Options

Options Taking — Head of Desk

Applications open

Lead a desk trading volatility and relative-value opportunities in SPY and AAPL options. This desk has no quoting obligation. You will coordinate four trader/researchers and two developers, deciding which ideas deserve risk and how the combined book should be managed.

What you'll do

Arm: Options — Taking · 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 investigate strategies and learn from their results.

Responsibilities

Allocate research work and risk across options strategies.
Challenge trade assumptions, approve strategy registrations and review deployments.
Monitor combined delta, gamma, vega and gross exposure.
Coordinate qualifying stock hedges and responses to exposure breaches or loss halts.
Plan contract changeovers, pre-expiry wind-down and term-end closure of options and hedge stock.

What success looks like

A team that can explain why it holds each trade and how it will respond when conditions change. The desk score weights risk-adjusted returns at 70% and net profit and loss at 30%. Stock trading is restricted to qualifying hedges in the matching underlying.

Prerequisite knowledge

Understanding of basic option payoffs and the effects of price, volatility and time.
Introductory familiarity with delta, gamma and vega.
Ability to compare competing ideas and explain a risk decision.
Experience coordinating a student team, project or society activity.

Industry trading experience is not required. Coursework and independent study are valid ways to build the foundations.

Useful, but not required

Python, quantitative research, portfolio analysis or practical options experiments.

What you'll be taught

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.

How to assess options strategies after execution, hedging and carrying costs.
How the risks of individual trades combine across a portfolio.
QTE's contract lifecycle, hedge qualification and limits as expiry approaches.
How to conduct strategy reviews and organise a desk's response to changing risk.

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