Optiver's top options trader in China left for rival electronic trading firm

APAC can be one of the most lucrative places to work if you're an electronic trader, as Jane Street infamously proved through its Indian operations. The market in China is massive and still largely untapped by these firms, but Jump Trading is looking to increase its foothold in the region by hiring from one of its rivals.

💥Follow us on WhatsApp for news alerts.💥 

Yang Hu joined Jump this month as its lead trader for options in central APAC, based in Shanghai. He spent the last eight years at Optiver, joining as a graduate in Sydney, Australia, but working in Shanghai for the past seven years, latterly as its options team lead. While there, traded options for commodities, ETFs and index options, using both low-latency and lower frequency strategies. He left Optiver a year ago, and has been on gardening leave prior to joining Jump Trading.

Optiver and Jump have both been operating in China for a while, but the former appears to have a more robust operation there. LinkedIn data suggests that Optiver has a larger headcount in China, and the firm has also been pursuing side-projects there like its independent AI-lab. Jump, which established its Shanghai in 2017, has nine open roles (including internships) in Shanghai. Optiver, which entered Shanghai in 2012, has 26. 

In the past, low latency specialists and C++ experts were the most in-demand roles for these kinds of firm in China, but the nature of HFT in the region may be changing. At the start of the year, Chinese regulators forced HFTs to relocate servers that were co-located with exchange data centres, a move that should make low-latency trading far less lucrative. The Chinese HFT industry may pivot to more medium-frequency strategies as it has been doing in the US and Europe.

Optiver and Jump did not respond to a request for comment.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: WhatsApp: http://wa.me/442079977910 (+44 20 7997 7910), Telegram: @AlexMcMurray, Signal: @AlexMcMurrayEFC.88 Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: comments are moderated intermittently by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You must take sole responsibility for comments you post on this site. We will take reasonable steps to weed out anything that we consider to be offensive or inappropriate.