Braking into finance. Technologies .NET C++

[manclarky]

other such typographical howlers are frowned on

Wouldn't it be "frowned upon"?

[JoJoGabor]

thanks for the answers.

Do employers in finance give attention to skills which are not used at work? For example I'd like to download and study IBM MQ middleware as most of the roles requires middleware such as TIBCO(doesn't have trial). I'll write that to my CV but will put no experience on it.

Also do you know any good C++/C# book that focuses on finance subjects such as quantitative development + usage of some middleware which I can gain some hands on experience.

For god's sake, don't put lies on your CV. This is one of the main reasons why banks ask for prior banking experience, to weed out people who submit great looking CV's which are full of lies

[bilgehan]

For god's sake, don't put lies on your CV. This is one of the main reasons why banks ask for prior banking experience, to weed out people who submit great looking CV's which are full of lies

I won't lie I'll mention that I have exposure to these and not unfamiliar completely in order to increase my chances of interview. I am an experienced C++/C developer with UNIX and will get a job with those skills eventually.

Also one of the reasons I want to learn technologies used in IB sector is I have a keen interest in finance e.g. I started to program MQL learned a lot about forex trends, support/resistance how markets move basically.

[BlasterBates]

I won't lie I'll mention that I have exposure to these and not unfamiliar completely in order to increase my chances of interview. I am an experienced C++/C developer with UNIX and will get a job with those skills eventually.

Also one of the reasons I want to learn technologies used in IB sector is I have a keen interest in finance e.g. I started to program MQL learned a lot about forex trends, support/resistance how markets move basically.

Sounds to me you have the right sort of skills and background to get a job eventually just keep plugging away. C++ programmers are in short supply, though I would focus more on valuation rather than things such as forex trends. Read Options, Futures and other Derivatives by John Hull. Learn about interest rate curves, loans, swaps, options and so on and how to valuate them. That's mostly what it's about. Most apps are carrying out pricing and calculating risk.

[bilgehan]

Sounds to me you have the right sort of skills and background to get a job eventually just keep plugging away. C++ programmers are in short supply, though I would focus more on valuation rather than things such as forex trends. Read Options, Futures and other Derivatives by John Hull. Learn about interest rate curves, loans, swaps, options and so on and how to valuate them. That's mostly what it's about. Most apps are carrying out pricing and calculating risk.

Thanks for the book suggestion it looks good I 'll buy. Sending applications figers crossed thanks all for help.

[Scrag Meister]

Sounds to me you have the right sort of skills and background to get a job eventually just keep plugging away. C++ programmers are in short supply, though I would focus more on valuation rather than things such as forex trends. Read Options, Futures and other Derivatives by John Hull. Learn about interest rate curves, loans, swaps, options and so on and how to valuate them. That's mostly what it's about. Most apps are carrying out pricing and calculating risk.

John Hull on Derivatives.

Bought it, read some of it, sure its useful somewhere but not in the roles I seem to be covering.

[aceboy]

That banks that I deal with usually use Java for their pricing engines as there is a surplus of java developers. and Java has come on leaps and bounds in terms of performance.... C++ bods are difficult to come by.

WPF seems to have taken onboard for the GUI side at a few banks recently....

Ask yourself why you want to get into this space? the rates are dropping, there is a high attrition rate, the hours often suck...

[anothercodemonkey]

If you are a C++ guy then I'd stick with that rather than trying to learn C#.
I agree with what other people have said about TIBCO - don't put it on your CV if you don't have it.
At the moment there are two ways you could go
1. High frequency trading. This requires less finance/maths knowledge but you do need to be a bit of a demon on high performance coding and networking. I think that this is easier to learn that the requisite maths and finance and there are not as many people out there who have been doing this for ages.
2. Quant/Analytics code. A lot of pricing stuff is written in C++. To get one of these jobs is quite hard. You need good maths (PDEs, statistics, monte-carlo simulations, numerical methods) and finance knowledge (at least one of equities, interest rates or credit). A lot of these jobs are held by guys with PhDs in physics, engineering or maths. The bar here is high and since the arse has fallen out of the exotics and credit markets there are a lot more unemployed quants around. You might be able to get in on your C++ skills though since a lot of quants are better at maths than they are at coding!

If you are interested in doing a course you could try one of these two. £640 each, two hours a week for ten weeks.
Financial Engineering in C++ (Computational Finance Using Advanced C++ Design Techniques) | City University London
Advanced Financial Engineering - Interest Rate Derivatives in C++ | City University London

In terms of books the Wilmott books are quite a gentle intro to finance. Hull is pretty standard. For bonds you should look at this one.
The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities: Amazon.co.uk: Frank J. Fabozzi: Books
Dominic O'Kane wrote a good book on credit products too.

Good luck trying to break into finance. The market is pretty grim at the moment so you might want to wait until the new year when things pick up a bit.