Junior Trader
Posted Sep 14, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
About your past
Tell me about a time you competed against other people and it really mattered to you whether you won or lost.
What they are checking: genuine competitiveness versus performing enthusiasm for the interviewer
Give me an example of a time you made a decision with incomplete information and it turned out to be wrong. What did you do next?
What they are checking: how they handle being wrong and whether they adjust quickly or get defensive
Tell me about a time you had to explain something technical or quantitative to someone who didn't have your background.
What they are checking: communication skill, since traders constantly explain reasoning to teammates fast
Why do you want to be a trader instead of, say, a quant researcher or a software engineer at a firm like this?
What they are checking: whether their interest in live risk-taking is genuine or they're just applying broadly
What would you do
Say you're quoting a two-sided market and a large order suddenly moves against you before you can update your price, what do you do in that moment?
What they are checking: instinct for risk control and speed of reaction under real market pressure
If you're up big on a trade early in the day, does that change how you'd trade for the rest of the day? Why or why not?
What they are checking: risk discipline and whether emotion or ego drives their decision making
Two coworkers on your desk disagree loudly about a trade in the middle of a busy session. What do you do?
What they are checking: how they operate in a fast, blunt, high-friction team culture without freezing or escalating unnecessarily
About the work
Walk me through how you'd price a simple bet: I'll pay you if a coin lands heads twice in a row, what odds would you offer me and why?
What they are checking: whether the candidate can reason through expected value and probability quickly and explain their logic out loud
If I flip a fair coin 100 times, roughly how many heads would you expect, and how confident are you in that number?
What they are checking: comfort with basic probability and standard deviation without reaching for a calculator
What is an option, in your own words, and why would its price change if the stock's volatility goes up but the price doesn't move at all?
What they are checking: whether they actually understand vega and options pricing versus having memorized vocabulary
How would you estimate the number of piano tuners in Chicago?
What they are checking: structured mental math and comfort breaking a fuzzy problem into estimable pieces
Have you written code before, and can you describe a project or problem you used it for?
What they are checking: actual programming exposure versus a resume line, since the desk relies on proprietary tools
If a stock is trading at 100 and I tell you a call option struck at 100 is worth 8 with three months to expiry, is that number more likely to reflect high or low volatility, and why?
What they are checking: intuitive grasp of how volatility drives option premium, a core building block for the desks listed
Practice this interview out loud.
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Practice this out loudThe full job description
As published by Akuna Capital.