How does electronic trading look like after more than one year of pandemic crisis, considering the shift to online platforms?
Christopher Lederer: As our core business is fully electronic, the impact was rather on a personal level. Business was not really affected from a technical POV.
The traders could not work from home because of compliance/regulation. For all supporting teams, we have seen, after a 2-3 week adjustment period, very little to no impact.
In the past, during TSM panels and interviews, we talked about digital coins. How far are we from a regulation in this domain?
Christopher Lederer: Globally, cryptocurrencies are still not regulated. While some coins are being traded on regulated markets, a big chunk of trading still happens in a rather grey area.
It might not be your domain but how do you see the bitcoin fluctuation and its future?
Christopher Lederer: Personally, I do not foresee any cool-down soon. With newly created coins and a continued "gold-rush"-like atmosphere, the conditions are still very much set for high volatility and will react to rumours, news and media attention, with ongoing highs and lows.
Since our last interview in 2018, how did the electronic market change and evolve?
Christopher Lederer: They have continued to develop and efficiency is the key driver for the ongoing evolution; this is true for all global markets: consolidation and price efficiency.
Flow Traders has a nice presence in Cluj-Napoca, what kind of software specialists are you looking for now?
Christopher Lederer: We have a strong focus on Java, but in general we are open to Java, C++, Python and are continuously looking for talent to develop and grow.
I know your interviews are very hard, what is the ideal candidate and how they should be prepared?
Christopher Lederer: They are very hard if you don't invest time to read our website. Seriously, the biggest factor for decline is the fact that candidates do not invest the effort to understand who we are and what we do. I often feel that candidates only focus on technical abilities, but ignore the fact that we have already a strong base and we rather look for potential to grow, as we have the knowledge in-house to share. A strong candidate from a technical POV could still be rejected if we see that he is not "investing" effort - as that is the major driver for developing your own technical skills together with your team and colleagues, so we jointly excel in our efforts to continue to be market leaders globally.
Considering the current in person limitation due to COVID, what is your working policy for this year regarding remote work?
Christopher Lederer: We have recently set a 3/2 day model. 3 days in the office, 2 days working from home.
Tell us a few words about the future of the Flow Traders Cluj office.
Christopher Lederer: Of course we wish to grow, but hiring and general market reflection isn't making it easy for us to grow. For some hires/candidates the office is too small and for others too specific to trading, and of course our domain isn't really known - so there is also a factor of the unknown. We have kept the office quite stable over the last 5 years and will continue to hire and grow.
by John Bax
