Reply to thread

From my experience and observations across several major firms, I think that blanket statements that C++ is no longer used are absolutely false. It really depends on your role:

• As Dave mentioned above, Quant roles that are about fast decision making will generally do everything using Python or similar. I.e., quant traders and many desk quants. C++ is not practical for this sort of work.
• Roles that are more strategic, I.e, sell side desk quants (even Phds) that develop new products, strats, quant developers, etc, code in C++. Analytics libraries in banks are almost exclusively still built in C++. Not just legacy code maintenance, but actual new development. Many banks are updating legacy C++ code to use the newer language features -- this is certainly not a sign of moving away from the language. These C++ analytics are usually provided as Python packages for the software on top.
• Algo trading type roles: This is likely the most diverse in terms of language choice. I know places that used C++, Java, Python, Perl and/or combinations of all of the above. However, most of such roles do require knowledge of C++ as it's one of the few languages that when learned, will provide a good understanding of lower level concepts.
• IT type front office development roles (I.e, developing the systems and tools that traders use): Knowledge of C++ is important (to be able to understand the underlying libraries when necessary) but actual day to day is usually Java, Python, and/or some GUI language (HTML5 is becoming very popular).