Lars on Trading and Learning at Jane Street

RESUMEN

En 30 segundos

Lars, a trader in Jane Street’s London office, explains his work and the training he received as an intern and full-time employee. He discusses useful academic preparation, early responsibility and the value of asking questions.

1Three parts of tradingLars describes research, monitoring trading systems and coding, with the balance varying by person and over time.
2Preparing for the roleHe recommends probability and statistics and encourages students to take courses they enjoy.
3Learning as an internThe internship combines classes, projects and time with full-time trader mentors.
4Early impactLars says supervised projects he completed in his first weeks affected live trading.

Conclusiones

Trading work can involve research, monitoring automated systems and writing code.
Mathematics, statistics and programming can be useful preparation, but prior financial knowledge is not required to start.
Interns learn through classes and mentored projects, while full-time training includes OCaml and exposure to different teams.
New hires can contribute early with supervision and learn by asking questions.

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What a trader does

Lars introduces three areas of work: research, system monitoring and coding. He explains how his engineering, mathematics and computer-science studies help.

My name is Lars. I am a trader in Jane Street’s London office, and I started full time in 2020.

Traders mainly do three kinds of work: investigate trading ideas through research, monitor and adjust trading systems, and write code to improve monitoring or implement strategies. Most traders do some of each. I personally spend more time on research and coding than watching trading, though the balance changes over time and differs from person to person.

At university I studied engineering, mathematics and computer science. Those subjects help because we use mathematical tools to analyse problems and need to program automated systems.

Preparing and learning as an intern

Lars discusses useful courses and says prior financial knowledge is not required. He describes classes and mentored projects during his internship.

I would recommend courses in probability and statistics, but the exact courses are not the most important thing. Take subjects you enjoy: when you enjoy a course, you are likely to learn more and be better able to use that knowledge at work.

Whether you join as an intern or full-time employee, you do not need prior financial knowledge; we can teach the knowledge needed for the job. An interest in finance, financial markets and their relationships is helpful, but knowing much in advance is not required.

I was an intern in 2019. The trading internship teaches financial-market concepts through classes as well as projects with a full-time trader as mentor. I was surprised by how much time we spent with full-time staff and how much we learned from them.

Full-time training and early impact

New traders learn OCaml and spend a year learning about teams and departments. Lars recalls contributing early and advises newcomers to be curious and ask questions.

Full-time traders receive substantial training. Boot camp includes learning OCaml, the language used in Jane Street systems, and over the following year new traders work on a team while learning about different desks and departments across the firm.

Alongside training, new hires can have a real impact early. After a few weeks, I had worked on projects that affected how we traded in markets. Others supervised me and helped me understand the relationships involved, but it was exciting to see my work used so quickly.

My main advice to new hires and interns is to ask many questions and be curious. Colleagues know a great deal about financial products and other subjects, and they are happy to spend time explaining concepts. The more questions you ask, the more you can learn.