Prosperity is IMC’s virtual trading challenge, designed to connect with the world’s top talent. Lorenzo Siega Battel took on the challenge in 2024 and later took up a role at IMC Amsterdam as a Software Engineer. As we gear up for Prosperity 3, launching April 7, we caught up with Lorenzo to hear more about his experience.

Lorenzo first heard about Prosperity 2 on Reddit. “I was curious about what a technology role in the financial world actually involved when I came across a thread about the competition. That led me to the Discord channel, where I saw all the positive reviews from past players. Low-latency trading is quite challenging from an engineering perspective and I thought the competition seemed a good way to learn more, so I decided to partipate.”

Lorenzo and his team were spread across Europe and Asia. With multiple timezones to navigate, they had to quickly figure out how to collaborate in a way that suited everyone.

“We would discuss the strategy as a team, then each person would work independently based on their availability. Those of us in Europe would sync up in the evenings to share discoveries, so the Asia-based person could build on that progress.”

One of the best aspects of the competition, Lorenzo says, was the opportunity to continuously improve the algorithm. “I liked that once the leaderboard was posted, you could go back into your algorithm and make tweaks based on the sample data that showed how the product was behaving. It was a lot of fun.”

For Lorenzo, Prosperity 2 led to two major takeaways. “Firstly, as an engineer, it helped me understand how technologies and algorithms are applied in financial markets – like how data is first acquired from an exchange and later transformed in profitable orders – which has been really useful in my role now at IMC. Secondly, it was also a great lesson in collaboration. Working with other people not only improves the team’s performance but brings the best out of yourself.”

At the end of the final round, Lorenzo’s team placed in the top 100. Having gotten a taste of market making, he was preparing to reach out to IMC – but IMC got there first. “An IMC recruiter contacted me to ask if I’d be interested in interviewing and I jumped at the chance!”

Interested? Register to play Prosperity Here by April 7th. This is your chance to win big from the $50,000 prize pot and connect with IMC!