Thursday, July 31, 2008

Financial Job Opening

Good day,



I'm with BCI, and I was curious if you or someone from your professional network might be interested in this opportunity:



Job Order:

DM0440-007-511



Title:

Risk Analyst



Location:

Midwest



Summary:

Diversified Financial Services firm seeks a Risk Analyst to join their
Investment Risk Management department. This person will be part of a
team responsible for asset analytics/modeling, attribution of value
changes, and economic capital calculations.



Responsibilities:

Actively contribute to projects involving the move to market value accounting

Develop analytic models to help explain volatilities of asset values

Provide attribution/sensitivity analyses for the sources of gain and loss under an economic framework

Work with Financial Reporting/Investment Accounting/Investment
System/Corporate Risk to develop these processes and move them to
regular, quality-controlled production as needed

Working knowledge/understanding of fixed income instruments, derivatives and the term structure of interest rates

General understanding of investment accounting helpful

Possess programming expertise in VBA and SQL

Analyze the sensitivities of the assets towards different market factors

Responsible for quantifying/analyzing/
attributing market value changes under normal and stressed scenarios



Experience:

Demonstrated ability to develop creative solutions to analytical problems, making use of spreadsheets, databases, and graphics

Strong mathematical skills/working knowledge as they relate to modeling/valuation of fixed income instruments and/or derivatives

Understanding of investments and related risk measures, particularly interest rate risk/credit risk

Ability to perform research through the use of internal/external information resources

Understanding of Investment Accounting very helpful

Able to clearly present information through the spoken or written word; compose well-written coherent documents

Able to challenge conventional practices; adapt established methods for
new uses; pursue ongoing system improvement; play with concepts and
ideas to create novel solutions to problems; evaluate new technology as
potential solutions to existing problems

Degree in financial engineering, economics, mathematics, actuarial science, computer science, or a related field

MBA and/or CFA designation encouraged

Knowledge of financial quantitative tools strongly preferred

Possess a good business understanding of investments and the ability to use quantitative techniques



Compensation:

Commensurate with experience.



If you are interested in this opening, please email us a copy of your resume as an MS Word attachment.



Thank you,



Brooke Akins

BCI - Financial Services Recruiting

(312) 460-8222 x102

brooke@brokerageconsultants.com

www.bcius.com

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Here's an example of how to replace government



From http://www.slate.com/id/2196328/

USA Today
leads with a look at how environmental groups and big businesses are filling a void left by the government by directly cutting "unprecedented deals"
that involve trade-offs between new development and conservation. The
deals permit businesses to carry out new projects, such as oil drilling
or the construction of new power plants, without worrying about
opposition from environmental groups. In exchange, companies often
agree to preserve undeveloped land or to adhere to strict environmental
standards. "These private deals are a pragmatic way to accomplish good
things," an environmental lawyer explained.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

New Route to Work

Here is a map of my current bike-to-work route.

"Lost" blog from the Cranky Manager

Monday, July 28, 2008

MCP61SM2MA AM2 uATX Motherboard Chipset NVIDIA® GeForce® 6100 (MCP61S ) Realtek ALC662 audio Realtek 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN Video NVIDIA® GeForce® 6100

I got a new computer from bestbuy for $250 to replace the p.o.s. dell I'd gotten used (and free) from my old workplace. It came with Vista which wouldn't run quicken2006 so I installed XP. But XP had no idea what my video card was and the nvidia drivers refused to acknowledge any nvidia hardware. Until I downloaded version 175.19 of the drivers (of about 1000 other versions), that is, which fixed it completely. File was named 175.19_geforce_winxp_32bit_english_whql.exe and available from nvidia website.

Hoping this helps somebody else.

Monday, July 14, 2008

trading job openings

Good day,

I'm with BCI, and I was curious if you or someone from your professional network might be interested in one of these opportunities:

Job Order:
DM0600-001-711

Summary:
Growing financial firm seeks multiple technology professionals: Trading Support Specialist, C++ Software Developer, Linux System Administrator. Roles will involve working with Traders/Financial Engineers/IT Staff on applications for: Front-Office Trading/Electronic Trading Systems/Position Keeping/Back-Office Systems/Exchange Connectivity Interfaces.

Location:
Chicago, IL (All Roles)

Compensation:
For all roles, compensation is commensurate with experience.

------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Trading Support (Relocation to Chicago is available)

Responsibilities:
Handle configurations/installations/monitoring/support of trading applications and back-end systems.
Perform systems and network troubleshooting and network optimization.
Product rollouts/installations/testing.
Diagnose issues (1st and 2nd level support) experience.

Experience:
2+ years Trading Applications Support experience required (1st and 2nd level).
Strong UNIX/Linux and SQL skills required.
Familiarity with scripting languages (Perl, UNIX, shell (sh), AWK) required.
Familiarity with financial markets is highly desirable but not essential.
Solid troubleshooting skills absolutely required
Knowledge of version/revision control practices and procedures.

------------------------------------------------------------
Title: C++ Software Developer (Relocation to Chicago is available)

Responsibilities:
Maintain code/develop new functionality/new features (enhancements) for electronic trading system
Diagnose problems/develop solutions to meet trading/business goals and communicate clearly with multi-disciplinary colleagues.

Experience:
3+ years experience developing C++ based software (Academic equivalent will be considered)
3+ years of commercial software development work experience strongly desired.
Excellent understanding of the Standard Template Library (STL) and POSIX threads required.
Excellent UNIX/Linux/SQL skills required.
Familiarity with web technologies (php, AJAX) preferred.
Troubleshooting and teamwork skills are essential.
Familiarity with financial markets is desirable but not required.

------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Linux System Administrator (Relocation to Chicago not available)

Responsibilities:
Handle configuration/installation/monitoring/support of Linux systems.
OS rollouts/installations/testing.
Patch application and performance of OS/application up-grades on existing systems.
Perform systems/network troubleshooting and optimization.

Experience:
Prior experience with administration of Linux based systems required including configuration/installation/maintenance.
Proficient with UNIX scripting languages like Perl, shell (sh), AWK, etc.
Solid troubleshooting skills required
Knowledge of version/revision control practices and procedures
------------------------------------------------------------

If you are interested in one of these openings, please email me a copy of your resume as an MS Word attachment and indicate which position is of interest.

Thank you,

Tamara Polansky
BCI - Financial Services Recruiting
(312) 460-8222 x 117
tamara@brokerageconsultants.com
www.bcius.com

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Run Linux Applications in Windows

This is a very useful bit of info about running linux apps inside windows.

Outlook, Word, and MWM_OI_WINDOW_WORD

After setting Outlook to use Word as my default editor (because the
signature picture looked funny otherwise), there is now a window titled
MWM_OI_WINDOW_WORD on my task bar. It does nothing, apparently, except
run in the background in case I should decide to compose or read an
email. I'm thinking it should be a hidden window but is displaying
nonetheless in my task bar. Curious.

I'm thinking it should be a hidden window but is displaying nonetheless in my task bar.