Da Vinci Derivatives

I have an interview for a graduate trader position (Amsterdam Office) with Da Vinci Derivatives next week after passing their online test. I was hoping I could get some more information about the firm.

From what I understand, they have not been around as long as the other Dutch Market makers (Optiver, IMC, Flow Traders). However does anyone know how Da Vinci compares to these other firms with regards to the following:

1) WLB
2) Starting compensation
3) Career Progression
4) Bonus structure
5) Retention rates

Also, Da Vinci mentioned they are also involved in position taking. Am I correct in assuming this means the firm is also involved in directional trading strategies on top of their MM activity?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 
Most Helpful

Hi there,

For the graduate trader programme, I would say the comments on glassdoor regarding the online assessment are very accurate in terms of what the test was like.Each question is allocated 1 or 2 marks, you can't return to a previous question and you get negatively marked 25% of the total mark allocation for each question incorrectly answered (not sure how questions get marked if you run out of time to answer the later questions).

I think focusing more on getting each question attempted correct (or an educated estimate) instead of trying to rush to answer all questions is the best strategy.

Not sure if there are any websites that can prep you for their test sadly.Honestly I didn't do any prep and thought it went badly, I only got to question 38 out of 60 when the timer ran out (I'm sure I got a couple incorrect, the time runs out faster than you think when doing this test) and was so sure I would get rejected, but got a HR interview invitation immediately after finishing the test.

I would say reading up on the comments on glassdoor to see if there are any quick mental tricks to estimate a complex mental math problem, for example:

X = (1.1)^5, Y = (2.25)^0.5, is:

X  X=Y

X>Y

My strategy for this is knowing (2.25)^0.5=1.5 and (1.1)^5=1.61051 (from using Pascal's triangle technique). This was just one example however most of the questions do test some niche mental math tricks to get the correct answers quickly.

I'm sure glassdoor would be able to provide more information on this, as well as more examples however you do get some weird non-numerical questions, for example:

X=Number of teslas sold to date, Y=Number of Coca-Cola products consumed globally per day, is:

X  X=Y

X>Y

The above was a question that came up in my test, I think I chose X>Y but I think with these questions you are better off guessing on of the inequalities to save time for other questions and I assumed it was unlikely these would be exactly equal which was the logic I applied to similar questions.

Outside of this, make sure you are very well rested with good WiFi and no distractions. I'm really sorry I can't offer more advice, honestly this is the first test of its kind that I've done and really didn't expect to pass first time. I'm guessing since I didn't answer all questions that the pass mark probably isn't too high for this test compared to other MM firms. Hope this helps.

 

With regards to my answer above, there was some technical issues with mentioning the example questions.

After mentioning what X and Y represent, my answer was supposed to show in writing whether X is equal, greater or less than Y as 3 options. However after typing this out 3 times it kept messing up, apologies about this as it probably looks a bit confusing without this explanation for those of you who don't know what format the firm's screening test looks like in advance.

 

Ignore the above reply to the original answer, after sending the reply the original answer had somehow changed back to what it should have shown in the first place haha

 

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