Anyone hear of Flow traders/Arbitrage Q as well

Hi,

I never heard anyone talk about or mention this firm flow traders. They seem to be an arbitrage firm headquartered in the Netherlands with offices in New York and elsewhere. They advertised a position on my alma mater's career center, which is a prestigious school so for the most part tend to be non bllsht firms.

I believe they pay a salary in addition to commission and there is a two month training period. Im uncomfortable that I cannot find much information about them on the internet, and never heard them mentioned in this forum.

I dont really care about their perceived "prestige" as long as I learn a lot, there is good professional opportunity and the pay is right. I just would love to know if anyone has ever heard of them and what you have to asy.

Again the firm is called Flow Traders.

thanks

PS.

I am familiar with flow trading from an ibank and prop trading, but how lucrative or how much potential is there in arbitrage trading? Is there as much potential as in prop trading?

 
Best Response

I have never worked there but they used to be quite a regular client of ours on commodities desk (BB). Won't give details about the kind of trades they are doing but they do decent size, not huge. They seem to be as you said -- arb shop, not too fancy (at least not with us). The big upside I would see from working with them is the Amsterdam location if you can manage to get a position there rather than the US offices.

 

not well known, certainly not respected on the street. stick with respected US firms that do more than market making - they will survive in the long term. only "edge" if you can call it that that Flow traders has at the moment is the fact that the big boys are leaving the ETF crumbs on the table for the moment for Flow to pick up. The firm is a market maker, not really a trader in a conventional sense of it. hope it helps!

 

had a chat with recruiter this morning, wonder if its the same one you used. his words, Flow Traders is a huge player in Europe, Asia office sucks with high employee turnover, and NYC is brand new.
i also went through Optiver's final tests and didnt make the final cut.

 

I was talking to probably the same head hunters as you.. i got past the first.. second then third.. and they said OK! now you can meet the company and take the test... youre one of the best! blablabla...then i didnt hear from them for like a month and i send an email basically saying wtf?... id hear back a long time later.. please be patient!...wait another 2 weeks.. now im feeling uncomfortable emailing.. but im a little pissed off.. i keep playing email phone tag with them.. they finally tell me flow traders dropped the ball and they are closed for recruiting for a little.. but when they open again ill be in there first....

I lost interest in them quickly, and only really emailed them back because i was pretty annoyed with the unprofessionalism.. didnt like how they treated the head hunter and how the head hunter treated me... i apologize but i consider them a joke and unprofessional both in their process and from my due diligence..if I ever do get a call back to start the 5th/6th/7th....infinite round of nonsense...ill be sure to return the favor..

A word of advice for someone who "excelled" in their process.. either flow traders itself, the head hunter or both completely suck.. stay away.. its a waste of time.. literally

 

Optiver was much more professional in saying no thanks. the only interest i potentially had in flow traders was their asia offices, but after what i was told by recruiter i am not even going to waste my time.

 

It is likely I was the hiring manager for dekal22x and I believe I recall what happened. I considered dekal22x to be a strong candidate, but compared to other strong candidates we felt more uncertain about the likelihood of his future success in our company. I would think if hiring needs would have been more urgent we would have made him an offer.

Since the US office was still very much in a start-up phase, (I believe actual trading had just started at the time.), it was difficult to estimate our exact hiring needs. That was one reason why we (me and the recruiter) may have put him on hold.

Another thing to bear in mind is that many start-ups do not have a dedicated HR person or an candidate tracking system, while there is usually a lot going on. Hence, it is more likely to have some communication failure between a hiring manager and a recruiter or candidate than in a more established firm. Quiet frankly, although the candidate may have thought everyday about this potential job offer, I had more things on my mind and this one slipped through the cracks.

 
INSIDERINFO:
The real deal...

Flow Traders is the real deal and they will be making a significant impact in the US in the near future. Given the opportunity to work with this firm, you should put it at the top of your list.

not to be an a..hole or anything, but thats a bold statement.

how are you going to compete with 1000 or so shops already churning on nyse and cme? HFT and market making space is hundred times more competitive in the US than in EU.

 

Flow is just another hft trading firm, unless they have brilliant people and a novel approach they will not survive long term. However, apparently they were this year one of the top mm on euronext and xetra...

 

Flow Traders is not a HFT trading firm, they are off exchange market makers When transaction tax passes through they will be done along with all HFT volume churners. This is probably the worst area of finance where new graduates should be looking to start new careers.

There is nothing brilliant about them, bunch of former floor traders just like all the other Dutch electronic market making firms out there, All Options, Tibra, IMC , Optiver and others.

The real talent with PHDs in nuclear physics works at DeShaw, Renaissance, Citadel and Getco.

 

did more research on these guys.

apparently they are heavy into ETFs = biggest bubble since dot.coms

I cant see how someone going for fraction of pennies is going to survive in the future, all of them are trading amongst themselves now = cannabalization and survival of the fittest.

95% of all HFT firms will be gone in 2 years = all PHDs will go back to more productive professions

 

not a great company. I interviewed with them. They are extremely unprofessional. It took them around 1-2 weeks just to reply to your email. 1st round : phone interview. 3 weeks later (numerical test), another 3 weeks, they said we are no longer recruiting.

Their NY office is small. I think only 7-10 people were there. Definitely not comparable to top prop shops such as FNY, CTC, and Jane Street.

 

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