Gergely Orosz · 19 min read · Product Teams
Software engineering at a proprietary trading company: Optiver
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An in-depth look at how Optiver engineers software in a proprietary trading environment where the company is the customer and latency is the primary constraint. The piece covers the organization of platform engineering, the rise of AI models as differentiators, and the high-stakes risks that shape decisions at speed and precision.
Key Takeaways
- Latency is the primary driver of engineering decisions, influencing everything from software design to hardware choices.
- No external customers means internal incentives and risk management dominate priorities, creating a unique culture of speed paired with caution.
- Optiver maintains a large, cross-disciplinary platform engineering organization that often includes bespoke hardware and tight integration across layers.
- AI/ML models are increasingly differentiators, enabling fast signals and real-time decision-making at the edge.
- Industry incidents like Knight Capital illustrate the critical need for robust testing and risk controls to prevent costly outages.
Excerpt
Before we start: I’ll be in New York, on 15 September, presenting the keynote at LDX3 New York , doing a book signing, and hanging out with attendees. The focus of the conference is engineering leadership at a time when things are moving very fast. See the full agenda and get tickets . If you’ll be around – hopefully catch you there! The Pragmatic Engineer is back from our summer break. We resume with a detailed deepdive about the trading industry, and interesting engineering challenges that come when working at a company that has no external customers, but where a…