Options Market Making — Head of Desk

Arm: Options — Market Making · Places: 1 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 develop practical trading and research skills.

Responsibilities

• Allocate contract coverage and risk across the team.
• Review strategies, approve registrations and coordinate deployments.
• Assign a hedge coordinator for each underlying so traders manage stock hedges together.
• Monitor quoting performance and the book's delta, gamma and vega exposures.
• Plan contract changeovers and pre-expiry wind-down, and lead responses to risk restrictions.

What success looks like

A desk that maintains qualifying quotes and preserves capacity as market conditions and expiry risk change. Scoring combines risk-adjusted returns, retained edge, vega-weighted market share and risk discipline. Stock hedges manage delta; they do not remove gamma or vega.

• Basic understanding of calls, puts, option payoffs and why volatility affects value.
• Introductory familiarity with delta, gamma and vega; expert pricing knowledge is not expected.
• Confidence with quantitative reasoning and explaining decisions under uncertainty.
• Experience organising people or shared work through a student project or activity.

Professional options trading experience is not required. Self-study and coursework can demonstrate the foundations.

Useful, but not required

Python analysis, probability, calculus or a project involving options or risk.

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.

• Practical use of Greeks: delta measures price sensitivity, gamma how delta changes, and vega sensitivity to volatility.
• How quoting, inventory and qualifying stock hedges interact.
• QTE's quoting obligations, risk limits and contract lifecycle.
• How to review a desk's results and coordinate risk decisions across contracts.