Quantitative Trader, Sovereign

About Nascent…

Founded in 2020, Nascent exists to build, expand, and capture opportunity, in open markets and permissionless technologies. Building from a base of permanent capital, we deploy assets across a range of both liquid and long-term strategies that ensure we are among the most active users of the open financial system we are helping to build. We’ve made venture investments in 50+ early-stage teams that we believe have the potential to create substantive change, expand boundaries, and find new horizons. We are consistently on the hunt for the most competitive and curious minds exploring the edges of the crypto ecosystem and leverage our hyper flexible structure to accelerate ideas into fully deployed strategies.

About Sovereign

Sovereign is a leading-edge proprietary trading fund at the forefront of innovation and intellectual property (IP) rights incubated within Nascent. Sovereign is building a unique approach to IP that enables individuals to retain full rights to the IP they create, ensuring value alignment between the creator and the company. This distinctive approach permits researchers the autonomy to potentially spin-off their IP into an independent entity, of which Sovereign will have an option to acquire 20%.

This approach minimizes the need for conventional employment limitations and constraints, offering increased slack. Our goal is to assemble a team of high-variance individuals, affording them the time, freedom, and motivation to discover and attempt their visions.

In the context of financial markets, higher-variance can lead to extreme results—from wild successes to uninvestable failures.

This process also produces uncorrelated results, creating an ideal environment for debate in a field where intellectual honesty is a prerequisite. Variance will grow when individuals are unconstrained. We aim to build a lab where diversity of ideas obtained through independent exploration leads to quality collaborations and discussions.

The Opportunity

At Sovereign, we have built a pipeline with significant alpha generation over numerous asset classes and timeframes. A substantial portion of this alpha remains untapped, primarily due to the intricate requirements involved in execution across diverse asset classes, establishing various brokerage connections, and addressing unique cases associated with each. For this reason we are seeking a Quantitative Trader to spearhead our execution pipeline, encompassing execution optimization, portfolio optimization, and broker connectivity.

This role includes a competitive annual performance bonus, structured around profit and loss (PnL) sharing model, and is an on-site role in our Montreal, QC office (we are happy to support relocation for the right candidate).

Responsibilities

• Utilize mid-frequency alpha signals (ranging from ~1 minute to 1 month) provided by our quantitative researchers to execute trades across multiple asset classes, including but not limited to US Equities, Forex, Cryptocurrencies, and International Equities.
• Optimize portfolio construction leveraging the provided alpha.
• Establish and maintain connectivity with new brokerage firms.
• Enhance transaction cost efficiency and refine execution algorithms for various trading strategies through Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA), A/B testing, etc.

Requirements

• Experience in algorithmic trade execution within a mid-frequency framework.
• Proficiency in coding execution systems, with a preference for candidates with Python programming skills, though not mandatory.
• A basic foundation in statistical principles, including but not limited to correlation analysis, A/B testing, and the capability to perform substantive trading cost analyses.
• Demonstrated expertise in Portfolio Optimization strategies and practices.

Our Team & Culture

At Nascent, we are an interdisciplinary team of investors, builders & creators, capable of achieving more together than we can as individuals. We offer the opportunity to contribute to building the future global economic system with a world-class team and culture that pairs the freedom to explore, experiment & play with a competitive drive to win. We invest in our people by providing the autonomy to build, coupled with accountability & honest feedback to help learn, grow, perform & win. We’re a fully distributed team that understands the value of in-person time—we host two team retreats per year and encourage team members to come together for more frequent in-person work.

Principles that drive our team & work

• Build for the long term
• Align incentives
• Be nimble
• Compete to win
• Explore, experiment, play
• Always be building
• Give and embrace real feedback

What We Offer

At Nascent, we offer a competitive total compensation package heavily weighted toward bonus, ensuring that when we perform at our best and the firm wins we all win.

• The opportunity to learn, experiment and build in an entrepreneurial environment
• Remote and distributed working environment
• Comprehensive health benefits package including dental, vision, and life
• Generous paid parental leave & supported return to work
• Home Office, coworking space and wellness stipend
• Retirement plan matching contributions
• Open vacation policy as well as flexible work hours and location
• Access to our internal performance coaching, technical experts and support for continuing your skill development and growth
• Team activities and bi-annual in-person team retreats

We are an equal opportunity employer and celebrate diversity and differences of perspectives. We do not discriminate on the basis of any status, inclusive of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.