Imported from previous forum
[ original email was from Michael Hall - michael@thebes.co.uk ]
European Equity Derivative Trading group are looking for a number high-calibre individuals to work on the trade floor developing sophisticated front-office applications for Equity Derivative trading. A summary appears below followed by more detailed information on subsequent pages.
Candidate Profile
· 2 to 7 years post graduation object-orientated development experience
· good academic background:
· minimum ABB at A level (or equivalent)
· good numerate degree
· not looking for quantitative analysts
· dynamic, adaptable, hard-working, focused on solving business problems
· financial products background not a requirement for the job
Group Profile
· currently 12 developers, expanding to 20
· successful products in areas of
· Electronic Trading
· Market Making
· Risk Management, Profit and Loss
· Web
· We use of broad range of technologies, including
· C++, C#, Java, PERL
· RogueWave, MFC, Stringray Objective Grid
· TibCo Rendezvous, FIX,XML, XSL, HTML
· Windows NT/2000, UNIX Solaris, Sybase, .NET
· We work on the trade floor reporting directly to the head of European Equity Derivative Trading and the Head of European Technology
· Our software is used throughout our European, US, Tokyo and Hong Kong offices
· Used by the following equity trading groups: Derivatives, Convertible Bonds, Stock Loan, Program Trading, Cash (stocks and shares), Emerging Markets
The roles
Initially we are hiring for the following roles
Electronic Trading
· 1 exchange connectivity developers
· 2 MFC/C++ front-end GUI developer
Risk Management/Market Making/Web
· 2 MFC/C++ developers
· 2 C#/Java/C++ server side ‘process/daemon’ and web developers
The final (8th) position is yet to be determined, it will depend on the skillsets of the initial 7 hires – i.e. as we hire people we may change the balance of our requirements.
Skillset required
· Core C++ skills required plus any other skills relating to the technologies we have outlined above.
· ‘A’ level mathematical numeracy
· good communication skills
· proactive
· genuine interest in Financial Markets
the ability to work quickly under pressure
Our Systems
Risk Management System
We have a modern client-server based risk system. Providing real-time and historic risk, stress, P&L (profit and loss) and market making capability to 300 users within the bank world-wide. The system is based around an MFC/Objective Grid C++ front-end, a TibCo Rendezvous based multicast middleware layer and a heavily multithreaded-distributed C++ backend server infrastructure.
The system supports a broad range of trading groups, from those who trade stocks and shares in high volume to low-volume exotic option trading. It is also used extensively by our Risk Managers, Accountants and Internal Regulators.
The infrastructure surrounding the system makes significant use of other technologies including Java, C#/.NET, XML/XSL, PERL and SQL.
Web and Market Making Infrastructure
We have an extranet web based real-time service which provides The group’s clients with up to the minute information on our product offerings, and any trades they currently hold with us. This infrastructure will go through significant enhancement over the next few months with additional functionality. As per the risk management system a broad range of technologies (C++, Java, C#/.NET, XML/XSL) are used in the system.
Excel
We have an extensive Excel addin suite which is used by traders to price up exotic deals and do historical analysis. This is also used as a framework for the development of new models by the Quantitative Analysts attached to our group.
Electronic Trading Systems
Over the last 7 years we have developed a powerful in-house automatic electronic trading system. This application integrates real-time analytics, live graphs and many state-of-the-art automatic-trading features. We are currently completing the port of the application to Windows NT, and in the coming year we are planning to connect to more electronic exchanges, expand the automatic-trading features, make some significant architecture changes and take advantage of the new platform.
Because this system generates real trades & mistakes can be costly, we will be looking for thorough & methodical candidates capable of writing very reliable code.
What direction is the group heading in?
Technology Perspective
Essentially we will continue to enhance our existing products and infrastructure. We have no plans for revolutionary change, just evolutionary change. We have about 800,000 lines of C++ and no ‘legacy’ software. Recently we have started to move away from C++ and started to use C# for some newer applications: internet, network daemons, user interfaces. Some server-side code, such as exchange connections, is more likely to remain in C++, dictated by external constraints or high performance requirements (financial models for example).
We currently use a Sybase database server, our long-term intention is to move to MS SQL-server.
It is difficult to judge what is going to happen in the future, but we think that C# will provide us with a better way forward than Java. We believe that .NET’s ability to seamlessly integrate C# with a number of other managed and unmanaged languages, especially C++, will provide a evolutionary path for us. We also think that the mixed language capability of .NET is better than the “one size fits all” approach of Java. Early adoptors of the technology, we have actually had a major C# application in production for 6 months.
However our prime focus remains to solve business problems.: we will use whatever technology is required whilst keeping an eye on the longer-term route forward and maintainability of our software.
Business Perspective
The business is very dynamic so it is difficult to foretell the future. In the short-term we are taking greater responsibility for more traders in Europe, Asia, and possibly North America. In the long-term the business would like to expand into a number of new markets. We are expanding our retail customer business and this will be reflected with future work on our extranet website, giving our customers greater access to our internal trading capability. The financial world is becoming increasingly more efficient, this implies narrow spreads, lower costs and by implication more technology.
Michael Hall ++44 (0)1908 328007 DD