After my graduation, I started working in a High-Frequency Trading firm (HFT) as a Quant Trader. It is one of the most sought jobs among Computer Science students at any IIT. And there are multiple reasons for it. Today, I will share my experience working in an HFT for about a year now and why students in top IITs want to work for an HFT.
About my work profile
I am currently working as a Quantitative Trader/ Quant Trader / Strategist in an HFT. The work profile mostly involves developing a strategy and running it in the live market to make money. Apart from the basic tasks, it requires a lot of data analysis and monitoring of the strategy during and after market hours to make changes in the strategy.
Work hour
The work hours in such a job is very varying. Although one can easily say that the average work hour is between 10 to 12 hours which is much more than someone working in a software firm. It sometimes becomes too hectic as you have to work during the market hours and after the market hours since you need to develop and work on new and existing strategies.
Flexibility in terms of time and place
The job involves working constantly in the market hours so there is not much flexibility in terms of work timings. Also, since this profile usually means monitoring and analysing large amounts of data in many companies, they usually provide a setup of multiple screens, which means that you can’t just go and take your work with you on the laptop. So in terms of flexibility in the workplace, the systems need to be fixed at a place and you cant work remotely.
Compenstation / Salary
Till now everything must have felt like it’s not exactly a dream job for anyone. The above-mentioned things do point towards the difficulty in the job but the thing that makes it interesting is the quality of work that is done. The curiosity that people have while working on something gives a pleasant feel while working. The heavy compensation also makes up for all the difficulties faced by the employees. They tend to pay much higher than any software firm. In fact, after a couple of years, your bonus depends heavily on the amount of profit you make in a year. And given that the traders make a lot of money for the company, the companies generally tend to pay them well too.
Work Pace
I wanted to write a little about the fast-paced nature of this job which means that whatever you may be working on is very crucial for the company and they push it on production as soon as you complete it and it’s tested. They don’t waste a lot of time from completing the task to pushing it on the production. This makes the employees feel that they are working on something important which is actually true.
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