Quantitative Developer role, mid-size hedge fund, Singapore

[donny]

Hello Quants,

My name is Donny, Duke ‘12. I work in the quantitative research department of a mid-size hedge fund that trades in currencies. Currently, we are exploring the possibility of new proprietary trading strategies that leverages on some mathematics and novel algorithms. In order to do that, we need a quantitative developer to join the company. This role is in Singapore.

The nature of the job is 70% coding 30% trading and so a minimum of a year of experiencing in coding C++, Java, is required for the candidate. Ideally, the candidate will have an educational background in computer science or mathematics and work experience in a financial institute either in trading or otherwise. Work experience is preferred but what is more important is for the candidate to a.) be interested in trading and b.) have a meticulous attitude towards coding.

As for the fund, it is founded by traders who previously worked at prestigious banks namely Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS. They have been around for a good ten years and are rather profitable each year since.

For those interested, please email me with your resume at quantdonny@yahoo.com (work email not used to keep anonymity)

Regards,
Donny
Junior Quantitative Developer

 

[donny]

Feel free to make informal queries on the role by replying this thread. I'll divulge further information so long it is within protocol.

 

[ShinjiOno]

Hi Donny,

Do we have basic pay for this role? Or its purely profit sharing?

 

[Wang Huan]

Hi, I am quite interested in the position. However, I am only partially fulfill your requirements.

I am from Beijing,China. I have got a bachelor degree in mathematics and will get a master degree in computer science in June,2014. And now I am learning some basic financial and quantitative investment knowledge, and also improving my English level.

I am looking for internships and jobs about quantitative developments.

Mr Donny, could you give me some suggestions? As I know, there is not so many job chances in China.

Thank you for your reading.

 

[donny]

Update: There's been a healthy number of resumes streaming in. We are still in the stages of short listing good candidates. I suspect the period of doing this will last a few more weeks.

In response to the above:
1. I am in no position to divulge the compensation package. Nonetheless, I will say that this role, much like many in the company, does have a basic salary as you will be doing development work.

2. I am not familiar with the hiring methods or prospects in China. Not to get into an argument of whether Shanghai or Singapore has the bigger economy,I'll recommend either going through the career office in your school first or find out more of the asset management firms there by doing a Google search.

In that period of finding a job, I would get a hang of who are the players in the industry besides the usual GS, MS and JPM. That's how I found where I am now and I'm not complaining much.

 

[ShinjiOno]

Hi Donny,


Can you share with us
1. who are the players in the algo trading fiels in singapore?other than some prop firm.
2. How do you manage to land ur current job?
3. Will MFE or MQF degree encahnce the chance of application or CS degree better?


ShinjiOno

 

[donny]

I'm not sure how much I should divulge without revealing the vital secrets of trading either in my firm or in the industry as a whole. Nonetheless, since I want to be a good ambassador of quants in Singapore, I'll comment on what I can.

1. http://www.hera-capital.com/
http://www.arisaig-partners.com/
http://www.cubecap.com
http://www.lucrumcapital.com.sg/
http://sixcapital.sg/
http://www.leoniehillcapital.com/
http://www.schroders.com/sg/home/

SAC Capital, Getco and Jump Trading are also in Singapore.

2. I got lucky. Through an internship, they liked me and then hired me.

3. This is a difficult one. My honest answer comes by expounding by how it depends on the role. For those structuring, pricing, macro strategy ones, a MFE and MQF will be helpful. However, for those technological mainly arbitrage ones, I feel that a CS degree will be better. Here's why.

One, spot arbitrage strategies is solely based on speed. As far as the math is concern, you probably would need anything further than maximums, minimums, maximins and minimaxs. There will be the occasional probability distributions here and there. This arbitrage mainly thrives of operating with the lowest latency and that comes through programming. Put differently, your PnL will improve much more if you employed a novel algorithm of detecting a mispricing than if you use some fancy statistical inference technique. The latter has its uses, just not in the realm of arbitrage. (I mention "spot arbitrage". I don't deny the value of a MFE in arbitrage of other assets, futures, options, etc.)

Two, as almost all players in the industry can and will use third-party software to formulate their strategies, one way to get ahead of the pack is to formulate your own proprietary strategies which are NOT available from third-party software. Everyone knows a standard MA crossover, a RSI overbought, underbought and a breakout using minmax. When you are trying to think of new ways to outwit the market, you have to be able to program algorithms to churn out these signals detected by these proprietary strategies. One way to do that is to know programming as indicated by a CS degree.

 

[Keith Tan]

very nice donny! since i'm currently unemployed, maybe i can share some of the vital trading secrets?

in this industry, speed is everything. whoever buys first wins. which is why funds are willing to spend big money on infrastructure and that's where the money goes. most use third-party software, the richer ones write their own software and the insane ones build their own hardware and write their own operating systems. This is where the CS people comes in.

you actually need minimal knowledge of MFE/MQF to understand what strategies your firm employ. Then you spend all of your time making sure your strategies perform up to speed. (since everyone in the industry already knows what kind of strategies are being taught in schools). If you think you know how to trade fresh out of a MFE, think again.

Besides quantitative management, one might consider going into fundamental management as well. That's where SAS or R comes in on analytics.

my pick: a CS degree, anytime.

 

[vivek]

Hi, do you have any internship position also in your current requirements ? I am currently pursuing my MFE course from NTU Singapore (2013-2014 batch) and looking for good internship opportunities. I am a s/w engineer having 3 years and 9 months of total exp with 2 years and 7 months in Citibank Singapore. Please do let me know if you have any vacancy for an intern. Thanks.

 

[HenryHenry]

Hi, do you have any internship position also in your current requirements ? I am currently pursuing my MFE course from NTU Singapore (2013-2014 batch) and looking for good internship opportunities. I am a s/w engineer having 3 years and 9 months of total exp with 2 years and 7 months in Citibank Singapore. Please do let me know if you have any vacancy for an intern. Thanks.

 

[HenryHenry]

Hi Donny,

I have PhD and looking for a qunt analyst/developer (using C++ and MTLAB) type job, and worked in finance industry for about 5 years.
I am sending my resume for your reference.

Thanks in advance,
Vigen

 

[didje]

Hi Donny, I am a French graduate in Computer Science with 3 years of experience in programming Java and other languages for insurance and bank companies. I am currently a student at ESSEC Business School in Singapore, pursuing a Masters degree in Financial Engineering. I am interested by an internship in your company. I have also experience in implementing my own strategies on my own. Are you still looking for interns ?

 

[Aria LIU]

Hi, do you have any internship position also in your current requirements ? I am currently pursuing my MFE course from NTU Singapore (2013-2014 batch) and looking for good internship opportunities. I am a s/w engineer having 3 years and 9 months of total exp with 2 years and 7 months in Citibank Singapore. Please do let me know if you have any vacancy for an intern. Thanks.

Hi, I got an offer from the NTU MFE and thinking whether to accept or study Statistics in the US. How do you like that program? And may I ask about the placement of your batch?