AKUNA CAPITAL Reviews
Updated Mar 30, 2020
Clear All
Full-time, Part-time
English
- Administrative
- Arts & Design
- Business
- Consulting
- Customer Services & Support
- Education
- Engineering
- Finance & Accounting
- Healthcare
- Human Resources
- Information Technology
- Legal
- Marketing
- Media & Communications
- Military & Protective Services
- Operations
- Other
- Product & Project Management
- Research & Science
- Retail & Food Services
- Sales
- Skilled Labor & Manufacturing
- Transportation
- Worldwide
- United States - All Cities
- - Illinois
- - Chicago, IL, US Area
- - Champaign, IL, US Area
- - Massachusetts
- - Boston, MA, US Area
- - New York State
- - New York City, NY, US Area
- Australia - All Cities
- - New South Wales
- - Sydney, Australia Area
- China - All Cities
- - Shanghai
- - Shanghai, China Area
- India - All Cities
- - Maharashtra
- - Mumbai, India Area
- English
- French
- German
- Dutch
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Italian
Pros
"Very smart people and always will to cooperate" (in 9 reviews)
"They provide a 3-month training program for Junior Traders" (in 7 reviews)
Cons
"Bottom 10% of traders get sacked every annual review" (in 8 reviews)
"heavy workload, high pressure and less girls" (in 4 reviews)
"low morale high stress"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Compensation and Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendPositive OutlookI worked at AKUNA CAPITAL full-time for more than a year
Pros
good money smart colleagues good social scene
Cons
extraordinarily stressful environment even compared to traditionally high-stress cultures such as investment banking and management consulting money partially hoarded by senior management. moreso than you may expect poor tech leadership frequent turnover of employees. quitting/firings are common
AKUNA CAPITAL2020-03-19- Helpful (1)
"Zero understanding of technology and zero vision."
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Compensation and Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookI worked at AKUNA CAPITAL full-time for more than a year
Pros
Events, trips, kitchen, barista
Cons
Lack of any experience of technology in senior management. CEO reads a random technology article believes he is an expert and demands it be implemented. Refuses to listen to actual experts with over a decade of knowledge that the company has hired. Unwillingness to fix legacy technology issues due to cost which leads to constant issues throughout the environment. Turnover rate in IT makes it impossible to improve upon years of barely keeping the lights on.
AKUNA CAPITAL2020-03-30 - Helpful (2)
"Mixed feels about the future"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Compensation and Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendPositive OutlookI have been working at AKUNA CAPITAL full-time for more than 3 years
Pros
Work life balance can be good, at least sometimes. Office location is great. Free drinks, company trips. Compensation can be good when market favors.
Cons
If you are a graduate, and intersted in market making, this can be a good firm for you to learn. Technologies used are very limited, not fantastic. After some years, you can decide if you're really interested in this area and probably you still can find another job in the market (although the skills may be not that marketable). Some senior folks are not that friendly and makes you feel terrible. For example, may be talking something completely wrong without knowing it. And they stop you to challenge it. How would you feel if your 'manager' is like a kid that doesn't know the programming basics? Besides this, insulting words and personal attacks are something you may feel during work.
AKUNA CAPITAL2020-03-14 - Helpful (6)
"From First to Worst and Clueless how to Fix It"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Compensation and Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookI have been working at AKUNA CAPITAL full-time for more than 3 years
Pros
They did great with technology and making hay while the HFT sun shined. Shared the wealth, made everyone happy.
Cons
Absolutely clueless about how to move to being quantitatively-oriented or economically-aware. I've recommended people with PhDs and experience leading teams... and they made every one of them take an insulting arithmetic and python coding test. That was all kinds of awkward explaining to very accomplished people why we put them through a one-size-fits-all process that is fighting improving the place. In the end, all that did was sully the firms name with some influential people. FML for trying. Of course, this is why I don't intend to stay here much longer: I can see the writing on the wall.
Continue readingAKUNA CAPITAL2020-02-14 - Helpful (4)
"Clueless and management with poor compensation structure"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Compensation and Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookI have been working at AKUNA CAPITAL full-time for more than 3 years
Pros
Literally none at the moment
Cons
When there is a good year management reduces bonuses for everybody but pays themselves big fat checks, and when there is a bad year bonus is not performance related at all. The whole company has no clue where to invest (senior tech management is fired all the time, 4 CTOs in 2 years), and the quant team has a changed direction every 5 minutes. The whole trader management has no understanding of technology and no respect for quantitative measures.
Continue readingAKUNA CAPITAL2020-03-11 "Alright company."
StarStarStarStarStarI worked at AKUNA CAPITAL
Pros
New company. Room to grow.
Cons
Bonuses are small, not guaranteed. Issue with work/life balance. Differences in pay between traders who do same work
AKUNA CAPITAL2020-02-21"Need some experience on board for firm's expansion"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Compensation and Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNegative OutlookI worked at AKUNA CAPITAL full-time for more than a year
Pros
Some good people, friendly Decent pay Know the US options markets
Cons
Expansion into Asian markets (then apparently UK/EU markets ) lacks anyone in managment/operations who is experienced with this process. The firm has essentially been US focussed for 8 years. Asia/UK/EU different infrastructure/cost/culture/rules UK/EU is especially a regulatory minefield but no-one in managment/operations has a clue about this. Huge recruitment drive going on ... similar to Tibra a few years ago which ended in diasaster and massive round of redundancies. Needs tailored expansion.
Continue readingAKUNA CAPITAL2020-02-16"Quite hard work, but good environment for learning."
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Compensation and Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNeutral OutlookI have been working at AKUNA CAPITAL
Pros
They pay interns well too.
Cons
A lot of testing for trading interns.
AKUNA CAPITAL2020-02-08- Helpful (9)
"Turning sour fast, morale at all time low"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Compensation and Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookI have been working at AKUNA CAPITAL full-time for more than 3 years
Pros
My turn soon over here. Had a few good years, the right place right time, with a decent kitchen.
Cons
2018 on record year bonuses were almost flat so management could pay themselves higher. 2019 year was chaos. Profits down dramatically. Greedy mismanagement, no clear direction. Entire firm is just copy + paste of Optiver strategies, which can only take you so far. No new ideas just iterating on the late 2000s. CEO spend half the year distracted by a fumbled deal, then fire the CTO and cause exodus of senior developers (after some of the best senior traders and quants already left). Management generally absent, across the board low understanding of modern technology - probably not a single person in trader management could explain you how to write basic script, yet they try to call the shots for tech directions! Read positive reviews on the glassdoor with salt - many very obvious stink of HR flavors.
Continue readingAKUNA CAPITAL2020-02-11 "Great company but expect long hours"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Compensation and Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsI have been working at AKUNA CAPITAL full-time
Pros
Very nice perks, Great atmosphere Amazing people Very smart people and always will to cooperate
Cons
Work/life balance doesn’t exist You have to give up on some of your weekends for sure
Continue readingAKUNA CAPITAL2019-12-23
Join the AKUNA CAPITAL team
Found 84 reviews