Quote from mr19:
Seems like we have a bunch of C++ haters. I truly feel if you know C++, you can do C#, VB, Java, Perl, Python, etc, but not necessarily the other way around. I also feel C++ is the hardest of the above mentioned languages to master (obviously not a good thing).
A lot of development jobs in the financial industry are on UNIX systems, not Windows, and primarily use C++. Those advertised C++ jobs might be on platforms where C# isn't available.
Good points. Obviously if you start on a lower-level language like C, you have a better understanding/appreciation of higher-level languages (wrt effort saved to produce similar results).
By UNIX, many institutional platforms are run on SUN solaris, and recent trends include migrating to enterprise linux. In that regard, (SUN) java might also be the way to go, if the institutional path is. I'm assuming most of the algo traders on this forum are trading individually, and thus don't have access to the institutional platforms that run on *NIX. Hint: see the sponsors.
Our Google overlords say:
"automated trading" java = 44,200
"automated trading" c# = 25,900
"automated trading" c++ = 28,400
. I truly feel if you know C++, you can do C#, VB, Java, Perl, Python, etc, but not necessarily the other way around. I also feel C++ is the hardest of the above mentioned languages to master (obviously not a good thing). 