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In global finance, the foreign exchange (FX) market facilitates currency trading and promotes economic commerce worldwide. Citadel Securities crafts and executes strategies that leverage our competitive market making advantages into this segment of the market—and Tina Lu, a quantitative researcher on our Client Execution Services team, plays an important role in this work.
Since joining the firm as an intern in 2020, Tina has combined her formidable analytical skills with a collaborative approach, learning firsthand how teamwork and strategic thinking can drive significant advancements in this fast-paced industry. Today she plays a pivotal role in our FX offering, contributing to the launch of innovative market-making products and differentiating Citadel Securities in a fiercely competitive landscape.
Meet Tina
Tina’s career trajectory underscores Citadel Securities’ commitment to empowering talent from day one. During her internship, Tina immersed herself in the firm’s culture, which prioritizes solving real-world business problems over conventional internship experiences. This approach prepared her to tackle meaningful challenges that ultimately catalyzed her personal and professional growth.
After graduating from Harvard College in 2021, Tina returned to Citadel Securities as a quantitative researcher on the FX trading team. Now based in Miami, she leads one of the firm’s FX institutional businesses while also managing a newly launched initiative aimed at enhancing liquidity and delivering effective risk management solutions to clients in the FX space. This new initiative includes professionals from across the business, including analysts, traders and salespeople, coming together to collaborate and drive its success.
I steer the team's direction, identifying key priorities for the business. My focus is on determining what is most important and where we should concentrate our efforts.Tina
Quantitative Researcher
Reimagining FX Market-Making Offerings
The team has long understood the importance of generating innovative solutions to enhance liquidity provision and market-making capabilities. In 2022, a client discussion prompted the team to develop an advanced concept aimed at addressing the complexities of managing liquidity in the FX landscape. Using machine-learning algorithms and statistical models to scrutinize a data set of trades, they devised strategies that solved client needs in a way that had not been done before.
The team presented their findings to management, receiving the green light to package and present the concept to additional clients. This effort exemplifies the firm’s collaborative ethos, forging partnerships that validated the proof of concept and laid the groundwork for expansion.
In her current capacity, Tina plays a crucial role in establishing priorities and defining focal points for cross-functional teams. She develops comprehensive pricing models and monetization strategies that serve Citadel Securities and its partners, while constructing a sustainable business model that blends profitability with enriched client experiences. Through her leadership and commitment to creating innovative, bespoke client offerings, the team continues to push boundaries, ensuring they adapt to rapidly changing market dynamics to remain at the forefront of the industry.
The Importance of Collaboration
Successful initiatives, whether measured by profit and loss, volume, or client satisfaction, rely on collaboration across groups, underscoring how important teamwork is to achieving tangible results. Tina recognizes that each group contributes distinct insights and expertise essential for navigating the challenges at hand. For instance, she works closely with the sales team to negotiate tailored agreements with our clients, customizing solutions to meet their specific needs. “This integrated approach,” she says, “demonstrates how collaboration is critical in converting theoretical strategies into real-world applications that yield meaningful results.”
Navigating Challenges
Still, the journey has not been without challenges. “It’s like working within a startup inside Citadel Securities,” Tina remarks, emphasizing the complexities involved in expanding into new asset classes while maintaining a strong bottom line. Regulatory hurdles and changes in the marketplace, for example, have presented some obstacles, but the project team has managed to navigate them, including by actively seeking client feedback.
“We partner with them to devise viable solutions,” she says, starting with a focused strategy and gradually diversifying the product lineup to address concerns raised by clients who face barriers to monetization. For example, insights on pricing structures led to adjustments that better met client needs. As Tina and her team navigate the future, they are mindful of the importance of scaling their product to onboard new clients and asset classes, while responsibly managing client requests and expectations.
Embracing Opportunities
Reflecting on her professional journey thus far, Tina credits her accelerated growth to the firm’s emphasis on empowering team members to take risks and speak up from the outset. By embracing that approach, Tina has gained significant decision-making responsibilities on high-stakes projects, which has sharpened her negotiation and communication skills and positioned her for outsized opportunities and impact. “At other companies, you may have the ability long before you have the opportunity,” Tina notes. “At Citadel Securities, you will get the opportunity as soon as they believe you have the ability.”
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