What Traders, Quants and Developers actually do, who hires them, the ladder from Spring Week to graduate job, when applications open and what the interviews involve. Written for students, in plain English.
They sit side by side on the same desk and the interviews overlap a lot, but the day-to-day is quite different.
Quotes buy and sell prices, manages a book of positions and makes fast decisions under pressure, usually alongside automated strategies they keep an eye on.
A Trader who leans on maths, data and models: setting the parameters of automated strategies, measuring where the edge comes from and spotting when something's off.
Finds trading signals in huge datasets, tests them properly so they're not just noise, and turns the ones that hold up into strategies.
Writes the software trading runs on: fast trading systems that react in microseconds, pricing libraries, and the research tools Quants use every day.
They make money in different ways, so they hire and interview differently. Most students apply to a mix.
Trade their own money rather than clients'. Market makers quote a buy and a sell price on thousands of products all day, on exchanges around the world, and earn the gap between them. That's exactly what interview games copy.
Sales and Trading desks make prices for clients like pension funds, asset managers and companies, across rates, FX, credit, equities and commodities.
Invest money for clients, from discretionary macro bets to fully systematic strategies run by models.
Most graduate trading jobs go to people who did a summer internship at the same firm, and lots of internships go to people who did a Spring Week or Insight Programme first. So the earlier you start, the better.
Usually around Easter. You learn what the jobs are like and play trading games, and some programmes fast-track you to an internship interview. On a four-year course, second year often counts too.
${A}On a desk over the summer. It's effectively a long interview: do well and you're likely to get a return offer for the graduate job.
${A}Mostly filled by return offers from interns, with some places for direct applicants. Expect a training programme in your first few months.
Applications are usually reviewed as they come in, and the best places can fill well before the closing date. These are typical windows, not promises, so check every firm's own dates.
Every firm runs its own process, but most follow roughly these four stages.
The interviewer picks a number you can estimate but can't know for sure, and asks you to "make a market" on it. They're not checking whether you know the answer. They're watching how you think, how you price uncertainty and how you react when you're wrong.
The first time someone says "make me a market" shouldn't be in the interview. A few rounds a day and it starts to feel natural.
Practice an interviewTen minutes of multiplication, division, fractions and percentages a day adds up fast. Speed and accuracy both count.
Dice, cards, coin flips and "would you take this bet?" questions. Get comfortable explaining your reasoning out loud.
Rolling deadlines mean early applications get looked at first. Keep a simple spreadsheet of firms, dates and stages.
Xinfeng Zhou. The "green book": probability, brainteasers and maths.
Timothy Falcon Crack. Classic quant interview questions with worked answers.
Frederick Mosteller. Short, cheap and full of puzzles that turn up in interviews.
Dates and processes vary by firm and change from year to year, so always check each firm's careers site. Firm names and outside resources are mentioned to help you find your way. Two-Way isn't affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.
Free to try. Takes about five minutes.