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I think that David Shaw, founder of D.E. Shaw, would be a very good choice for either position. His background is in computer science, yet he is a true renaissance man -- after building one of the largest hedge funds in the world (you've probably noticed the recruiting ads on /. by now!), he is working on building the world's fastest protein folding computer. The man is truly a genius, and undoubtedly has knowhow. I think he'd be a great candidate. He also seems to be quite humble, I went to one of his talks on molecular simulations recently.

The best you can do is make a psuedo-ai that can make guesses based on data. And again, no one's made a computer good enough at guessing that it makes money.

Hahahahahahahahahaha. PLEASE keep thinking that. How do you think companies like D.E. Shaw & Co. exist? Not to mention Goldman Sachs, etc.

The reason I get a paycheck twice is month, in part, is because you can create efficient algorithms to make money in financial markets. But please don't let that dissuade you from your obviously very informed opinion.

(but, apply to D.E. Shaw Research on the off chance you can get a job there, they're building a supercomputer for this)

Quite simply put, do this. You probably would have more luck winning the lottery (literally), but it's worth a shot. Take a look. If you haven't heard of D.E. Shaw before, they're a hedge fund founded by former computer science professor David Shaw and are universally respected as one of the best hedge funds around.

Recommend that you look more into a Business Degree vice a CS Degree if you want to be eventually become an executive. Having a GEEK engineer degree is admirable but be the person who leads the Geeks is paid more.

The problem is that you'll get much more respect from those below you if you actually have a technical background. Leaders with business degrees and nothing else are typically scorned upon by those who've invested time in significantly difficult fields. Former president of Goldman Sachs and current CEO of Merrill Lynch John Thain holds a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Harvard. David Shaw of D.E. Shaw & Co. has a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford. These are people who run financial companies and they have technical backgrounds. I think it's much harder to run a technology company with something like a BA in business and than an MBA from some 2nd or 3rd tier school.

For them, technology dept is nothing but a big expenditure, and they treat techies like it.

Except Goldman Sachs. No, I'm serious. Yes, I work there. Goldman is a technology company that happens to do business. If you like smaller companies, DE Shaw & Co. is the place to be in Manhattan as far as technology oriented financial companies go. Good luck getting in.

Rocket science is not easy. You cannot cut corners on development and testing and there is no substitute for the decades of experience these companies have.

Jeff Bezos is no stranger to recruiting good talent. Before Amazon, he worked at DE Shaw & Co., a premier quantitative finance firm known for ridiculous recruiting practices. Bezos will find people of the skill level he needs and compensate accordingly.

Maybe you don't understand what it is the OP does. Professional traders are not the same as day traders. Professional traders are one of the reasons the market actually functions. Then again, certain important people in the industry, such as David Shaw have said that "A lot of people in the business do things that should be done by computers." No doubt we keep getting closer to that point, but professional traders are and probably will be needed.