4 ms·

Why do they fail to replicate it ? Especially if I am hearing it's the same people developing (re-developing) it over and over again

kchoudhu 10y ago
The people who wrote SecDB are now in charge of the technology org at Goldman, and they have presented the stack as a core firm asset in need of constant development and investment to the business, which has -- surprisingly -- accepted this position. SecDB is not just another IT project with an end date for the business. Ultimately, that is what distinguishes it from all the other copycats on the Street.
KMag 10y ago
Having some friends who were poached for one of those replication efforts, it sounds like an issue of scale, culture, and transplant rejection. A lot of the advantages of a unified cross-desk risk calculation system aren't realized until it's widely adopted, and it's difficult getting the desks to buy in to changing their thinking to an FRP mindset and adapting all of their existing code. At Goldman, SecDb was developed by the Strats, who were part of the individual desks in a hybrid tech/quant role, not part of the Tech division. To some extent, SecDb was a bottom-up system driven by the desks who needed it, but in the other firms, it has been the technology divisions trying to push the new system on the desks. It's partly a political problem. In order to jumpstart their systems, the other firms poached experienced talent from Goldman. Goldman's culture is generally receptive to suggestions and constructive criticism, at least comparatively. These new upstarts showing up and making suggestions to the old guard has not always gone over well at other firms. I'm told one ex-Strat who wrote discount curve calculation code at Goldman showing up at the new firm's technology division, noticing a discontinuity in his new firm's curve, poking around the code in the quant svn repository, and gently pointing out to the author that the same mistake had been made at Goldman several years prior. The response was not so much the expected "oh, hey thanks", but instead the very next day the entire technology division's read access to the quants' svn repository got revoked.

kchoudhu 10y ago

The people who wrote SecDB are now in charge of the technology org at Goldman, and they have presented the stack as a core firm asset in need of constant development and investment to the business, which has -- surprisingly -- accepted this position. SecDB is not just another IT project with an end date for the business. Ultimately, that is what distinguishes it from all the other copycats on the Street.

KMag 10y ago

Having some friends who were poached for one of those replication efforts, it sounds like an issue of scale, culture, and transplant rejection. A lot of the advantages of a unified cross-desk risk calculation system aren't realized until it's widely adopted, and it's difficult getting the desks to buy in to changing their thinking to an FRP mindset and adapting all of their existing code. At Goldman, SecDb was developed by the Strats, who were part of the individual desks in a hybrid tech/quant role, not part of the Tech division. To some extent, SecDb was a bottom-up system driven by the desks who needed it, but in the other firms, it has been the technology divisions trying to push the new system on the desks. It's partly a political problem. In order to jumpstart their systems, the other firms poached experienced talent from Goldman. Goldman's culture is generally receptive to suggestions and constructive criticism, at least comparatively. These new upstarts showing up and making suggestions to the old guard has not always gone over well at other firms. I'm told one ex-Strat who wrote discount curve calculation code at Goldman showing up at the new firm's technology division, noticing a discontinuity in his new firm's curve, poking around the code in the quant svn repository, and gently pointing out to the author that the same mistake had been made at Goldman several years prior. The response was not so much the expected "oh, hey thanks", but instead the very next day the entire technology division's read access to the quants' svn repository got revoked.