Algorithmic trading firms tend to be quite secretive with their proprietary work, including Hudson River Trading. The latest hire from the firm, however, is a C++ expert that built a very well known (and very well-loved) open-source tool.
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Matt Godbolt has announced that, after a career break, he will be working on the "lowest of low-level programming" at HRT. He's spent the last five and a half years at young hedge fund Aquatic Capital Management.
His resume before that features impressive names in and out of finance. He worked at crypto exchange Coinbase, rival HFT firm DRW trading, Google and Argonaut Games, the video game developers behind such games as Starfox (and Buck Bumble).
His source of cult fame, however, is his open-source creation of the Compiler Explorer, known to many as just Godbolt. The tool is designed to give developers a greater understanding of how their code will affect low-level systems, playing a vital role in the low-latency code demanded in high-frequency trading.
He developed the tool while working on a "very old C++ code base" at DRW. He faced friction when trying to update the codebase from its more "conservative" management, and developed the tool to prove that changes would be efficient.
Godbolt has his fans on online. One HackerNews user called the compiler explorer "one of the most important innovations" in C++, while another says they're a member of the "Matt Godbolt appreciation society." If he makes any further innovations, however, they'll likely remain proprietary.
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