When I was working on the trading desk, I realised something important: you can’t teach composure.
Some people freeze when the market moves. Others instinctively stay calm, take in the data, and act decisively. Those are the people you want to find early, before they ever set foot on a trading floor.
The challenge is, traditional hiring methods can’t spot that.
CVs and academic tests tell you what someone knows, not how they perform. They don’t capture how fast someone reacts to breaking news, whether they take calculated risks, or how they adapt when volatility spikes.
And as the volume of AI-generated applications grows, those subtle differentiators are harder than ever to identify.
That’s why we built AmplifyME Assess, to make the invisible visible.
Through our simulations, we measure the real behaviours that define success in markets, not what someone knows, but how they think and act under pressure.
Each participant’s performance is tracked across key behavioural and technical metrics that reveal instinct, discipline, and adaptability in real time:
- Risk Appetite Measures how effectively participants allocate capital when opportunities arise.
- News Response Score Assesses the ability to react quickly and accurately to breaking market news.
- Adaptability Evaluates how well participants adjust their portfolio or strategy in response to changing conditions.
- Discipline Measures adherence to defined stop levels and risk limits under pressure.
- Resilience Gauges how effectively participants recover following sharp, simulated losses in P&L.
- Multitasking Tests the ability to manage multiple responsibilities and information streams simultaneously.
- Trade Management Evaluates how open risk and positions are managed throughout the simulation.
- Growth Mindset Observes determination to learn from performance data and improve across successive simulations.
These are the patterns that separate knowledge from instinct — and help firms identify who truly performs when the pressure hits.
In our Markets & Trading Assessments, candidates
face realistic, high-pressure scenarios drawn from real market events, from WTI
vs Brent spreads during Hurricane Harvey to European Central Bank rate
cuts and UK growth downgrades.
As news breaks, candidates make rapid-fire decisions.
Our system tracks their responses to the millisecond: whether they take the
correct position within 20 seconds of a macro headline, how they manage risk
across asset classes, and whether they remain consistent as volatility spikes.
In short, we see who thinks like a trader, not who’s
memorised the textbook.
Working with Dr. Lara Montefiori, our VP of Product and a pioneer in game-based and behavioural assessment design, we’ve taken these simulations far beyond education.
By capturing trace data, the behavioural micro-patterns behind every click, pause, and decision, we can map how candidates think under pressure. Lara’s team then links those data patterns to the traits that predict long-term success on the desk: composure, discipline, and adaptability.
Today, AmplifyME works with some of the world’s leading
investment banks and hedge funds to identify trader potential earlier,
faster, and more fairly.
Our partners use AmplifyME Assess to shortlist candidates
based on genuine performance data, not background, not polish, and not
AI-generated CVs.
Because in a simulated market, you can’t fake good
instincts. You either have the reaction speed, composure, and judgment
to stay in control, or you don’t.
Markets reward execution, not intention, and hiring should too.
With AmplifyME Assess, firms can finally measure what really matters: reaction under pressure, decision quality, and adaptability in the face of uncertainty.
It’s a fairer, more accurate way to identify potential, one that helps the next generation of traders rise based on performance, not pedigree.
+44 (0) 203 372 8415
info@amplifyme.com
