Have you tried finding independent traders in your city to collaborate on ambitious projects?

JTDerp · Post by **JTDerp** » Wed Nov 02, 2016 4:04 am

Just a general pondering - those of you who might operate outside of the IB community and live in/near a city with a well-established financial sector, have you tried seeking out other independent quantitative researchers/traders to collaborate on developing systems to commit capital (your own or others')?

I'm in the U.S., within 100 miles of Charlotte and Atlanta, which have a decent culture of finance, but certainly not on the level of the usual spots. Just curious if it *can* make all the difference in the world to work a better spot for enthusiastic, well-read & experienced people who are independent & hence not bound by employers' terms on market intelligence.

goldorak · Post by **goldorak** » Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:05 am

No internet available?

JTDerp · Post by **JTDerp** » Thu Nov 03, 2016 2:57 am

Just seems collaboration is more expedient in-person, but I dunno

baghead · Post by **baghead** » Sun Nov 06, 2016 6:54 pm

I started a meetup in a city with 3 million inhabitants and no finance culture looking for full-time traders. Got maybe 25 requests to join but ultimately invited 10 as the rest were more "investing enthusiasts". 8 showed up. The range was pretty wide from punting warrants with 20k of Bar Mitzvah money via endless backtesting to find a trend-following system to vol RV with $100k 1d99% VaR.

Followed up with one guy over the past few months and we are now considering to revive a currently defunct market making shop that still has regulator's approval, clearer agreement and server co-location in place.

JTDerp · Post by **JTDerp** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 4:01 pm

Been to a few Meetups in Chicago and Charleston, SC over the years, expectations were always low since Meetups seem more like a place for Stocktwits & other low-end services to pitch their wares to the hobbyist types. Went to a few programming meets too, lightly asked around if people had interest in finance...on the fence mostly. People want to jump on a moving train, not build one. Or maybe I'm a douche...

Tradenator · Post by **Tradenator** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 5:16 pm

Start a thread under off-topic for Charleston Drinks, and see what happens. It's called networking. Once you develop a small crew of like-minded people then you can try more formal things. If you can't network face-to-face then you have no hope in business so I wouldn't worry too much about anything "more ambitious" as it will elude you.

baghead - excellent, good luck with things!