Questions about Algorithmic Trading & studying

[Sypor]

Hello,

I'm studying (theoretical) computer science (major) and economics (minor) and would like to do an internship with focus on algorithmic trading. For what I've read, it seems that companies are rather looking for programmers than theorists. Is that so? Do I even have a chance to get an internship without programming (I'm good at programming but I want to find out whether algorithmic trading is an option for my career - and programming is not what I want to do my whole life).

In Germany (where I'm studying) the level in computer science is very high, but the less it is in economics. Til now I haven't had learned anything which seems to be useful for such an internship. We are learning how markets work in general (such as 'Principles of Economics', Mankiw) but not how stock markets work. Do you think it is possible to review the important things for myself or is it too much (as computer scientist I'm not afraid of maths :D)

 

[Yike Lu]

Ideally you want a guy who can both program and do theoretical CS, but given the choice of only one, I'm guessing an employer would settle for a guy who can program over the theorist. The thing is at high levels of algo trading, the theoretical CS matters in getting the most juice out of your machines.

What people want to see that you've taken the time on your own to learn about the field or tried things on your own (backtesting strategies, building a trading app to interface with some API etc).

 

[Sypor]

Thanks for your reply.

But what about the people working on mathematical models or whatever? Algorithmic trading is not just comparing real-time prices and writing fast programs, there have to be people doing all the 'brain work'.

 

[Yike Lu]

As far as writing models, you can certainly learn a lot about modeling techniques, but nobody is going to teach you the "secret sauce" of what makes money. Depending on the frequency, the model can be macroeconomic, security-specific, or completely time series based, so those are the broad areas to learn. Classes can help, but a lot of learning must be done on your own, trying out these techniques and figuring out how they pan out in the real world, developing intuition etc.