Roxy Rong, trading manager at PEAK6 Capital Management, learned to code at 10 to design games to play with friends. She was obsessed with math as a teen, and studied actuarial science at University of Wisconsin. That is, until she took her first investment class. Immediately, she was hooked. Roxy, who joined PEAK6 as a trading associate in 2014, shares how programming and her affinity for math continue to give her an edge when it comes to problem-solving and developing new trading strategies.
Why Tech?
Under my parents’ influence, I learned how to code in old languages like QBasic and Pascal when I was 10. It was pretty fun to design and develop small games. In middle school and high school, I was obsessed with math. In college, I got some exposure in Java and R. A couple years back, I taught myself Python and Javascript so that I could make better trading tools for my trading strategies at PEAK6.
From Tech to Finance
I started out as an actuarial science major at the University of Wisconsin, but got interested in the financial markets after I took one investment class. I thought that I would give trading a try, but I didn’t know anything about it. I joined the PEAK6 trading associate program after I met a PEAK6 campus recruiter. I learned in two weeks what I would have learned at school in four years! PEAK6’s Trading Experience for Women Internship hadn’t yet been created when I joined PEAK6, but now juniors in college can participate in that amazing opportunity.
How Programming Helps Me
It allows me to create trading tools to improve my workflow efficiency. I love problem-solving, and it’s exciting to develop new trading strategies, especially using automation. My programming skills enable me to develop novel tools and discover new trading ideas. It gives me an edge.
Next Challenge
I want to learn more about how to manage large machine learning models to scale up our strategy research and speed up our process. There are tons of new frameworks, products, and services out there to explore, and best practices to adopt.
Just for Fun
I like to go to concerts, music festivals and comedy shows. Since COVID-19, I’ve been doing a lot more reading, painting, and biking.
Best Part of My Job
I love the opportunity to leverage machine learning models and advanced technologies for our strategy. In addition to other traders on my team, I work with really smart quants and developers. This hybrid team structure pushes me to learn new things and iterate fast, which always keeps things interesting.
