Pros: - Working with smart people - Pretty good pay

Cons: - Some parts are legacy. - Complex, overengineered codebase.

Pros: My turn is soon over here. I had a few good years, the right place at the right time, with a decent kitchen.

Cons: 2018 was a record year, bonuses were almost flat, so management could pay themselves higher. 2019 was chaos. Profits were down dramatically. Greedy mismanagement, no clear direction. The entire firm is just a copy + paste of Optiver strategies, which can only take you so far. No new ideas, just iterating on the late 2000s. The CEO spent half the year distracted by a fumbled deal, then fired the CTO and caused an exodus of senior developers (after some of the best senior traders and quants already left). Management is generally absent. Across the board, there's a low understanding of modern technology. Probably not a single person in trader management could explain how to write a basic script, yet they try to call the shots for tech directions! Read positive reviews on Glassdoor with salt – many have the very obvious stink of HR flavors.

Pros: Good work-life balance, good coworkers.

Cons: Pay too low compared to other firms.