In this post, I would be sharing my joining experience as a quant trader in a High-Frequency Trading Firm (HFT). This would be helpful for those who are looking forward to joining a fintech firm or maybe want to know about the culture and team formation in an HFT. If not among the above two, it doesn’t penalise to know about the experience of others.
As I have already mentioned in a few of my earlier posts that I graduated from IIT Bombay in 2020 as a B Tech in Computer Science and Engineering Department, IIT Bombay. It was a wonderful experience in the college and I have never regretted my decision of joining an HFT after college. To know more about why I chose this, read this post.
I have also posted about my experience working as a quant trader. Please give it a read.
Moving on to the days when we were about to join. We were given our joining dates along with some reading materials which were some topics from a book that explained the basics of the stock market in detail and about the pricing models which were common. We had no idea which team we would be joining, or who would be our teammates as it was not disclosed to us then.
So I read the chapters and made notes on them before joining. Then came the day we had to join. We were joining virtually since almost all the companies were working from home then (and even now) due to the covid pandemic. So we had various google meets scheduled with different teams along with HR sessions.
In our first session, we were just introducing ourselves to each other and learning about the work of the firm, about the team structure and hierarchies. After that, there were various sessions scheduled one after the other (for almost a week) explaining the work of different teams. The various teams in the firms were trading, data management, infrastructure, IT etc.
After our basic level introductions, our teams were decided and we were divided among different sections within the team. Not long after that, we were assigned some coding tasks along with giving us sessions on pricing models, trading strategies and markets in general. These were long sessions followed by a doubt session. They were very interactive and we got to learn a lot in such a short span of time. Thankfully the seniors were very helpful and taught us each topic very well.
After a few days, we were given a dummy trading setup to trade in the market and understand its dynamics. This gave us an idea about the exact kind of work which we had to do in a few weeks but without any loss. After few weeks we moved on to the live desks, trading at high frequency with various algorithms, data analysis and working on current trading parameters and improving the existing strategies.
I hope this gives a brief overview of the initial few weeks/months for a quant trader at a high-frequency trading firm. Feel free to comment about any stuff you would like to know or if you feel something was not described in much detail.
Sir , i am currently a freshie at iiit bhopal in cse department and am really passionate about studying finance , all this makes a fit for me to join a hft ,but the harsh truth it they don’t visit our campus , but still curious to know if there is a chance of these hft’s visiting iiit’s by 2024 or if i can apply off campus to get a job in an hft..and also sir ,can you help me to reach my destination by guiding me the best path.
Thank you , sir
Sir , i am currently a freshie at iiit bhopal in cse department and am really passionate about studying finance , all this makes a fit for me to join a hft ,but the harsh truth it they don’t visit our campus , but still curious to know if there is a chance of these hft’s visiting iiit’s by 2024 or if i can apply off campus to get a job in an hft..and also sir ,can you help me to reach my destination by guiding me the best path.
Thank you , sir
Hi Adarsh,
Glad to see that you are focussing on your target from the first year itself. From what I have seen in the last couple of years is that HFTs try to remain a small-sized firm (around 100 people). So they don’t need many people. Hence, they hire only from the IITs. I have taken many interviews, and I have seen a trend that earlier we used to only hire from top 2-3 IITs but now we are moving on the other IITs as well like IIT BHU, IIT Patna etc.
I believe by 2024, they might go to IIITs too for hiring since these companies are expanding fast in India. Nonetheless, you can always apply externally if you think your profile is good enough and you are a good fit for the HFT. All it requires is good analytical skills, good problem-solving skills, and good with probability and puzzles.
I would suggest you to go through my post explaining the different kinds of job profiles in an HFT and their pay structures. Also, go through the post explaining how to apply to HFTs.
Hi,
I have a background in Psychology and Human Resources. I’ve recently done my Undergrad from a top college in Delhi University, with a pretty good academic record as well as a high GMAT score. I’ve been trying to get into HR in various HFTs. I’ve also been following your blog for sometime now. Think you could provide some guidance with regards to this?
I am pretty sure you can reach out the head HRs or external recruiting firms on Linkedin to help you out. From what I have seen, the number of HRs are also increasing in these firms since they are hiring more and more graduates and need HRs for management.