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Quantitative Macro Researcher London, England
Job description
At Symmetry Investments, we seek to engage in intelligent risk-taking to create value for our clients, partners and employees. We derive our edge from our capacity to generate Win-Wins – in the broadest sense. Win-Win is our fundamental ethical and strategic principle. By generating Win-Wins, we can create unique solutions that reconcile perspectives that are usually seen as incompatible or opposites, and encompass the best that each side has to offer:
We are seeking a candidate for a Quantitative Macro Researcher position. The position is within the Quantitative Macro Research team. The team is responsible for developing tools to analyse macroeconomic and financial market developments and, using these tools, formulate investment views in fixed income and FX markets. Most recently, the focus was global inflation markets.
Your role will involve helping the team to maintain our code base, systems as well as develop new discretionary frameworks and quantitative models. You will monitor data and functioning of processes to run these models. You will also work on visualisation of research output to distribute results within the firm. You will communicate with developers and programmers on aspects of implementation. In addition to that, you will conduct quantitative, thematic and ad-hoc investment research as necessary as the firm needs. You will also liaise with in-house and external economists / strategists to get ideas and gain insights into various financial markets with the focus on fixed income and FX. The goal is to use these models, insights and ad-hoc research to formulate views on markets and recommend investment opportunities to Portfolio Managers.
We value interest and capabilities, entrepreneurial spirit as much as formal experience. Academic credentials are not a requirement if you can demonstrate your skills and added value. You will be working in a creative, less-structured environment, with a degree of autonomy to implement solutions. You will be able to think about problems in a high-level way using pragmatically common sense. You are comfortable asking for help when you need it. You are capable of accepting direction should a particular solution fit with the longer-term strategic goals of the firm.
What work will the successful candidate do in the first 3-6 months
- Improve code base and monitoring of processes for existing quantitative models
- Improve robustness of processes for data inputs and outputs of models. Refactor code
- Create dashboards to monitor and visualise data and output of models
- Work on improvement of existing and on development of new models of inflation
- incorporate high and medium frequency leading indicators within econometric models for key subcomponents inflation
- web-scrape data when needed
- liaise with in-house economists, external researchers to identify ideas; use academic research to replicate some of the frameworks available
- program these models in our systems
- work on backtesting of models
- Work on development of models of various markets
- Analyse market projections relative to the output of models. Suggest trade ideas for Portfolio Managers (PMs)
Requirements
- Good programming skills (Python, Julia, other)
- Excellent problem solving and diagnostic skills
- Background in either econometrics, mathematics, physics or economics
- Understanding of financial economics, knowledge of econometrics
- Knowledge of economic and financial history will be valuable
- Perceptive, independent minded
- Highly detail oriented, self-directed, entrepreneurial and keen to learn
- Ability to present complex research outcomes with clarity and brevity; excellent communication skills
You will need to show us examples of any publicly-shareable writing (articles, research, etc.) or code that you’ve written (hobby projects, open source contributions). A link to your GitHub/Substack/Medium would help expedite the selection process.
- An introductory meeting and an aptitude assessment. The aptitude assessment is not a pass/fail test, and we do the same aptitude assessment for all candidates coming to Symmetry - so it cannot be a test of competency for a certain role. We're trying to understand what you're good at and what you're bad at, to try to form a role around your strengths and weaknesses.
- A meeting with a member of the team for an open discussion on your background, experiences and how you may fit into the team.
A meeting with someone technical. We're not looking for everyone to be a software developer, but we do like having technical people meet candidates to see how they approach complex problems, how they can break them down and solve them, and how they learn.
Iteration from there, based on the feedback from the interviews and any further interviews to try to figure out where you'd best fit within Symmetry and what role we can create for you.
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