Quantitative Researcher

Flow Traders is looking for Quantitative Researchers to join our growing trading desk at our Amsterdam office. This is an unique opportunity for candidates to join a leading proprietary trading firm, working alongside some of the brightest minds in the industry.

As a firm, we are at the intersection of Scientific Research, Finance and cutting edge Technology. Financial markets have made a rapid shift from trading in the pit towards algorithmic trading, and our firm has developed into a FinTech company.  

A successful Quantitative Researcher, first and foremost, must be an expert in mathematics and statistics. We are looking for someone who loves to work with numbers and code automated trading algorithms. You should have an innate desire to generate and backtest new trading ideas, with generation of alpha and automated strategies as ultimate output goals. You will work alongside Traders and Quantitative Researchers on state of the art trading solutions. If this sounds like music to your ears, and passion to solve and code mathematical problems are your trademark traits, then this opportunity is for you.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Traders and Quant Researchers to optimize and improve trading strategies
• Research and analyze financial data to find exploitable patterns
• Design and implement complex quantitative models and automated trading algorithms

 A Day In The Life    

I arrive at the office and walk into the lounge to get myself a sandwich and a glass of orange juice and while I am at it, I bring some coffee for my teammates. I log in to my computer and walk towards the huddle area to listen to the daily morning meeting which gets us up to speed on what has happened over night and the most important things to expect for today.  

After the morning meeting I start running the quantitative models that are already in production and send updated parameters to Traders so they can put it in their trading engine. Thereafter it is mostly programming, I start working on my to-do list which are mostly researching and designing new trading algorithms, but projects can range from statistically investigating a trading idea in Python, R or MATLAB to coding new improved versions of trading algos in JAVA. As an example today I was working on a bug in one of the trading algorithms that I wrote as we noticed it doing some weird trades.   

After lunch I continue where I left off and try to finish any projects with pressing deadlines, or ad-hoc research requests that come in. As most European exchanges close, I shut down my PC and head home. However, on Fridays it usually worthwhile to stay and have a drink at our in-house bar where some good old trash talking usually leads to a counterstrike team battle at our gaming room combined with a few beers.

What You Need to Succeed

• A Master degree in Econometrics, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, Computer Science or similar (PhD preferred)
• Experience with a scientific programming language (e.g. Python / MATLAB / R or similar)
• Experience with JAVA and/or C ++ (or similar) is an advantage
• Strong mathematical and statistical skills
• Ability to reason logically, deliver under pressure and take ownership
• Competitive attitude, eager to learn, proactive and able to work in a team
• Excellent verbal and written English skills

Onboarding

As we do not expect you to have any trading knowledge upfront, we offer you an extensive onboarding program. Within two months, you will learn about our core business, the financial products we trade, and the mathematics required for pricing them. You will go through quantitative and trading classes given by our senior quants and traders. Finally, you will finish your onboarding program with a co-project with Traders.

Interested in a Quant Trading position? Then, also read our Graduate Trading Program position to see what suits you best. Want to know more about Flow Traders? Go to our events page and sign up for one of our informal events. 

Application Process

Please apply through our website with a CV and convincing cover letter. You might receive an invitation for an aptitude test. During the recruitment process, you will meet several people from the Quant and Trading teams who will test your problem solving skills and your mathematics background. Do you love solving puzzles? Great, then this could be the job for you!

We Offer

We like to think that talent grows at Flow and stays at Flow. To ensure this, we provide our employees with an extensive onboarding program, access to Flow Academy, the best working environment, the latest technology and continuous support. We go out of our way to retain the small business feeling with which we started and stimulate innovation and collaboration through teamwork and our non-hierarchical approach. We offer a competitive salary, an annual discretionary profit share and other fantastic perks and benefits, such as:

• Flow Academy for continuous learning and opportunities to attend domain-related conferences
• Our own company boat
• In-house gym and sessions with our nutritionist or personal trainer
• In-house Bar and Lounge with an arcade, table tennis, billiards table and game consoles
• Daily catered lunch, amazing coffee and a fully stocked kitchen and snack bar
• Weekly chair massages
• Annual company trip and a variety of events throughout the year
• Global rotations between our offices worldwide
• and more!

Flow Traders does not accept unsolicited resumes from any professional staffing or search firms. All resumes, and any other information identifying potential candidates, submitted to any
employee at Flow Traders via-email, the Internet or directly without a valid and signed search agreement will be deemed free to contact by Flow Traders without any restrictions and no placement fee of any kind will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Flow Traders.