About IMC
IMC is a leading global market maker, using algorithmic trading and advanced technology to buy and sell securities on multiple trading venues worldwide. We provide liquidity to the financial markets, driving efficiencies for buyers and sellers. We operate globally from offices in Europe, the US and Asia Pacific. Our employees work closely together in multidisciplinary teams, making our success possible
Trading – Although our traders come from many backgrounds, they all have one thing in common: they are at their best solving complex problems. Their insight into global events, market shifts and pricing ensure we are trading in the right place, at the right time.
Technology – At IMC, technology is not a department, it is at the heart of everything we do. Our technologists push the limits of possibility and then look beyond. In our fast-paced environment, short feedback loops mean projects worked on in the morning can enter production the next day.
Discover our internship and graduate opportunities in trading and technology at careers.imc.com.
Koen studied aerospace engineering in Delft and in 2018 Koen joined IMC as a Graduate Trader. Why did he choose for IMC? And why are the AE courses essential for success as a trader?
Why did I look beyond aerospace engineering?
During my bachelor’s degree I performed an internship at an intergovernmental organization dedicated to space exploration, and it was here that I realised how rewarding it can be to work with people who can challenge you in an academic way. Colleagues with a scientific or engineering background, at MSc or PhD level, who excel in their respective fields. Nonetheless there was still something missing for me; I was looking to work in a non-bureaucratic environment where I could validate my results in days, and not decades, and where I could decide on what path to take when solving a problem. Not being able to find this environment within engineering companies, I decided to explore opportunities beyond those obvious for our faculty.
Why did I choose for IMC?
Although I was looking beyond engineering, I was not willing to give up my technical aspirations. My fascination with, and passion for, mathematics is what drew me to Delft in the first place. With both my parents and siblings having careers in finance there was one niche in particular that caught my attention: options trading. An option is a financial product that grants the owner the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a certain price on or before a particular date in the future. The value of this product has a (non-linear) dependency on variety of factors, such as time, which poses an unparalleled mathematical complexity. Because IMC prices and trades these products in a highly automated fashion it provided me with an opportunity to learn from renowned software engineers, hardware engineers, and quants who have shaped this market over the last 30 years. In other words IMC provided an environment with a competitive landscape where I could still find academic fulfillment.
Which courses taught at AE are essential for succes at IMC?
Whereas IMC can and will teach you the fundamentals of option pricing, it would be too time-consuming to explain new hires how to represent a function as a Taylor series, or how to solve a differential equation. This is why we almost exclusively recruit talents with a scientific or engineering background, either at MSc or PhD level. In other words, solid mathematical skills are a must.
How could you contribute?
Whether you are interested in pushing the theoretical limit of hardware latency, intrigued by the active research of option pricing theory, aim to improve your programming skills, or are simply fond of doing analysis in Python – IMC provides the platform to expand your skills.
We are a company that is low in headcount, but with offices in Amsterdam, Chicago, and Sydney, we have a global approach and impact. And with our focus on automation we will continue to shape this domain for decades to come.