Mako

Mako is a London-based options market maker. Its roots go back to the early 1990s, when a group of floor traders formed a consortium called Saratoga, and the firm itself was founded in 1999 through a management buyout of Saratoga’s London options business. Founder David Segel is still President, and Trystan Morgan Schauer, who joined as a risk analyst in 2006, has been CEO since 2018. Close Brothers held a 49.9% stake in Mako from 2007, which the firm finished buying back in 2015.

Mako provides liquidity in exchange-traded derivatives, mainly through options market making, and runs smaller proprietary trading teams alongside it. It has expanded steadily outside London: Singapore opened in 2016, Sydney in 2017 and Amsterdam in 2019. In 2022 it took over Liquid Capital’s London trading business, followed in 2023 by Liquid Capital’s Australian and Chinese businesses, and in 2024 it opened in Dublin. Its offices today are London, Amsterdam, Dublin, Singapore, Sydney, Brisbane and Chengdu.

The trading system is built in-house: a low-latency platform written in C++ that runs on Linux. Front office engineers build the algorithms, pricing models, trading screens and exchange connectivity, and traders use Python and VBA for their own analysis.

What Mako Trades

• Fixed income options
  Options on European and US bond and interest rate futures, including Bund, Bobl, Schatz, BTP, Euribor, Short Sterling and US bond options.
• Equity derivatives
  Exchange-traded derivatives on equity indices and single stocks, such as the Kospi index options traded from Sydney, as well as cash equities.
• Commodities and FX
  Exchange-traded commodity and currency derivatives, which complete the range of markets Mako quotes.
• Proprietary trading
  Position-taking teams next to the market making business, including a proprietary trading desk in Sydney and an equity trading team in Dublin that covers long-term strategies and special situations.

Culture and Benefits

Mako’s values are collaboration, innovation, ambition, connection and integrity. It describes itself as a flat, dress-down firm where people work directly with senior leadership. Benefits differ by office: London and Dublin list hybrid working, flexible leave, private health and dental cover, a pension and free use of the Mako gym, while Sydney lists an annual discretionary bonus, a healthcare allowance, insurance cover and paid parental leave. The firm also runs wellbeing sessions and chess and poker tournaments, and supports charities through The Mako Foundation, set up in 2019.

Hiring at Mako

Graduates join one of two structured programmes, both starting in late September. The Graduate Trader Programme runs for 18 months: it opens with a two-week intensive course that includes options theory, continues with eight to ten weeks of rotations across the desks and ends on a permanent desk, with weekly classes, mock trading and mentoring along the way. The 12-month Graduate Software Engineer Programme mixes classroom training in C++, options theory and market making with rotations through teams such as algorithms, execution and data. Penultimate-year STEM students with some programming experience can apply for a one-month summer internship starting in July, which leads directly into the graduate programmes. In Australia, graduate roles are only open to candidates with full working rights.

Mako’s most recent Graduate Trader advert, for Sydney, describes this selection process:

• Online test
  Questions on quick-thinking maths and problem solving.
• Short task
  A small assignment that shows your interest in the role.
• Assessment day
  A range of interactive activities with the team.
• Final interview
  A panel interview with senior traders.

Mako has previously described a shorter route for graduate traders, with an aptitude test followed by a half-hour conversation with graduate recruitment and then two half-hour interviews with senior traders on maths, problem solving and motivation. Software engineering candidates take an online assessment and a coding test, then two live coding interviews and a final panel with senior engineers. In every version the first filter is timed maths and problem solving, so practise mental arithmetic under time pressure before you apply.