TransMarket Group: culture of firm

Can anyone out there comment on the CULTURE of this firm ? I've done a lot of research on both this site and the web, and I can tell you everything about the company on a technical basis, however, I know virtually nothing about one of the most important aspects of deciding where one ultimately launches his/her career, and that is what is it's CULTURE is like. Can anyone please comment on anything they know about this or may have heard through a friend ? Are the people laid back ? Are the traders close on a personal level with each other ? What are the relations between traders and management like ? Are there any particular personality traits that seem to run common throughout the firm (i.e. Are they more inclined to have been members of the Math Club in college, or is it more like a locker room full of BSD jocks who happen to know their shit when it comes to the markets, or a combination of both?). This is very important to me, and I have an interview coming up with them on Monday. Any info would be helpful ... Thank you

 
Best Response

I have several close friends that work there. Hopefully this helps.

They are one of the best prop firms out there, and are rapidly expanding. My understanding is their new comp structure (avg to lower salary but very high bonus) and training programs are among the best in the business. It is quietly becoming a giant.

TransMarket Group has went through a lot of changes in the past few years. They have changed from a point and click prop shop to a quantitative modeling prop shop. They are very math intensive.

Their hiring practices are among the most competitive in any company in any industry. Depending on the position you are interviewing for you will spend 15-20 hours worth of time interviewing. If you are considering working there make sure you are an expert in whatever you majored in because they will test you on it. They do not expect everyone to be a stud at every subject, but you better have a sound understanding of upper level math and finance. In addition programming skills are becoming required.

The majority of the entry level employees have masters degrees from the top financial engineering\computer science\math\finance programs (Chicago, NYU, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, MIT). Several even have PhD's. This is not to say if you didn't go to a top program or don't have an advanced degree they won't take you. My understanding is they give almost everyone a chance as long as your skills match their needs.

As far as the experienced hires, they come from top firms like Citadel, D.E. Shaw, Goldman Sachs,Spot, Jump, Allston, etc. Typically all employees have proven themselves professionally as well as academically.

As far as the rest of the culture, it is a meritocracy. My understanding is everyone has been happy with their bonuses the past several years. They are pretty flat, and allow everyone at the firm to talk to anyone. In addition, everyone has the chance to contribute from the day they are hired. This is pretty different from most prop shops.

Everyone works hard, and plays hard. Employees average 50-60 hour work weeks, rarely more. In addition, they are required to constantly read and understand what is going on in the world. They would do this anyway though. They tend to take a good amount of vacation, which is rare in the business. They do a lot of fun corporate events ranging from ski trips to sponsoring sporting event tickets. In addition, they provide breakfast, lunch, and several other perks. Everyone there is pretty tight knit and hang out outside of work on a regular basis.

I hope this helps. Feel free to PM me with any further questions. I would be more than happy to ask my friends any specific questions you have.

-Chicagoproptrader
 

can vouch for everything said above to describe the very difficult interview process had 5 phone interviews ( with one focusing on the meaning of life) two written tests as well before going to the office There it was an all day thing (meeting something like 12 or 13 traders) ray cahnman and then finally the CEO if they like you they'll take you out to dinner after that with a few of the senior guys,,,gets really quantitative as the CEO is former aardvark which was very quantitative---bulls season tix for the firm and ski trip to Vail... expanding heavily in commodities,alas didnt get an offer though seems like a great place to work

IVY for Life
 

I have an interview for a trader intern with TransMarket very soon (yes, I know it's quite late but it seems they are still recruiting). Can anyone give me tips on what to expect on the interview? I've searched some questions up on glassdoor and there weren't too many. I've been practicing basic math, probability, brainteasers, etc but wasn't sure if I need to be more technically aware (I read somewhere I'm going to be given hard derivative questions, but I heard it was for a full time position and wasn't sure if as an intern candidate, I'd be tested on this).

Thanks in advance!

 

I'm willing to bet my life that chicagoproptrader works in HR at transmarket group and created an account just to write that post.

They are a decent shop but was never one of the best prop firms out there. They have tried to beef up on the quant trading side (like everybody else) but have not been that successful. Transmarket's bread and butter for many years was fixed income futures, but the last few years have been very cruel for them. I seriously doubt that they are doing better than in previous years since not even getco/jump/drw can claim that. Virtually every prop shop i've interviewed at, along with those where i know people, are doing worse than previous years and have been cutting down on headcount.

 
Brady4MVP:
I'm willing to bet my life that chicagoproptrader works in HR at transmarket group and created an account just to write that post.

They are a decent shop but was never one of the best prop firms out there. They have tried to beef up on the quant trading side (like everybody else) but have not been that successful. Transmarket's bread and butter for many years was fixed income futures, but the last few years have been very cruel for them. I seriously doubt that they are doing better than in previous years since not even getco/jump/drw can claim that. Virtually every prop shop i've interviewed at, along with those where i know people, are doing worse than previous years and have been cutting down on headcount.

I don't think they have an active HR department... When I interviewed with them, the trader himself emailed me and scheduled a phone interview

 

Pure prop shop they do not make markets from what I understand. I believe last year they merged with a company called ardvark trading. I interviewed there out of undergrad and did well but got dinged. Interview is more quant like than most shops in chicago. PM me if you have specific questions.

 

They did merge with Aardvark about 8 months ago. TMG was restructured after having around 100 traders and they fired about 60 of them and about another 20 quit during this process within less than 1 year time span. They are still one of the bigger players in the Eurodollar markets because of Ray Cahnman. You can PM me with specific questions.

 

Very good group, owned by the legendary Ray Cahnman. Spread traders by and large. Active in pretty much every major fixed income futures market and cash market in the world. Also trade a fair amount in equities, though mostly on a spread basis.

The guy that's running the show now (I forget his name) is a total dick though.

Apart from that, good firm, has been in the market just about forever and is probably the number one spreader shop. Cahnman is about as good as they get.

EDIT: this is copied and pasted directly from here. I am a shameless troll. http://nuclearphynance.com/Show%20Post.aspx?PostIDKey=23109

 

I had a basic talk with those guys at the singapore office(not even a proper interview), but haven't heard yet. want to get into prop trading as i already have 2 yrs exp in trading crude oil futures. but did the stupid mistake of leaving that and coming here for my studies. Know any Asian prop trading groups that may be recruiting?

 

I recall reading about this firm in Trader Monthly's (now defunct) 30 under 30 list in 2006.

Darren Petterson Age: 30 Firm: TransMarket Group City: Chicago Trades: Yield curve

As a wide receiver on the 1997 national-champion University of Michigan football team, Petterson learned how to stay focused on the ball while ignoring the guys trying to run him over. This skill served him well on the floor of the CBOT. Now trading by screen -- he trades eurodollar futures, mainly the red and green packs, as well as Treasury bond futures -- Petterson isn't afraid to take contrarian positions when naysayers abound. "When I started playing football at Michigan, I was a walk-on," he says with a shrug, "and I had everyone telling me 'You can't do it.'" But despite the steep odds against a walk-on making the team, Petterson busted his ass -- and two years later, he was playing. "I just got good at ignoring what people think," he says.

After college, he joined TransMarket Group in Chicago, becoming the first of four Petterson brothers to successfully trade for the firm. He spent time under the tutelage of TransMarket chairman Ray Cahnman before heading out to trade Treasury futures for his own account, successfully exploiting arbitrage opportunities in the early days of electronic trading. "Ray had a tremendous influence on me," Petterson says. "He's the ultimate mentor. Before I came in, he'd take people under his wing all the time, but he had decided he was too old for it. Then he decided to take one last chance -- on me."

In 2001, Petterson bought an associate seat on the CBOT. He has since enjoyed both a 1,600 percent run-up in the seat's value and consistent seven-figure trading profits.

While his success has enabled him to buy a 4,500-square-foot home in Chicago's trendy Wrigleyville neighborhood and a scenic lake house in southwestern Michigan not far from his hometown of Flint, the walk-on Wolverine seems prouder of the fact that he has been able to follow in the footsteps of Cahnman and mentor other traders.

"My youngest brother was the first one to get in, and he started to do well," Petterson says. "Then my other brothers said, 'It looks like you guys are having fun -- we want to try this out.' So from there, I took some of their friends in and taught them how to trade, too. Now I've brought six people into the business."

access_nash:
Hi guys

Can anyone tell me abt a prop trading firm called TransMarket Group LLC? Its based in Chicago and a few other places like Singapore, Spain, India, Australia, etc. Their website doesn't say much and they asked me to know more abt what they do before the interview. Anyone who is working there or has friends in any of it's offices?

 

they're a good market making prop shop. interview is 3-4 rounds i believe. pretty quantitatively focused.

the interviews cover, not in exact order - 1. brain teasers/aptitude test, 2. personality/suitability test, 3. industry specific knowledge - yield curves, eurodollars, derivatives (the greeks), contango, backwardation, etc., and maybe a final interview to meet ppl in the office.

 
DrSatisfaction:
they're a good market making prop shop. interview is 3-4 rounds i believe. pretty quantitatively focused.

the interviews cover, not in exact order - 1. brain teasers/aptitude test, 2. personality/suitability test, 3. industry specific knowledge - yield curves, eurodollars, derivatives (the greeks), contango, backwardation, etc., and maybe a final interview to meet ppl in the office.

I had no idea transmarket was this quantitative. Any idea what their compensation is like?

 

In respect to most trading firm, they aren't very quantative at all. First round used to be all personality and the 2nd round was more personality/suitability in addition to standard logic and math tests. Simple 2 round process. I know they are not hiring traders and aren't planning to in the new future. They got hit pretty hard this past year. They are in the process of getting a new CEO so alot of things will change in their future. Compensation and splits would be similar to Gelber and Trillium.

 

They just hosted a bunch of the students from my program (Carnegie Mellon's Masters in Computational Finance) and their internship sounded pretty awesome. Can anyone give some more first hand insight? We got to chat with alumni, but I am interested in hearing a bit more feedback. I am currently in the interview process (very grueling).

They gave us a presentation, then let us sit with some CMU alumni on the desk. Below are my notes from the presentation:

The internship lasts a minimum of 8 weeks, although most interns elect to stay longer

They have a combination of classroom instruction\exercises and real world on the desk training.

Classroom- Roughly 2-3 hours per day are spent in a classroom. Classes\Case studies are taught by the CEO, partners, the chairman of the company, and various MD\VP level employees. Several hours worth of assignments (Reading and hw), quizzes\tests, and group projects are assigned each week. Once a foundation is built, they teach you exactly how they model\trade with the end goal of preparing you to be a full time employee.

On the Desk- The rest of the time is spent on the desk. You are mentored by a junior level and a senior level employee. The junior level employee helps you understand the little details, explains what the full time job would be like, and does a good job immersing you into the culture of the firm and Chicago. He\She will most likely be the one that shows you Chicago on a regular basis. The senior level employee spends a couple hours with you each day teaching you the ins\outs of trading\trade logic\software. They assign you projects (short term\medium term\long term) and are the ones who are really immersed in your progress. The majority of the work is fine tuning existing strategies, but a good portion is also spent on helping develop\design\build new strategies. It sounds like in the past there have been interns who have presented a trade idea and the firm accepted it. This does not happen at the intern level anywhere else. At all the other trading firms I visited, it seems like they do not even listen to your ideas until you are couple years in. It sounds like there is very little if any standard intern work. The presenter made a joke that the interns have to get coffee when the senior level employees play credit card roulette everyday. Outside of getting coffee once a day, it sounds like a meaningful experience.

In addition to learning, it sounds like they really care about you enjoying the summer. They take every intern out about once a week\ever other week on various events. Past events have included renting a movie theater out, a clam bake, poker night (winner gets 2 tickets to lolapaloza or the event of their choice), cubs\sox games, golf outing, steak night, etc. On top of this, a lot of the senior level guys will take everyone out for drinks\dinner and host various events. Lastly, they have roughly a weekly bbq on their patio (which has an awesome view of the willis tower) where they play various games.

It sounds like the vast majority of interns receive offers, and everyone typically accepts the offers. They have room to give everyone an offer though. The majority of their intern class comes from top masters programs, with some undergraduate interns. It sounds like the undergrad interns are typically from UChicago or Northwestern (work during school year) as well as Illinois, MIT, and CMU. The grad school are CMU, Columbia, Cornell, Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, Georgia Tech, and Princeton.

They do periodic reviews, exams, and an internship ending review that determine if you get an offer or not.

Out of all the other trading firms\hedge funds\asset management firms we visited this one was by far the best. The only negative thing I can say about them is they are not as into options as some of the other firms.

As mentioned, if anyone can provide me with first hand info that would be great.

 

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