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Founded in 2011 in Sydney, Australia and now headquartered in Chicago, Akuna Capital has quickly become one of the leaders in the derivatives industry. Unlike traditional proprietary trading firms, Akuna Capital puts cutting-edge technology at the core of its trading strategy, allowing it to stay ahead of the competition for years. Akuna Capital mainly recruits the following four quantitative positions:
Akuna Capital's emphasis on technology attracts many top students who want to develop at the intersection of finance and technology. In addition to providing traders, researchers, and developers with challenging quantitative problems, Akuna Capital is also known for its generous benefits package. The company advocates a culture of competition and collaboration, and focuses on giving employees the opportunity to relax and enjoy life after work.
In this article, we speak with a quant trader who is about to join Akuna Capital to learn about his interview experience at the firm and the advice he would give to traders looking to land a position at the firm. To respect Akuna's interview process, we will not disclose specific questions during the interview, but will outline general concepts you may encounter during the interview.
The whole process is relatively routine. I submitted my application when applications were open on their website.
After applying, I received some online tests. The tests cover skills such as mental arithmetic, pattern recognition, programming and trading intuition. I was satisfied with my performance and received an interview invitation after my third online test.
After completing the online test, you will have a telephone interview with a trader. Whether you interview as a quantitative trader or as a self-directed trader depends on your performance on the coding online test. If you perform well, you will advance to the final round of interviews.
An important aspect is to assess your technical abilities. Most interview questions will test your math skills, and they will also assess your trading intuition. They also want to test how you perform under pressure. The trading environment is very fast-paced, so they want to see how you handle these stressful situations when money is at stake.
Initially, I started by practicing a lot with probability and statistics. I took the time to study the Green Book in depth, striving to fully understand each question rather than mechanically memorizing the answers. I also did some quantitative interview questions to improve myself. Zetamac has been a great help in improving my mental arithmetic skills. In addition to math, I also watched some YouTube videos to understand what a market maker is to better understand the core business of the company.
Be sure to lay a good foundation: make sure you have strong mental arithmetic skills, develop an intuition for probability and statistics, and pay attention to detail. There's little room for error in an interview, so practice these skills until you can do it with confidence. Another helpful tip is to complete Akuna Capital’s Options 101 course. I originally knew nothing about options, but after taking this course, I gained a clearer understanding of the products the company trades, which helped me a lot during my job search.
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