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Systematic Index Options Trader

IMC Trading · Chicago, IL · Screen & Quant Trading

Posted Sep 30, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026

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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 found an anomaly in data that everyone else had missed.

What they are checking: Attention to detail and the habit of asking why something looks odd instead of filtering it out.

Describe a project where you took an idea from first sketch to something people actually used.

What they are checking: Follow-through from inception to production, which the posting says this team expects.

What would you do

If a competitor keeps beating us to certain trades, how would you figure out whether it's speed, pricing or something else?

What they are checking: Structured diagnosis of competitive behavior from data, which is a big part of quantifying execution opportunities.

You'd own a defined piece of the strategy, like one exchange. How would you spend your first month getting to know it?

What they are checking: Whether they can take ownership and build deep knowledge of a narrow area quickly and on their own.

A developer says your requested change will add latency. How do you decide whether it's still worth it?

What they are checking: Whether they can weigh revenue gain against speed cost with numbers rather than opinions.

What would you do if a change you pushed caused a loss in the first hour of trading?

What they are checking: Calm, honest response under pressure, including rolling back fast and telling the team right away.

About the work

Walk me through how you'd dig into a single trade where we got filled and then immediately lost money.

What they are checking: Whether they can reconstruct events from exchange feed and our own logs to find the real cause of adverse selection.

What makes execution in index options different from execution in single-stock options?

What they are checking: Product knowledge of index options, including settlement, size, and how liquidity spreads across strikes and expiries.

You propose a change to our execution logic. How would you use a backtest to predict its impact, and what would make you distrust that backtest?

What they are checking: Whether they understand that backtests miss queue effects and competitor reactions, so they treat results with caution.

Quick one: an option has a delta of 0.4 and the index jumps 10 points. Roughly what happens to its price, and what are you ignoring?

What they are checking: Fluency with Greeks and awareness that gamma and vol changes break a simple delta estimate.

How would you measure whether our execution system improved last month, when markets themselves changed a lot?

What they are checking: Their ability to separate our performance from market conditions, which is hard and essential for honest evaluation.

Practice this interview out loud.

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The full job description

As published by IMC Trading.

We are looking for an Index Options Low-Latency Execution Quantitative Trader to join our team. IMC's Index Options desk is one of the leading electronic liquidity providers in index options markets. Our execution team is responsible for getting IMC into the trades we want to participate in, across a range of mechanisms. Our ultra-low latency infrastructure is best-in-class, and because IMC is highly collaborative between traders, quant researchers, and developers, the scope of this role spans deep trade analysis, execution system improvement, and early ownership of a defined part of the strategy. Your Core Responsibilities: • Drive revenue in low-latency index options trading by building upon and improving our electronic execution systems • Deliver high-quality analysis using a variety of datasets, including options pricing, trades data, and exchange feed • Dive into specific trade examples to understand the behavior of our systems and those of our competitors, identify anomalies, and quantify opportunities • Use backtesting and analysis tools to predict the impact of changes to our execution systems and continuously improve our performance • Work collaboratively with traders, quant researchers, and developers to bring ideas from inception to production • Take early ownership of a defined area of the strategy, for example a certain exchange or execution type, and grow into setting multi-month improvement plans Your Skills and Experience: • 2+ years of experience in low-latency index options execution, including liquidity providing and taking • Strong understanding of exchange microstructure and how automated trading systems interact with exchanges • Entrepreneurial mindset with a competitive nature, strong ownership mentality, and a bias toward action • Ability to perform efficient analysis on large datasets in Python • Preference for relevant tertiary qualifications (graduate or post-graduate) in a quantitative field: mathematics, computer science, statistics, or similar, with strong academic results • Strong communicator, able to collaborate effectively across trading, research, and development teams The Base Salary range for the role is included below. Base salary is only one component of total compensation; all full-time, permanent positions are eligible for a discretionary bonus and benefits, including paid leave and insurance. Please visit Benefits - US | IMC Trading for more comprehensive information. Salary Range $250,000 — $250,000 USD About Us IMC is a research-driven trading firm where quantitative modeling, machine learning, and engineering shape how modern markets are traded. A stabilizing force in markets since 1989, we provide liquidity across trading venues, delivering the best outcome in value and risk management to investors. Using our own technology and capital, we build proprietary systems and algorithms that operate across global markets. Our researchers, traders, and engineers work as a collective, combining rapid experimentation, advanced infrastructure, and real-time feedback to turn insight into execution and execution into advantage.  

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