Senior Trading & Strategy Research Analyst

Senior Trading & Strategy Research Analyst

Location: Kolkata
Work Mode: Work from Office (WFO)
Experience: 3+ years preferred

Job Summary

We are looking for a Senior Trading & Strategy Research Analyst with strong analytical and research skills to identify market opportunities, develop trading strategies, and validate them through systematic backtesting and statistical analysis.

The role focuses on technical analysis, price action, systematic trading, and strategy development across equity, equity derivatives, and MCX commodity markets. The ideal candidate should be capable of independently formulating trading hypotheses, testing market patterns, evaluating strategy performance, and identifying potential market inefficiencies.

We value original thinking, statistical rigor, research integrity, and the ability to distinguish genuine market patterns from random outcomes. Candidates with strong research projects, independently developed trading strategies, and demonstrable backtesting experience will be considered, even if they have less than three years of experience.

Key Responsibilities 1. Trading Strategy Research and Development

• Identify market opportunities, trading patterns, and potential market inefficiencies across equity, equity derivatives, and MCX commodity markets.

• Formulate testable trading hypotheses and develop systematic trading strategies.

• Define strategy rules covering entry and exit conditions, stop-loss, position sizing, and risk management.

• Independently ideate, develop, backtest, optimize, and refine trading strategies.

2. Backtesting and Statistical Validation

• Conduct historical backtesting using reliable market data, incorporating transaction costs and slippage.

• Apply statistical analysis and hypothesis testing to evaluate strategy performance and validity.

• Assess strategy robustness through out-of-sample testing, walk-forward analysis, and parameter sensitivity testing.

• Identify and mitigate look-ahead bias, overfitting, data leakage, survivorship bias, and other backtesting limitations.

• Evaluate strategy performance across trending, ranging, high-volatility, and low-volatility market conditions.

3. Performance and Risk Analysis

• Evaluate trading strategies using expectancy, profit factor, maximum drawdown, risk-reward ratio, trade distribution, and consistency metrics.

• Analyse risk-adjusted performance and the sustainability of historical returns.

• Identify potential failure scenarios, performance deviations, and weaknesses in strategy assumptions.

• Recommend whether strategies should be further tested, implemented, improved, or discontinued based on research evidence.

4. Systematic Trading and Automation

• Collaborate with technology teams to translate strategy logic into automated trading systems.

• Document strategy rules, parameters, execution requirements, and monitoring criteria.

• Work with algorithmic trading platforms, APIs, and systematic execution workflows where applicable.

• Monitor live or simulated strategy performance against backtested expectations and investigate deviations.

5. Research Documentation and Reporting

• Maintain structured documentation of trading hypotheses, research methodology, backtesting results, assumptions, and limitations.

• Prepare research reports covering strategy logic, performance metrics, statistical validation, risk analysis, and recommendations.

• Present findings clearly and support strategy decisions with objective data and evidence.

• Challenge conventional assumptions and continuously evaluate existing strategies, including previously successful ones.

Required Skills and Competencies

• Strong knowledge of technical analysis, price action, chart patterns, and market structure.

• Experience in trading strategy research, strategy development, historical backtesting, or systematic trading.

• Understanding of statistical validation, hypothesis testing, and strategy robustness.

• Knowledge of trading performance metrics, risk management, position sizing, and drawdown analysis.

• Understanding of backtesting limitations, including look-ahead bias, overfitting, data leakage, and survivorship bias.

• Familiarity with equity markets, equity derivatives, futures, and MCX commodity trading.

• Strong analytical reasoning, quantitative thinking, and problem-solving skills.

• Ability to independently develop and evaluate trading hypotheses.

• Strong research documentation and reporting skills.

• Intellectual curiosity, independent thinking, and an evidence-based approach to decision-making.

Preferred Skills

• Proficiency in Python or similar programming languages for financial data analysis, strategy backtesting, and research automation.

• Experience with out-of-sample testing, walk-forward analysis, parameter optimization, and sensitivity testing.

• Familiarity with algorithmic trading platforms, trading APIs, and automated execution systems.

• Knowledge of options strategies, volatility-based trading setups, futures trading, and MCX commodity contracts.

• Experience in portfolio construction, investment baskets, or systematic portfolio evaluation.

Educational Qualifications

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Finance, Commerce, Economics, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, or a related discipline.

Relevant certifications such as NISM Research Analyst (RA), NISM Derivatives, CFA, or FRM are advantageous but not mandatory.

Experience Requirements

• Three or more years of relevant experience in trading strategy research, technical analysis, quantitative research, or systematic trading is preferred.

• Candidates with less experience may be considered based on demonstrated analytical ability, original research, and strategy development skills.

• Independently developed trading strategies, backtesting projects, quantitative research, or documented trading performance will be valued.

Key Deliverables and Accountability

The analyst will own the trading strategy research lifecycle, from identifying a market opportunity and formulating a hypothesis to validating results and recommending the next steps.

Key deliverables include:

• Research-backed trading strategies with clearly defined entry, exit, and risk management rules.

• Reliable backtesting results that account for transaction costs, slippage, and methodological limitations.

• Statistical validation and robustness assessments across different market conditions.

• Structured strategy research reports with performance metrics, limitations, and recommendations.

• Documented strategy logic and requirements for potential automation.

• Ongoing performance monitoring and evidence-based investigation of deviations from expected results.

Success in this role will be measured by research quality, testing integrity, analytical rigor, and the strength of evidence supporting strategy recommendations, rather than historical profitability alone.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is intellectually curious, analytically strong, and passionate about discovering and validating trading opportunities. They question established market assumptions, explore unconventional hypotheses, and use data-driven methods to determine whether a strategy is robust, repeatable, and suitable for further development.

Candidates should be comfortable identifying when a strategy is unlikely to work, recognising statistical noise, and making objective recommendations based on research evidence.