - how do you make a queue out of two stacks, vice versa - abstract class vs interface - what is polymorphism - Big O/relevant best case run times for sorts and common operations for each data structure above. - know your resume. They'll test you against stuff on there. - know the first few chapters of Hull/Natenberg/Sinclair...whatever for options market making firms. They'll have you play trading games that this will be a real leg up for. - Know the general idea of market making. - brainteasers are an unfortunate reality. Don't start taking interviews until you're ready as there really aren't that many employers in this field and not all of them give second looks. I took a few too early and didn't even make it past the first round. - realize you're competing with really smart kids. I didn't get the first two jobs I got to final round interviews for and a lot of my friends needed five tries or are still trying. Get to know the frustration of flying around and doing interviews that never materialize into jobs. It's deadly competitive. Putnam competition winners, kids that could easily go on to PhDs or jobs at the top of the tech industry...the smartest kids you know will strike out at a lot of these places. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. I sound fatalistic, but this is just the truth. - it's very difficult to get a company in the US to sponsor you for a visa. Try to get authorized to work here...I don't really know anything about that I'm afraid. Best of luck. PM me for more details and specifics on specific firms if you need more info. I have a lot of friends doing these interviews as well.