Developing trading applications
"It is nice to see immediate results of my work: What I make is used a few meters away at the trading desk. We build it up together"
As a Software developer, Jop's focus is on the development of Northpool's own trading applications. To stay ahead of the market, this needs to be constantly adapted and optimized. He works closely with Data Engineers to store market data, which is used to analyze the market and develop trading strategies. "We mostly work with supervised routines, but we are also working towards fully automated trading. The challenge is that with less supervision, it becomes more important to build in safety measures to prevent unexpected behavior from the trade routines. At the same time, you don't want the algorithm to miss opportunities or have a longer reaction time."
Immediate results
"It is nice that I see immediate results of my work: What I make is used a few meters away at the trading desk. There is a short feedback loop between me and the users of the trading software. We can quickly make improvements or fix issues when updates don’t work as expected. We build it up together. I'm most proud of the main trading application: I developed 95% of it myself. The software can now receive tens of thousands of messages from the different market exchange per minute and process them in real time. On top of that it also needs to quickly determine which orders needs to be adjusted and send order management messages to the exchanges."
Daily work and cooperation
"During the day I work on improving our trading applications: maintenance, fixing issues and implementing new features. I have regular contact with the product owners to prioritize work and to make sure new features are implemented as intended. There is a lot of cooperation between the different departments so over time you get to know most of your colleagues. There are also presentations where people present what they have been working on so you can learn more about their work. And of course, Northpool organizes social activities where you get to know each other better."
On top of the game
"We want to stay on top of our game and that means that we need to keep improving. For me the biggest challenge is to maintain the current dynamic development process for a trading application while at the same time safeguarding the quality of our software in a growing development team. Northpool is company that is always moving forward. Energy trading is a dynamic business, and we can’t afford long development cycles. Once we see opportunities in the market we have to react quickly and for that you need an efficient and motivated team. Northpool recognizes this and does not hesitate to show appreciation towards its employees."