Equity Options Volatility Trader

IMC

Our US Equity Options business has become one of the leading liquidity-providers in the marketplace. We’ve already created partnerships and business models to facilitate our expansion and we continue to improve our options pricing, particularly in the volatility space. IMC is highly collaborative between traders, quants, and developers so the scope of responsibility involves working with others to identify and describe mispricings, interact with the market, and push forward visibility improvements Your Core Responsibilities:  * Maximize revenue by both finding, and then capitalizing on short term mispricing, as well as managing larger positions * Work closely with our best-in-class research and quant teams to analyze your results and improve your approach * Take lots of responsibility and ownership early to drive strategies forward and be successful Your Skills and Experience:  * Experienced equity options trader with at least 2 years’ experience * Entrepreneurial mindset with a healthy risk appetite, are competitive by nature, and are a fast decision maker * Ability to identify patterns and describe them analytically. Preference for relevant tertiary qualifications (graduate or post graduate), with strong academic results * Passionate about understanding volatility dynamics and willing to immediately act on your opinions to capture market opportunities. * In tune with the fundamental drivers of stocks we trade and can work effectively with a research analyst team to make decisions #LI-DNP   The Base Salary range for the role is included below. Base salary is only one component of total compensation; all full-time, permanent positions are eligible for a discretionary bonus and benefits, including paid leave and insurance. Please visit Benefits - US | IMC Trading for more comprehensive information. Salary Range $175,000—$250,000 USD About Us IMC is a global trading firm powered by a cutting-edge research environment and a world-class technology backbone. Since 1989, we’ve been a stabilizing force in financial markets, providing essential liquidity upon which market participants depend. Across our offices in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, and India, our talented quant researchers, engineers, traders, and business operations professionals are united by our uniquely collaborative, high-performance culture, and our commitment to giving back. From entering dynamic new markets to embracing disruptive technologies, and from developing an innovative research environment to diversifying our trading strategies, we dare to continuously innovate and collaborate to succeed.

IMC

We're building out a trading initiative in London, with a growing focus on listed commodities options. This expansion is supported by a mix of internal talent and experienced external hires. With a collaborative and entrepreneurial culture, the team offers a unique opportunity to help shape and scale a new desk from an early stage. The group combines deep expertise with broad trading experience and values innovation, ownership, and cross-functional collaboration. As the desk continues to grow, there will be increasing opportunities to take on broader responsibilities and contribute meaningfully to its success.  Your Core Responsibilities * Maximize revenue by identifying and monetizing short- and long-term mispricings, as well as managing the resulting positions * Be able to take lots of responsibility and ownership early in your time here to drive the strategy forward * Managing risk and developing market making strategies * You will have lots of responsibility and ownership early on to drive strategies forward and be successful * IMC is highly collaborative between traders, quants, and developers so the scope of responsibility is fairly fluid involving a mixture of data-driven analysis, quantitative modelling and algorithm development Your skills and experience: * 3+ years’ experience in Commodities Options markets highly preferred, other asset classes such as Equity Options will be considered if from a proprietary trading environment  * BS, MS, or PhD, preferably in STEM * You have a quantitative and strategic mindset and a healthy appetite for risk * Strong technical skills in Statistics and Python * You have a proven ability to act and make decisions in a fast-paced and competitive environment * You are analytical, passionate about reflecting on past trades, and always seeking to do better * Experience with managing risk and developing market making strategies * Product experience is preferred * Strong communication and teamwork abilities About Us IMC is a global trading firm powered by a cutting-edge research environment and a world-class technology backbone. Since 1989, we’ve been a stabilizing force in financial markets, providing essential liquidity upon which market participants depend. Across our offices in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, and India, our talented quant researchers, engineers, traders, and business operations professionals are united by our uniquely collaborative, high-performance culture, and our commitment to giving back. From entering dynamic new markets to embracing disruptive technologies, and from developing an innovative research environment to diversifying our trading strategies, we dare to continuously innovate and collaborate to succeed.

Maven Securities

Maven is a market-leading proprietary trading firm deploying its own capital across discretionary, systematic, and market-making strategies. Backed by deep expertise in trading, technology, and research, we are relentlessly focused on improving liquidity across global listed derivatives. Through advanced execution and pricing technologies, we improve how financial markets operate. THE ROLE We are looking for an ambitious and proactive Equity Options Quant Trader to join our Vol Alpha Trading Team. This is a full-cycle quant trader position within a semi-systematic desk that specialises in statistical arbitrage relative value volatility,  flow-aware volatility position taking, and opportunistic dispersion trades across global equity volatilities, with a current emphasis on US equity options. The team runs an investment operation focusing on informed position taking combining statistical information and market flows observations. The successful candidate will play a key role in the desk’s day to day operation and future evolution as it expands its volatility strategies set as well as broader operation capabilities across products. The role will suit candidates with quantitative research or trading experience as part of a large volatility desk who want to transition into a more hands-on buy side risk-taking role which deploy statistical methods to extract alpha while having full understanding on what is driving an alpha’s performance. The successful candidate will experience an end-to-end investment process from market intuition, alpha discovery, to trade execution, which translates to a potential heavy contribution to the desk’s success and take meaningful ownership in PnL. RESPONSIBILITIES * Monitor and rationalise market flow to identify pricing dislocations * Analyse and interpret other market participants’ positionings to identify trading opportunities * Conduct research and backtests on pricing and structuring volatility curve, term structure, relative value and dispersion trades * Contribute to new alpha discovery through a combination of market dynamics observations and quantitative research toolings * Active participation in trading and risk-managing an extensive equity options portfolio as part of a team * Active participation in the desk’s future build-out into a bigger set of alpha and systematic strategies * Full end-to-end investment cycle from intuition, research, to execution * Collaboration with infrastructure and development teams to optimise electronic trading execution and minimise dependencies CANDIDATE SPECIFICATIONS * 2–5 years’ experience in US equity options quantitative research or trading. Experience from a major vol desk is a plus (bank, or multi-strategy hedge fund preferred) * Strong understanding of options markets, volatility, and equity derivatives * Exposure to or strong interest in volatility relative value, volatility carry, term structure and path, or dispersion strategies * Commercial trading mindset with appetite for risk ownership and strategy responsibility * Strong interest and ability to operate in a fast-moving, opportunistic trading environment * Strong analytical skills and research capabilities * Familiarity with Python and SQL or similar programming and database languages WHAT WE OFFER * A fast-growing global firm with plenty of opportunities where you will have a significant impact * Competitive compensation package * Annual discretionary bonus * Group pension plan * Enhanced annual leave allowance after 2+ years’ service * 25 days’ annual leave (plus public holidays) * Fully catered breakfast, lunch, and snacks prepared by an in-house chef * Private healthcare and life assurance * On-site private gym with instructor-led classes including boxing, yoga, and more * Monthly company events and social activities