By Jordan Weed, Managing Director, Business Development – Trading, PEAK6 Capital Management
Traders know how important technology is to their success. Having cutting-edge tech for market awareness, idea generation, risk management, and positioning is not just nice to have, it’s required to survive. At PEAK6, the software our engineers build ensures our firm continues to excel even as opportunities change.
I am personally grateful for the solid foundation of trader tools that have been built over the years. To me, however, what is even more exciting is that it feels like our trading technology capabilities are growing exponentially.
I’ve never felt so good about our traders’ capabilities and flexibility, both of which are amplified by the high-quality software our product and engineering teams have delivered.
The Key to Fintech Innovation
Collaboration between engineers and traders is hugely important. Since we’ve switched to a product-oriented model, these two groups have worked together closely. There is so much more visibility into what’s being worked on, and it has built trust in how we work together and get things done.
It has also increased understanding and insight into how we collectively prioritize and evaluate the relative value of our various projects. Personally, I have multiple conversations with a handful of engineers every day either on Slack, via Zoom, or in-person.
This tight collaboration speeds up the feedback loop and allows for faster iteration on vital projects. It also cultivates mutual respect and understanding that further fosters a sense of shared purpose in achieving fintech innovation. We all understand the role everyone plays in our collective success as a firm.
The Right Questions Lead to the Right Trader Tools
New ideas for how our technology could be better are surfaced by both engineers and traders constantly. Generally, those ideas are spawned by opportunities encountered by traders as they refine their trading workflows.
“Wouldn’t it be great if this information was pushed directly to me in this format?” or “What if we built an execution algorithm that accomplishes this?” are common questions among our traders.
When we work together, traders and engineers build more dynamic systems that make it easier and less costly to test out these possibilities. The good news is if you’re someone who enjoys challenges, there’s never a shortage of problems, and thus, ideas for trader tools.
How Trading Technology Innovation Helps My Work
Technology has an impact on everything that I do as a trader, including generating trade ideas, evaluating trade ideas, portfolio risk management, and trade execution. On the rare occasions when we do have trading application or execution issues, I’m reminded of how essential many aspects of our technology is to my workflow.
When a new feature is released that unlocks the potential for me to do my job better, I am so thankful to our engineering and product teams who made it happen. I’m excited to continue collaborating with our creative engineers and am confident that we will keep PEAK6 ahead of the curve.