Market Making — Quantitative Trader/Researcher

Arm: Market Making · Places: 4 per team · Team size: 7

About QTE

Queen's Tower Exchange is a financial-markets simulation for Imperial College London students. Teams use live market data and simulated capital to test ideas and learn through competition.

Responsibilities

• Analyse prices and order flow to develop estimates of fair value.
• Test bid and ask placement, quote sizes and adjustments for existing inventory.
• Use recorded sessions to compare ideas before proposing deployment.
• Supervise live strategies and explain why particular trades gained or lost value.
• Recommend improvements that preserve capacity to keep quoting on both sides.

What success looks like

Research that produces testable improvements and clear explanations of live outcomes. Your team is scored on risk-adjusted returns, retained edge, market share and inventory discipline; collaboration within the team matters.

• Basic probability and statistics, including averages, variability and uncertainty.
• Enough Python to inspect a dataset, calculate simple statistics and produce a chart.
• Curiosity about how prices form and a willingness to question your own results.
• Clear communication and a collaborative approach to research.

You can demonstrate these through coursework or personal projects. Previous trading experience is not required.

Useful, but not required

Familiarity with pandas, time-series analysis or the basic structure of an order book.

Much of your learning will take place during a dedicated training week, held after teams are selected and before trading begins. Your Head of Arm will deliver lectures exclusively for the teams in your arm, giving you a strong grounding in the concepts and tools you will use in your role.

• Market-making fundamentals: spreads, fair value, inventory and adverse selection.
• How to run backtests and recognise misleading results or overlooked trading costs.
• How to use QTE's research tools, risk displays and strategy-registration process.
• How to assess whether the edge at a fill remains after the next minute's price movement.