Newcomers were required to be on call every thirteen weeks in the futures group. This meant being ready to respond to computer problems whenever any of the world’s markets were open, from Sunday evening our time, when the Asian markets came to life, to New York’s closing bell at 4 p.m. on Friday. Sleep deprivation was an issue. But worse was the powerlessness to respond to issues in a shop that didn’t share information. Say an algorithm appeared to be misbehaving. I’d have to locate it and then find the person responsible for it, at any time of the day or night, and tell him (and it was always
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