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Comment by rfnslyr | Hacker News Reader

How do I get into this field? I'm a 20 year old making a shit ton of money by doing mobile work but I find it so boring. Nothing about it is innovative. I feel like a high level computer construction worker. It's brainless for the most part, it just takes time.

I want to get into some really cool stuff. I've been wanting to get into investment banking from a technical standpoint, HFT, algorithmic trading etc, but honestly don't know where to start.

What are the de facto books/websites/reads for this field?

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The worlds of HFT and the rest of algorithmic trading are very far apart. For HFT pickup the exchange documentation for each exchange. Memorize how order types. Get a copy of RegNMS. Memorize that as well. To be effective an HFT needs to exploit the market structure. Learn how processors work. How do you avoid a pipeline stall or a cache miss? Become an expert in c++. Maybe pickup some verilog for those pesky FPGAs.

The rest of algorithmic trading offers a lot more flexibility. In either case read 'Trading and Exchanges'. It will give you a good overview of the mechanics of all different venue types. Then its thinking about how to build better algorithms then the next guy, or get better data.

I second the recommendation of 'Trading and Exchanges'. It's a great book to get insight into how the underlying exchanges work and how to exploit certain architecture to produce profitable strategies.

> How do I get into this field?

Well turn the question on its head and ask what can you bring to a hedge fund to allow it to be more successful. That's the test we use.

Hedge funds are similar to start ups in that they are small businesses where everyone needs to pull their own weight and be able to handle their own area without supervision as everyone is busy enough handling their own area of concern.

Or put another way, say the firm has 10 people and each share equally in the year end bonus pool. If the pool is $100 then each person makes $10 in bonus.

Therefor you must be able to increase the bonus pool by atleast $10, to $110 in the next year or two, in order for the firm to break even by hiring you.

So what do you bring to the table that allows the firm to increase its profits? how good are your networking, math, C or C++, optimization skills, what market structure insights do you have?

Thanks for the answer. I meant more of an absolute beginner in finance, in general, nevermind the stock market or trading or writing bots or hedge funds. Thanks for the insight.

For HFT the learning requirements are extensive.

It is /almost/ essential to have a PhD in CompSci/EE from a top school to do HFT. Alternatively one should demonstrate extensive hardware/networking and optimisation skills obtained from other low-latency industries.

All of the top work is being done on FPGAs and latency is now on the order of microseconds (probably lower).

As for lower frequency algorithmic trading, that is a game that one can play at the 'retail' level if you're willing to spend (quite a lot of) time learning.

I run a website about algo trading. If you want to get a taste for what is involved have a look at some of the articles here: http://quantstart.com/articles/#algorithmic-trading

You run quantstart? Haha awesome, thanks for commenting. I've been familiarizing myself with the content on your website. Thanks.

Feel free to send me an email (mike@quantstart.com) if you want any other help!

I will for sure!

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