Describe a typical workday for a market maker in your firm?
Traders arrive in the office before the market opens and review positions and risk, check news, and especially look for anything that might change the current or expected future behavior of any stock that they trade. During the trading day, the traders are in a nearly continuous process of adjusting parameters in their trading system because of new information - either trades or changes in the market prices of options. Throughout the day, they make trades, usually electronically, as well as manage their market risk by hedging with the underlying stock or indexes.

What are some of the advantages of being an options trader?
It's an extremely intellectually interesting and challenging career - it's hard to get bored. It's like playing a very complicated quantitative electronic game with some of the smartest people in world with a great deal of money at stake. It can be very rewarding financially, but it requires a certain intensity, intelligence and work ethic that only a lucky few possess.

How about the disadvantages?
It is an all-consuming, challenging business. It can be hard to leave your work at work. It's definitely not a 9-to-5 business from a mental standpoint. Some people are emotionally suited to this kind of career and some aren't.