When Milliseconds Make Millions: Why Wall Street Programmers Earn the Big Bucks

[Connor]

When Milliseconds Make Millions: Why Wall Street Programmers Earn the Big Bucks

David Ramel follows up his "Highest Paid Programmers" article with a look inside the world of high-frequency trading, where coders earn top dollars and even nanoseconds count.

By David Ramel

A recent article I wrote about the highest paid programmers provided a peek into the world of big-money, automated trading on Wall Street. In high-frequency trading (HFT), programmers eke out every last incremental tick in performance to build algorithms that battle other algorithms for computational supremacy and millions in profits -- and earn a lot in the process.

http://adtmag.com/articles/2011/07/29/why-hft-programmers-earn-top-salaries.aspx

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Thanks for the article. It gave some nice color.
It's clear that the people got paid for their in high demand skills and expertise. You can't study and prepare for that.

 

[Eugene Krel]

An article that cites slashdot user comments and wikipedia...

 

[Andy Nguyen]

An article that cites slashdot user comments and wikipedia...

Can't imagine you would get more credible insights into such a secretive world than that

 

[alain]

Interesting discussion about this topic

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2828538

Even better, check this from the discussion:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2828749

this the wikipedia entry for the author of the post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zed_Shaw

 

[Saurab]

So all the HFT traders making millions per year is true?? Its confusing how the salary is posted in internet.. Most of the sites agree with making 150-300K but are there people making millions by being HFT traders?? or is it just hyped or bragged about!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Sampling bias of course. You hear about the ones making millions but you rarely hear about those who make less than spectacular salary.

 

[MRoss]

Of course. I'll bet there are even social workers out there making millions...

his is why it so important to actually enjoy your work. It use to drive me nuts when everyone would say "make sure you get a job that you enjoy!" Now I understand that this is more than just being happy. The more you enjoy your job the harder you will work; eventuall earning you these spectacular salaries.

 

[D C]

alain :: interesting find off your string...

http://veyronb.wordpress.com/