The buy side may be the hot place to work next year. Investment firms are looking for technologists familiar with multi-asset systems.

Financial analyst Larry Tabb of TABB Group says that among the financial trends for next year, risk management software for the buy side will gain resurgence. “As the buy side takes on more short and derivatives positions, it will need tools to better analyse and manage them,” says Tabb.

Tabb also predicts that “As more funds search for investments that are uncorrelated with major markets, they will increasingly look in the most precarious and interesting places, challenging operations to settle, clear and manage positions in these frontier markets.”

Dr Jez Bezant, head of business management at Morley Fund Management, says fund management is an increasingly interesting and challenging place to be if you work in tech.

Bezant says asset managers like Morley are looking for experienced technologists who understand cross-asset platforms, and can cope with models and analysis that cover cash instruments as well as derivatives: “Risk has always been a difficult area to recruit people who understand the tools, and this has become more acute with derivatives.”

He says Morley is upgrading all its systems and processes around derivatives products: “We have had to hire new people who understand derivatives and can knit together the different technologies across the front, mid and back office, across all asset classes.”

If you don’t want to work for a fund manager, it might be an idea to get in with one of the companies supplying the asset management industry. Advent International, Sophis, Murex, Calypso, Sungard and Misys are among the providers who produce risk management software for the buy side.