GUEST COMMENT: It will be a while before high frequency trading jobs come to Russia, but there are plenty of opportunities overseas

High frequency trading is a growth industry. However, since the US and European markets have matured, companies in this area are looking for growth in new markets. Asian markets, in particular, are beginning to implement the changes necessary for high frequency trading strategies to work – Singapore, for example, has the SGX's Reach Trading Engine, and BURSA Malaysia is gearing up to the high frequency market.

At some point, the high frequency trading trend will undoubtedly arrive in Russia. For the moment, however, the market remains murky. Although exchanges, infrastructure and regulators are preparing for the arrival of high frequency trading in Moscow, the reality of low latency, high frequency, trading of Russian securities, remains a long way off. There also remains considerable doubt as to the local infrastructure and the stability of the energy and communications spectrums which high frequency traders depend upon.

Until Russia manages to combat this sentiment, the chances of high frequency trading taking off properly in Moscow are low. However, universities such as Moscow State University remain active at the forefront of financial algorithms and Russia has the potential to take off as a high frequency trading centre in the future. Failing that, excellent algorithmic traders will always be able to find roles overseas.

So, what skills should you be developing if you want to move into high frequency trading? There are opportunities for proven operators who can both create and tweak algorithms, for programmers who can build the required software and the underlying infrastructure. Systems engineers, financial mathematicians and quantitative traders are all needed. This is a growth area. Now is the time to be moving into it.