#TOP QUANT FIRMS SOFTWARE#

#TOP QUANT FIRMS SOFTWARE#

You could find not only elite software programmers who could write or implement trading algorithms but also mathematicians and scientists focused on natural-language processing and other machine-learning challenges that, instead of being applied to self-driving cars or optimizing digital advertising, could be leveraged to predict market behavior or optimize trading execution.Īpplications of AI and ML are expanding in hedge funds, and it’s not hard to understand why - such approaches beat the broader hedge-fund industry and other systematic funds on a three- and five-year annualized basis through 2019, according to a 2020 Preqin report. Some of the quant recruiters Insider spoke with recognized early on that poaching from Silicon Valley held promise. The emergence of these tech giants as the largest, most valuable companies - not to mention, for many years, the « coolest » places to work - created another front in the talent war. They’re coveted by universities, research institutions, and government agencies.Īnd then there are the FAANGs - the catch-all market acronym for the tech behemoths Facebook, Amazon, Apple, They’re the lifeblood of prop-trading firms and market makers - like Jane Street or Jump Trading - as well as investment banks building out their electronic trading and execution systems. The engineers, researchers, scientists, and quant traders developing cutting-edge investment strategies and platforms aren’t just coveted by hedge funds, of course. Some fundamental firms in recent years have dedicated billions in capital to strategies helmed by data-science specialists. Shaw, and Paloma Partners blazed the trail - computing power and data have exploded over the past 15 years, as have the firms and capital dedicated to systematic strategies.Įven funds with a more traditional pedigree have explored quantitative or quantamental strategies, building out teams to crunch the vast troves of alternative data for insights and trading signals. While some hedge funds have been wagering on algorithms and predictive models to beat the markets since the 1980s - Renaissance Technologies, D. Talent warĭemand for quant and data-science specialists isn’t new, but it has surged in recent years as more competitors - from Wall Street but other industries as well - have jumped into the fray. Insider spoke with more than two dozen specialists in quant recruiting to better understand how the secretive field operates and where the richest hedge funds and prop traders are hunting for talent. While more traditional roles on Wall Street, like investment banking and private equity, have time-worn career progressions and recruiting systems - and plenty of study guides and online forums devoted to navigating them - the quant-recruiting world is comparatively unmapped territory. The recruiters who trade in this world know this all too well, and with millions in fees at stake for headhunting the expensive talent these trading juggernauts rely on, confidentiality is paramount. « At the NSA, the penalty for leaking is twenty-five years in prison, » Renaissance Technologies founder Jim Simons would tell employees, according to Gregory Zuckerman’s book « The Man Who Solved the Market. » « Unfortunately, all we can do is fire you. » When the sophisticated trading models, lines of code, and technology infrastructure can amount to billions in profits - and take years to develop - that’s simply the cost of doing business.

While secrecy abounds across finance, it’s especially prevalent in the world of quantitative trading, where noncompetes in excess of a year, nondisclosure agreements, and lawsuits over defectors are common. Some would dish about the industry or their competitors, but discussing clients was verboten. Other headhunters wanted to ensure up front that Insider wasn’t secretly recording them (we weren’t), and agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity - that what they said wouldn’t be attributed to them or their company. So said one veteran recruiter who works with proprietary-trading firms before apologizing for his paranoia at the end of a 30 minute conversation. « You’re OK that I’ve recorded this call, right? » See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Insider spoke with more than two dozen quant recruiters about their competitive, stealthy field.But the trading firms that employ them are highly secretive, as are the recruiters they work with.The market for quant and data-science specialists on Wall Street has perhaps never been hotter.Welcome to the secretive world of Wall Street quant recruiting.

Top quant firms