Comment by redsid

I worked on modeling/mapping market risk schema in Quartz a few years ago and used to wonder why they were "customizing" open source software/systems in house, when they can as well as supported those initiatives directly and publicly. As a C++ dev,I had already realized the world of software tooling had passed by me, but still used to wonder at the (over)engineering of everything in quartz and involved skills that were not transferable.

My view now is the value of these in-house systems is essentially a cost efficiency play on run costs, and there there is very little revenue/growth opportunities for the business from these investments. With Volcker (really the best thing to happen in the '10s) and loss of prop trading means all the market makers live off the spread, and so while there is value to minimize operational costs, they are not worth the investments that have been made.

Bottom line for me is investments within large firms in capital markets are unlikely to generate revenue/profits in scale - I am sure there are some exceptions and would like to know