So the other day we were talking with an HFT Quant who co-managed a $1M/day HFT Equities book, and a well-known Prop Trading firm wasn’t interested in letting him set up a new team, because his initial strategy/book wouldn’t hit $100M P&L year in a 1-2 year time horizon and would take away from the existing teams’ opportunity in equities.

Why is this important to be aware of?

Big companies can’t always afford to compete with themselves. There’s more to lose by letting somebody set up a new team that potentially competes with existing tenured employees, than the potential upside.

What does this mean for you?

For small and medium sized trading companies with good tech infrastructure, this is a huge opportunity to pick up very senior talent that is ready to bet on themselves and build out a strategy from scratch.

If you yourself are an experienced quant or PM and you’re tired of the bureaucracy and opacity of running strategies in a massive team – there are companies available to set you up with everything you need and a LOT more upside.