Final year maths undergraduate seeking London prop position
Although this is my first post, I've been a lurker here for 5+ years.
I'm in my last year studying mathematics at one of Oxbridge as an undergraduate, looking to apply in London for full time positions as (1) a junior trader at a proprietary firm (not arcade), or, failing that, (2) an analyst in any financial firm requiring comparable quantitative skills.
I was wondering if anyone could provide a list of prop shops or quant hedge funds looking to hire new graduates in London.
I've already done a bit of research on my own, going through (1) Google, (2) my university careers website, (3) the list ofETF market makers on the London Stock Exchange, and (4) forums such as WSO, NP, etc., but I haven't found too many.
Firms I know with open positions in London: - Atlantic Trading - Citadel - D. E. Shaw - DRW - Jane Street - Jump Trading - Mako - Mandara Capital - Maven Securities - Parhelion - Sun Trading - Tibra Capital
Firms with offices in London but no open positions: - ADG Holdings - Allston Trading - Bluefin Trading - Chicago Trading Company - Five Rings Capital - Flow Traders - Headlands Technologies - Hudson River Trading - KCG - Liquid Capital - Oak Futures - Principle Trading - Ronin Capital - Teza Technologies - Tower Research - Two Sigma - Volant Trading - Winchmore Capital - Winton - XR Trading - XTX Markets
Can anyone shed some light on any of these firms? I know there are threads discussing some of these firms (I have read them as well), so feel free to skip on those, but most of them haven't been mentioned here; those are the ones I'd be looking for info on. I've been looking for a while and will expand my scope to investment banks, etc. once term begins, so as not to be jobless come summer.
Sorry for the long wall of text
Your list is fairly complete. Put maybe Wolverine Trading in "firms with offices in London but no open positions". Do you have any data mangling or phynance experience? Europe is fairly tame in HFT trading and most of the interesting (read money printing) stuff is done in Chicago or Hongkong. Might look for opportunities there if you can sell yourself as an oxbridge grad with relevant experience (Visa sponsoring issue)?
Thanks for your reply! I will have no Visa issues in America. Are there any opportunities in London besides HFT, e.g. market making?
Yes, high frequency market making of Futures/Options/ETFs. Flow trading or voice market making at prinicipal trading firms is done, but to a lesser extend (except for Citadel maybe) and I doubt that they are actively recruiting new grads for these positions. Chicago is the non-plus ultra for HFT inventions and hong kong in general is the wild west for finance. Hoy many firms do you think are looking at NYMEX? How many look at the CFFEX? You are going to sit as an ETF market maker in LND at your desk fine-tuning some index rebalancing arbitrage algos, while your peers in Chicago are creating story material for a michachel lewis-like "markets-are-rigged"-book. Also do some DD and check the profit contribution of different offices from mayor PTFs. With that said, I made the mistake and started at Amsterdam.....
Don't shops in Amsterdam have some department for innovating, researching/trading new strategies?
Thanks for the post, do you mind shedding some light on why starting at Amsterdam is a bad idea? There are some major HFT firms there such as Optiver/IMC?
It's a buyers market, lad. Take any offer you can. You didn't do the DD on office profit contribution doe. Optiver/IMC's profits are generated in Chi-town not Amsterdam. Go figure out
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