Morgan Stanley E-trading (Fixed Income) vs Options Market Making Firm

I've been offered a position with the e-trading desk of Morgan Stanley as a strat to develop algorithms that have a direct impact on the PnL, and another job as a Quant Researcher in an options Market-Making firm (not one of the bigger ones, but particularly for a region). I am unable to decide which one to take if I want to continue as a Researcher working on developing models/strategies that generate PnL in the market.

Do you have any ideas about what's better in terms of long-term career prospects? I have experience in academic research and come from a STEM background.

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Without knowing more specifics, it's hard to say with certainty you should take one over the other.  However, I will say that there is currently a massive talent war going on in quant/quant trading/algo dev/systematic/etc.  There is just so much demand for people with trading plus development background, specifically algorithmic trading.  And banks are severely lacking in this talent war.  Unfortunately, I hear almost every month of banks losing quants and quant traders to prop shops/crypto/HFT shops/FAANG/etc.  I think it would be good to get the experience at the bank, develop your strategies, build your coding chops, gain a pnl track record, etc. and then jump to where the real money is (aka everywhere but the banks).  The bank should give you a bit of a cushion as well while you are still developing your strategies while some of the other shops are very much make or break out the gate.

 

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