Hedge Funds and Programming

Quote from Spectre2007:

The business media gives enough of a education in Finance, regarding macro principles just as well as a University. Though you wont have the degree in that field to ease the publics fears of whos managing their money.
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I agree. And there are also many books.
But that's true also for programming and almost all other disciplines.
But, of course, you can't do everything at professional level. Unfortunately.
If now I had to choose I might go for a more finance oriented education. And I actually don't understand what the deal is with all these people on ET who want to learn software development.
I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence :)
 
Quote from HoundDogOne:

I completely disagree with this.

I've made about 400,000 trades over 12 years...
And manage 7 figures, etc, etc...

But the hardest thing I have ever done...
Was complete a hardcore 4 year Computer Science degree at the University of Toronto...
That was very heavily skewed towards math/stats/logic. Total killer program.

It took my intellect to another level...
And I have thought in a highly structured way since...
And can easily see through all the BS here...
Whereas 90% of the people here struggle with the most basic logic...
LIKE THE GUY WHO STARTED THIS THREAD.

A Computer Science/Engineering/Medical/Law degree...
All accomplish ** exactly the same thing **...
They TRAIN you over many years...
To THINK is a way that will make you successful in that given profession.

People who have not completed a hardcore university program...
Would have absolutely NO IDEA what I am talking about.

And back to hedge fund level trading software systems...
This is not Rent-A-Coder Mickey Mouse stuff...
Or coding accounting software for a tuna boat.

Only top engineers in the 100K range are good enough...
To develop real-time quant software at this level.
A mediocre programmer at 50K would be a complete waste of time and money.
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think i have the level (used to code in 15+ languages incl autocomm, microprocessor, expert systems etc back then), however hesitating between VB/Excel, C++ & Java to code a not-so-high frequency strategy & execution function... however need to play with 10exp5 size matrices with sub-second refresh every couple of minutes, on a nonstop (24/24, 6/7) basis

looking for an "event-based programming for dummies" type environment...

given that my above requirements are not too taxing for any of the above environments, my tech guy recommends Java coding, using Eclipse...

any comments appreciated
 
I think the perfect combo would be finance + a minor in mathematics and a minor in computer science or some type of combination in those areas.
 
Quote from 2cents:

think i have the level (used to code in 15+ languages incl autocomm, microprocessor, expert systems etc back then), however hesitating between VB/Excel, C++ & Java to code a not-so-high frequency strategy & execution function... however need to play with 10exp5 size matrices with sub-second refresh every couple of minutes, on a nonstop (24/24, 6/7) basis

looking for an "event-based programming for dummies" type environment...

given that my above requirements are not too taxing for any of the above environments, my tech guy recommends Java coding, using Eclipse...

any comments appreciated
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I'm by no means and expert, as I've only just begun to seriously study programming and software engineering in an academic setting, but for what it's worth, I tend to agree.

Yes, there are some C/C++ cult members out there that will talk about those languages' speed advantage, but I know for a fact that PLENTY of high-speed arb'ers and spreaders write their systems in Java. For the amount of money it saves in development, you can just buy faster machines. Furthermore, with new JVMs, Java is really only slower than C/C++ when it comes to object creation and destruction, so a good Java developer can tweak the code to make it very competitive.

(For that matter, if speed is your holy grail, you can make Fortran faster than C/C++.)

From your description, Java is fine, and it will much easier to code and maintain with Java.

This is in my VERY humble opinion.
 
good points.
Yes, I would say that finance and maths can be the top. I would tend to give preference to maths, considering the complexity of the subject.
And yes, considering that there are no special speed requirements, Java is fine. Although I wouldn't be so easy about comparisons between Java and C++. I like C++, and if I had to develop a stand alone application I would probably still use it, but when it's not really needed you can choose something else.
And yes again, if you go for Java Eclipse is a good choice. It's probably the environment used by most professionals. NetBeans is also nice. And you can get all of them for free.
 
Quote from Pathus:

I think the perfect combo would be finance + a minor in mathematics and a minor in computer science or some type of combination in those areas.
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+ a major in common sense + minor in discipline

Investors/shareholders in banks would have a fit if they knew the amount of money wasted by managers expert in politics having to pay one brilliant mind to unwind the mess made by another brilliant mind because the previous manager wasn't looking beyond his bonus and didn't care that the highly 'qualified' Phd contractor was too lazy or impatient to follow basic programming rules that would allow the system to be maintained by the lower common denominator.
90% percent of costs associated with maintaining these IT systems is in supporting and rectifying minor oversights by developers more concerned with 'delivery' time than by the maintenance and upkeep of their applications.
If you want to be a programmer, learn how to program first, then learn what needs to be programmed.
If you wanted to fly a plane from A to B would you become an aeronautical engineer and meteorologist before becoming a pilot?
 
Quote from 2cents:

thanks guys, Java Eclipse then!
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Don't rule out Netbeans - backed by Sun. It has a decent profiler. I'm not sure that Eclipse does.
 
For the more front office type work, a lot of people like electronic engineering or physics better then computer science, math or finance. You get a lot of brain teaser type questions at interviews that have nothing to do with the field but rather about how you think. They assume they will have to teach you a lot on the job anyway and if you are smart and you have some experience you will be fine, at least at the PhD level.
 
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