Quant Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw Fires 150; 10% of staff
dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com
Quant Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw Fires 150; 10% of staff
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Re: Quant Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw Fires 150; 10% of staff
#2How much staff is really really needed for these quant shops? After an algorithm is developed isn't it just rinse/repeat? Honest question, as I'm not a finance guy.
Re: Quant Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw Fires 150; 10% of staff
#3How much staff is really really needed for these quant shops? After an algorithm is developed isn't it just rinse/repeat? Honest question, as I'm not a finance guy.
It is a perpetual arms race.
Re: Quant Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw Fires 150; 10% of staff
#4This is sad. Founded by a computer scientist, DE Shaw is perhaps the most tech-focused among hedge funds.
I once had a very challenging technical job interview there. Several interviewers had PhD in Computer Science.
Re: Quant Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw Fires 150; 10% of staff
#5How much staff is really really needed for these quant shops? After an algorithm is developed isn't it just rinse/repeat? Honest question, as I'm not a finance guy.
Just like a technical firm needs to iterate on the products and infrastructures. A trading firm needs to iterate on the algorithms and infrastructures to stay competitive.
Market changes constantly. Many trading algorithms are essentially market-data driven and need to adapt to the market or lose.
Re: Quant Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw Fires 150; 10% of staff
#6How much staff is really really needed for these quant shops? After an algorithm is developed isn't it just rinse/repeat? Honest question, as I'm not a finance guy.
The effective lifetime of a trading algorithm is only weeks. They need to keep iterating to remain competitive.
Re: Quant Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw Fires 150; 10% of staff
#7This is sad. Founded by a computer scientist, DE Shaw is perhaps the most tech-focused among hedge funds. I once had a very challenging technical job interview there. Several interviewers had PhD in Computer Science.
Yeah. At my interview, I had the guy who wrote the O'Reilly OpenSSH book asking me to derive Fermat's little theorem. Fun times ...
IIRC, even the HR person I spoke to had a PhD (russian literature, I think).
They are a very impressive firm, and I hope they recover from their recent misfortunes.
Re: Quant Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw Fires 150; 10% of staff
#8Re: Quant Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw Fires 150; 10% of staff
#9This is sad. Founded by a computer scientist, DE Shaw is perhaps the most tech-focused among hedge funds. I once had a very challenging technical job interview there. Several interviewers had PhD in Computer Science.
Yeah. At my interview, I had the guy who wrote the O'Reilly OpenSSH book asking me to derive Fermat's little theorem. Fun times ... IIRC, even the HR person I spoke to had a PhD (russian literature, I think). They are a very impressive firm, and I hope they recover from their recent misfortunes.
As pg mentioned above it is better to channel this talent to startup world :)
Re: Quant Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw Fires 150; 10% of staff
#10This is sad. Founded by a computer scientist, DE Shaw is perhaps the most tech-focused among hedge funds. I once had a very challenging technical job interview there. Several interviewers had PhD in Computer Science.
I avoided going to a tech interview there, because I knew they'd never have me no matter how sharp my Unix chops are.
No degree.
But I was laughing a couple months later when I was working across the hall at Akamai ...