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Comment by dmitri1981 | Hacker News Reader

dmitri1981

If you are a top Java/C++ coder, you could probably make that much working for a big investment bank. Many of them are upgrading their FX trading systems to allow low latency trading and are prepared to pay top bucks to get the right people.

Alternatively, if you have a strong quantitative background (ie. Maths / Physics) you could go into quant development which would pay handsomely as well.

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Making $1m of gross income and making $1m of savings are two very different things.

You probably won't sock away $1m working for a bank.

Though it is possible to get $1m in 5 years, if you are an workaholic with a quant. PhD:

http://www.quantfinancejobs.com/jobs/quant-trader.asp

I got called by a recruiter a few weeks ago pitching lead FX dev role at a day rate of £1000 GBP, which works out to around an annual salary of $350k USD. That's definitely at the high end of the scale but it shows it's not infeasible (£600-£750 is a more typical rate).

You still won't save that much because you will usually live the lifestyle of your peers which will be very expensive.

Presumably if your objective is to save money and you have some self control then it should not be too big an issue.

Not really. People tend to spend more on their hobbies (holidays, geek toys, etc) but it's not as if everyone's expected to spend their evenings snorting coke off expensive strippers.

From my experience people working in the financial sector are much more likely to be putting money into savings or investments than people outside the sector.

can you please give more info about this: "FX trading systems to allow low latency trading" what is it ?

Systems that are used to carry out trades of foreign currencies and related securities. These markets are extremely liquid and a delay of a few milliseconds can mean that you don't get the deal at the price you want. Therefore the banks need to make sure that they can execute the transactions as quickly as possible to ensure they have a competitive advantage over their competitors.

Here is basic overview : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_latency_%28capital_markets%...

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