Optiver

[CTFD]

My two cents:

IMC Pacific is young and inexperienced, IMC as a whole is not.
Tibra is a startup only in the eyes of those who convince themselves that this is true, ie their competitors.
Optiver is a lot easier to get into now than they used to be, based on the sheer numbers they are hiring if not on anything else.
All these firms are fundamentally 90% owned by one or a small group of people. This is a fact. You will make good money at ANY of them. There is little pay differential betwee them, although IMC Pacific has a terrible reputation for pay.
Unless you are at the top in any of them, you will not get SERIOUS money.
Apart from Timbers, you will learn how to trade at any of them and have just as much input in one as the other.
Bottom line, they are all the same in most respects.

Quote from wittyguy:

Curtains,

How do you know so much about these firms? I've asked around and done quite a lot of research into all these companies and I've concluded the following:

Timber Hill are computer traders- ie the traders have very little input. The company is about 90% owned by one guy so not a great choice if you want to make money or learn how to trade

IMC has a young inexperienced team and isn't taken seriously by people in the markets that I have spoken to

Tibra apparently is doing ok but is still in startup phase

Optiver is very well respected in the market- has been around for a very long time and is a true global company. The only problem here is that it's tough to get a inn.

I've sent my cv to the last 3 above and will hopefully get a chance to do these damn tests-

 

[letom13eur]

"Unless you are at the top in any of them, you will not get SERIOUS money"

can you explain what do you call serious money plz ?

Thank You

 

[rockv]

Yeah what do you mean by serious? Ive heard hguys say you can earn 300k there if youre good only after a year or 2 is this true?

 

[curtains]

$300K is not serious money in this game.

 

[The Arbitrager]

I took optiver's trading exam last Friday and got destroyed. They substitute commas for decimals and colons for division. It drove me nuts! You had to get 53/80 right in 8 minutes to pass. Any wrong answers and they deduct two points from your score.

The exam was all arithmetic though, very different than some of the other exams I have taken thus far.......

 

[curtains]

I think the pass mark is different for different offices. I've heard pass marks ranging from 50 - 57.
The commas are common to the dutch market makers.

 

[rockv]

Quote from curtains:

$300K is not serious money in this game.

So how much can you expect to make at one of these places after say 3-4 years if you're good?

 

[chicago2007]

Hi, I took the first test at Optiver and passed , i got 60 - I am invited for the 2nd round, 2 more tests and interview with head trader.. what can i expect on the interview? technical grilling?
any tips will be a great help

 

[gdmu2002]

I've been applying to a lot of different trading firms (including Optiver). My graduate degree is in Mathematics and Statistics - I'm just curious as to what everyone else studied in college.

 

[bidpat]

hi...i do the exam in mel some days ago, and I finished the exam in abt 7 minutes, but i don't know the results how you guys know ur marks anyway.