Market Making
The Conditional Book
Five trading rounds. One private card. Five centre cards. You estimate fair value, post a bid and an ask, and decide whether to trade with someone else. The result is trading PnL, plus a debrief of the expected edge you had at the time.
Each game deals nine cards from a 39 card deck. There are no spades. Clubs are positive. Hearts and diamonds are negative. A 7 of clubs is +70. A queen of hearts is −120.
You and three traders each receive one private card. The other five cards turn up one per round, after the trading in that round. After the fifth round, every card is shown and positions settle.
Practice has no clock. Normal allows 15 seconds per decision. Hard allows 10. If time expires while you are taking, you pass. If it expires while you are quoting, the pit submits a wide quote around your fair value.
This is an independent QuantKing exercise. It is not a recording of any firm's interview.