I don't think it's about talent, but more of a problem of proper planning and execution. It seems things had been rushed to meet the tight demands, causing the chaos.
When LSE acquired MilleniumIT, to redo the platform, they claimed to have developed world fastest trading platform[1] and had enough talent under their belt developing trading systems around the globe for last decade.
None of the exchanges have the required talent. Being the best exchange technology company is like being the best team in a minor league. If you're good at extreme low latency stuff you're going to be working for a bank.
At a bank being great at low-latency can mean tens of millions of dollars of profit for your trading desk and a huge bonus for your personally.
At an exchange being great a low-latency means ... well not much, your exchange gets a bit more flow and you get a pat on the back.
> At an exchange being great a low-latency means ... well not much, your exchange gets a bit more flow and you get a pat on the back.
Exchanges pay out bigger bonus' than you'd imagine. 7 figures for a programmer is high but no where out of the ordinary. Says a guy who has worked for an exchange.
Exchanges often use (relatively) esoteric hardware + real-time OSes, such as the Tandem NonStop series. Experience with such a platform + domain knowledge about the finance industry is a rare combination, so I find it plausible that a couple of core expert programmers on the stock exchange's system get compensated quite well. High six figures + 80% bonus == seven figure, I guess?
> I seriously doubt any exchange is regularly paying developers multi-million dollar bonuses.
I'd agree with that. Having said that, I doubt many investment banks are regularly paying developers multi-million dollar bonuses.
The people who get those are called quants or traders, even if they have programming skills, just my experience.
> Which exchange did you work for?
I'd rather not say, if you want to know, contact me via email. Not sure how you got my linked in info as it's not attached to my profile.
Ahem, based on what evidence exactly did you reach that conclusion ?
TBH, from all the exchanges/brokers I've seen and dealt with in the past, there are a few that are pretty solid - Deutsche Borse is one of them. There's EuroMTS as well.
Essentially, most exchanges that deal with many market makers have got an extremely challenging technical problem to solve - scaling and latency. One that most investment banks can't even begin to solve.
I'm not saying there aren't any good talent in banks - there are plenty. I'm just saying that there's some really smart, talented people in exchanges.
When LSE acquired MilleniumIT, to redo the platform, they claimed to have developed world fastest trading platform[1] and had enough talent under their belt developing trading systems around the globe for last decade.
[1] http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/exchanges/showArticle.jhtml...