Chicago Trading Company Tech Stack

Derivatives trading firm with real-time risk and compliance automation

Financial Services Chicago, Illinois 501–1,000 employees Founded 1995 Privately Held

Chicago Trading Company is a 30-year-old derivatives trader running a low-latency stack anchored in Java, C++, and FPGA alongside modern data tools (Snowflake, Apache Airflow, PySpark). The project mix—real-time market monitoring, next-generation risk management, end-to-end compliance automation, and a messaging API for trading systems—reveals a firm systematically decoupling risk and compliance from manual workflows. Pain points around distributed architecture and modernizing core systems, combined with senior-heavy hiring (24 of 44 open roles) in engineering and research, signal active infrastructure renovation beneath the trading floor.

Tech Stack 41 technologies

Core StackJava C++ Python Linux Snowflake pandas NumPy Apache Airflow Pandas PySpark JavaScript TypeScript React Angular C++20 FPGA SystemVerilog VHDL TCP UDP Bash SQL Excel PowerPoint SIEM EDR Dash Conda HTML CSS+11 more

What Chicago Trading Company Is Building

◆Challenges

Generating regulatory reports across jurisdictions
Strengthen trading capabilities
Building institutional client base
Compliance with trading venue regulations
High throughput low latency
Scaling trading capabilities
Managing trading operational risk
Distributed architecture challenges
Modernizing core systems
Modernizing internal modeling libraries

▲Active Projects

Next generation risk management applications
Real-time market monitoring system
End-to-end compliance automation
Establish new agency options business
Messaging api for real-time trading systems
Tape 2.0 platform
Common framework library
Research-to-production pipeline tools
Innovative infrastructure across pricing models and research platforms
Fitting workflows for pricing models

Hiring Activity

Steady45 roles · 15 in 30d

Department

Engineering

Finance

Research

Data

Ops

Sales

Legal

Seniority

Senior

Mid

Lead

Principal

Director

Junior

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About Chicago Trading Company

CTC is a proprietary derivatives trading firm founded in 1995 and headquartered in Chicago with offices in New York and London. The firm trades equities, interest rates, and commodities across exchanges globally, operating 20+ hours per day six days a week. The business model centers on market-making and liquidity provision across a broad product spectrum. Internal operations span trading desk execution, quantitative research, risk management, and compliance infrastructure. Current hiring activity (44 open roles across engineering, research, data, and finance) is concentrated in the United States and Netherlands, with emphasis on senior and mid-level engineering talent.

HeadquartersChicago, Illinois

Company Size501–1,000 employees

Founded1995

Hiring MarketsUnited States, Netherlands

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Chicago Trading Company's tech stack?

Core languages are Java and C++ (including C++20). Infrastructure includes FPGA, SystemVerilog, VHDL, Linux, TCP/UDP, and SQL. Data tooling includes Snowflake, pandas, NumPy, Apache Airflow, and PySpark. Web stack uses React, Angular, TypeScript, and JavaScript.

What is Chicago Trading Company working on?

Active projects include next-generation risk management applications, real-time market monitoring, end-to-end compliance automation, a messaging API for trading systems, tape 2.0 platform, research-to-production pipeline tools, and modernized infrastructure for pricing models.