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Goldman's traders use a proprietary programming language called "Slang"

cnbc.com

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Re: Goldman's traders use a proprietary programming language called "Slang"

#31

Post by ig1 »

lrm242 wrote: post #12

A relevant thread from Wilmott Forums: http://www.wilmott.com/messageview.cfm?catid=16&threadid... In particular, this quote from Dominic Connor is telling: "...[snip]... As Zmei says [SLang] a GS only language, which even within GS is not exactly universally loved. I hear tales of tragically poor performance, and the inability to cope with modern programming. Think of it as a equivalent to C# 1.0, ie old fashioned.…

When I was interviewing at GS we talked about Python vs Slang and several of the interviewers mentioned the biggest problem with slang was the lack of toolkit (good debuggers, IDE, etc.).

Re: Goldman's traders use a proprietary programming language called "Slang"

#33

Post by retube »

Slang is a proprietory language developed by GS, it's been around for ~15 years I think. If I remember correctly they have a development/analysis environment called SecDB in which all coding is done with Slang. All their modelling, pricing and risking is done in SecDB across all asset classes so it's pretty widely embedded.

Re: Goldman's traders use a proprietary programming language called "Slang"

#34

Post by brosephius »

jrockway wrote: post #7

At initial stages, potential recruits are not even told that Goldman is the client. Well, yeah. That's because if the recruiter tells you where the job is, you'll go directly to the client and keep the 30% of your salary that the recruiter gets to yourself.

I thought the employer pays that fee?

Re: Goldman's traders use a proprietary programming language called "Slang"

#35

Post by joshu »

stuntprogrammer wrote: post #19
gaius wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Morgan Stanley and others were big users of APL, back in the day. Now that's a wacky language!

APL isn't all that weird once you spend a little time with it. It's "just" a dynamically typed collection-oriented language. I think people look at some screenshots, make a stupid joke since they aren't familiar with the notation, and move on rather than digging in. I highly recommend Dyalog's dialect for a comfortable IDE, OO support, .NET support for GUIs on Windows etc. For MS' APL dialect, you can get the whole t…

For what its worth, a+ was mostly used in the fixed income decision. Over in equities, I never touched it - most of my work was in perl and SAS.

Re: Goldman's traders use a proprietary programming language called "Slang"

#36

Post by scotth »

gaius wrote: post #23
stuntprogrammer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

APL isn't all that weird once you spend a little time with it. It's "just" a dynamically typed collection-oriented language. I think people look at some screenshots, make a stupid joke since they aren't familiar with the notation, and move on rather than digging in. I highly recommend Dyalog's dialect for a comfortable IDE, OO support, .NET support for GUIs on Windows etc. For MS' APL dialect, you can get the whole t…

Yep, I used to work with a bloke from IP Sharp ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._P._Sharp_Associates#APL_Impl... ), he showed me some cool stuff. I have another friend who does q and kdb+ stuff.

I currently work with a bunch of Sharpies, including Dave Markwick (mentioned in that article). Dave still writes APL from time to time.

Re: Goldman's traders use a proprietary programming language called "Slang"

#37

Post by jrockway »

brosephius wrote: post #34
jrockway wrote: post #7

At initial stages, potential recruits are not even told that Goldman is the client. Well, yeah. That's because if the recruiter tells you where the job is, you'll go directly to the client and keep the 30% of your salary that the recruiter gets to yourself.

I thought the employer pays that fee?

Sure, they do. But there's a fixed amount of money in the department budget, and the money they pay to the recruiter comes from somewhere.

(I was hired into finance by a recruiter. The recuriter took 50% of my income until I was hired as a full-time associate. I got a raise and the department probably saved a ton of money.)

Re: Goldman's traders use a proprietary programming language called "Slang"

#38

Post by dmillar »

ig1 wrote: post #31
lrm242 wrote: post #12

A relevant thread from Wilmott Forums: http://www.wilmott.com/messageview.cfm?catid=16&threadid... In particular, this quote from Dominic Connor is telling: "...[snip]... As Zmei says [SLang] a GS only language, which even within GS is not exactly universally loved. I hear tales of tragically poor performance, and the inability to cope with modern programming. Think of it as a equivalent to C# 1.0, ie old fashioned.…

When I was interviewing at GS we talked about Python vs Slang and several of the interviewers mentioned the biggest problem with slang was the lack of toolkit (good debuggers, IDE, etc.).

It's also worth noting that the SEC thinks python is a good language for specing ABS.

http://kelloggfinance.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/the-sec-gets-...

Re: Goldman's traders use a proprietary programming language called "Slang"

#40

Post by sfall »

azim wrote: post #21
jbooth wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, at places like Goldman (in stark contrast to the Cloudera blog post the other week), coming in through a recruiter actually increases your chance of getting the job and a high salary. The recruiter can be the door-banger who pushes your paperwork through the organization and demands a high salary, while you get to be mild-mannered, not desperate for employment, and not a prima donna about money.

I assume the recruiter will take a percentage of the salary as their fee, so it's in their interest to do this.

most recruiters work for the company and the company pays the fee, sometimes a flat fee or a % of the yearly salary of the new employee
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