Ulrich Staudinger - Senior Software Developer
"It’s fascinating and challenging from the research and money making point of view"
Name: Ulrich Staudinger
Location: Zug
Job title: Senior software developer
Job description: Software Development, Trading Idea Research, Project management, Maintaining and developing the simulation/backtesting user interface.
My working day starts at 8:30, although I study during my commute.
I check emails and systems, read through yesterday's macro news releases and wait for bug requests regarding the backtesting framework. At 9:30 we have a stand-up development meeting.
During a typical day I might develop new features for the backtesting framework, the news trading architecture or some other app that I work on. An example of such a feature is ‘increasing the reporting resolution of the backtest PNL charts’.
I jump between matlab and java when I work in front of my computer. I do a lot of IT-Service work, development work and research work. It’s very similar to what the dedicated specialists do and my flexibility and rock-solid education pays out here.
A varied background
I studied Computer Science from 1997-2001 and graduated as Dipl. Inf. from University Furtwangen in Germany. I did the Eurex-Trader Certification in 2004 and gained a postgraduate certificate at University of Basel in Financial Market Theory (10 ECTS credits). I’m undertaking the CFA level 1 examination at the moment.
Previous employment includes GMX and Lycos in Germany, and a small hedge fund in Zug. I found this job at efinancialcareers.com and Ruth Steel acted as mediator in the hiring process.
Can-do attitude
I’m in regular contact all day with news vendors and news related stakeholders. We have to stay in touch and synchronize, same is valid for the backtesting framework. Overall my work is 50% extrinsically driven, 50% intrinsically driven.
There’s a can-do attitude at IMC and a lot of extremely high skilled employees. It’s fascinating and challenging from the research and money making point of view.
I enjoy researching trading strategies and accompanying project rollout throughout the lifecycle (research, development, trading). Managing contacts with data vendors – all in a global environment with different stakeholders – is also cool.
Freedom freak
I also get freedom to ‘freak around’ in maths, software development etc. I’m a true believer in open source and I was involved at board level in Jabber.org, the world wide biggest open source instant messaging network. In 2002 I founded activequant.org, the world's #1 open source software development framework for quantitative finance.
On Thursday afternoons I make banana milk shake for our department.
I leave the office at about 19:00, often to play sport.