Wall Street Techs Take Secrets to Next Job at Their Peril

This is a disturbing trend by IBs flexing their legal might against their (former) software engineers. Before automated trading systems there were traders who carried their strategies around in their heads. On the surface it appears to be a game of scale because these strategies and systems are so costly if a trader walked off with a strategy it was one less bonus check they would have to pay. But if an engineer walks off with the design of a trading system and some strategies, then the firm might have to come up with some new strategies which is a costly affair indeed. Given the extreme nature of modern cybercrime laws to thwart terrorism and safeguard our economic infrastructure should they be used against ex-employees to safeguard intellectual property? Perhaps an interesting legal debate given the stakes.

This is why no one wants to work at [Your Stupid Hedge Fund Here].

A while ago there was an article about how Wall Street was bemoaning the difficulty of recruiting top talent from tech.

Surprise: It isn't the money. There's plenty of money there. It's the total lack of understanding on how programmers create value. And this is the result.

There's so much to expound on here, it's truly amazing.

"He continued to view information he wasn’t allowed to see on his home computer, and repeatedly e-mailed confidential information to his personal Gmail account, including research on trading in China and a new method to improve models, the hedge fund claimed."

Wait, what? Did they wiretap him at home?