Market Making Phone Screen Prep
How to prepare for market-making phone screens by explaining quotes, assumptions, mental math, follow-ups, and recovery clearly without a full interface.
Candidates preparing for phone or remote technical screens with trading intuition prompts.
Make state audible
On a phone screen, the interviewer cannot see your scratchpad. Say the current fair value, inventory, quote, and reason before moving to the next step.
Use concise assumptions
State the model you are using, then calculate. Long caveats can obscure the quote, but silent assumptions make the answer hard to follow.
Concrete answer pattern
A clear response is: I estimate fair value around 50, uncertainty is moderate, so I quote 48 at 52 while flat, and I would widen after adverse flow.
Handle follow-ups
If the interviewer changes the signal or trade, repeat the update aloud. Explain whether midpoint, spread, size, or skew changes.
Common mistakes
Candidates often solve silently and then give a number. Phone screens reward visible reasoning because the conversation is the work product.
Practice the pattern
Use the LeetQuidity curriculum and calibration to turn this topic into a focused practice plan.