Any advice on which internship to pick?

[drei]

Hey Guys,

I read recently that Getco is kind of on the down and I remember that in 2009 this was THE place to go work (or whatever, up there). Anyhow I decided to do a PhD rather than accept a job with them back then and now I am thinking of getting back to finance after I graduate. Last summer I interned at Credit Suisse QSI and it was great but I thought it would be better to try for other experiences this summer.

Anyhow, I have a few intern offers: Tower, Allston, 2 @ Morgan (Strats and Modeling - Credit Strats or Securitized Products), AMEX (Data Science team within RIM) and am waiting on a startup called BirchBox for a Data Science role. I gave up CS QSI but I recommend it highly (FYI expect to work 12+ hours a day though).

I have until next week to decide.

I'm learning towards Tower, all offers are ballpark the same money, but I'm just wondering: is HF trading kind of dead and long term which of the above do you think would be best? Do you think this is just a down flow in the industry now? From what I understand Tower is good, but I don't want to end up at Getco v2.0, so I figured I would ask around.

Much thanks!

 

[drei]

BTW, another thing is: am I wrong about any of the above? I pasted the article I was struck by below.

Getco profits drop 82% on weak US market

By Arash Massoudi in New York​

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Getco, the high-frequency trading firm, revealed an 82 per cent decline in net profits for the first nine months of last year, as it shared a glimpse into its financial records for the first time in its 14-year history.
In a securities filing ahead of its $1.8bn reverse takeover of US trading firm Knight Capital, the Chicago-based company said its core business of market-making in US equities suffered a sharp slowdown in 2012 because of poor market conditions.

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More
ON THIS TOPIC

• Goldman electronic trade head to join Getco
• Ex-UBS Adoboli supervisor goes to Getco
• Getco names new chief technology officer
• Getco appoints new division heads

IN EXCHANGES CONSOLIDATION

• CME pushes for talks with Deutsche Börse
• Dutch regulators pass LSE-LCH deal
• Nasdaq held buyout talks with Carlyle
• SGX in talks on taking LCH.Clearnet stake

The filing, which runs to hundreds of pages, spells out the pending merger and sheds light on one of the largest companies in the highly secretive high-frequency trading business. The merger is expected to close in the second quarter.
Net profits for the three quarters to September 30 were $24.6m, down from $134.8m during the same period a year earlier. Total revenues fell 41 per cent from $719m to $425.3m in the period, mainly because of a steep drop in US business.
The company disclosed full-year financial records dating back to 2007, which showed that net profits peaked at $430.4m in 2008 and havedeclined each year since.
While US revenues have slowed, the company’s efforts to push into new markets have boosted performance. Getco has seen a sharp pick-up from expansion in the Asia-Pacific region, and more limited gains from European segments.
Getco, which has a staff of about 400, said expenses fell 30.1 per cent from $558.1m to $390.4m in the nine-month period, which the company attributed to lower regulatory, exchange and execution fees and lower employee compensation because of the falling volumes.
It invested $37m in new trading programmes in the period, including a strategy it calls “mid-frequency trading”, which involves holding shares for a longer period.
Richard Repetto, analyst at Sandler O’Neill, said: “Getco’s earnings are very volatile with last year certainly down significantly from the prior years. Even when you consider their adjustments, earnings were still down more than 50 per cent.”
Getco aims to bolster its flagging US equities business by gaining access to Knight’s retail order flow from brokerage firms such as TD Ameritrade and Etrade, industry insiders have speculated.
In recent weeks, Knight has taken steps to shed underperforming assets, close some non-core businesses, and reduce its staff of 1,500 by 5 per cent ahead of the merger. The company reported earnings of $6.5m in the fourth quarter, down 84 per cent from $40.2m during the same period the year before.
General Atlantic. the private equity firm, which since 2007 has invested more than $400m in Getco, is due to become the largest single shareholder in the combined company.
The investment includes a $55m cash injection as part of the merger. General Atlantic said it did not plan to make a short-term exit.​

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[Keith Tan]

i've applied to allston too! how long did they take to reply you?

perhaps we can try to apply our finance training: don't be concerned by what the news says. if markets are down, all firms are subjected to systematic risk. it seems like the portfolios of getco have high betas - they will outperform the market once the market picks up.

are you an international student? morgan and amex seems pretty good choices. yes HF is kind of dead IMHO.

 

[drei]

Hey; it took about two weeks? I'm american. So, since HF is dead, Allston and Tower are bad choices long term?