When I started my 42 School internship at Keyrock, it marked a unique integration of academic requirements with my ongoing professional work.

As part of campus 19, students must complete a six-month internship. Given my established position at Keyrock and with the help of both parties, I worked out a plan that enabled me to transform my existing work into a structured project for academic credit.

This was a rare opportunity to grow within my current role while also fulfilling a critical milestone at school.

My 42 School Internship at Keyrock ​

General Context ​

Keyrock, at the cutting edge of market-making, has been playing a crucial role in democratizing liquidity for a tokenized economy. The firm operates at the intersection of traditional finance and the rapidly evolving world of crypto assets, offering services like market making, OTC (over-the-counter) trading, and now, an options desk.

The trading world, especially in the crypto space, has always fascinated me, and this internship was my chance to dive deeper into the complexities of this industry, contributing to Keyrock’s mission of providing efficient and flexible trading solutions.

The Launch of Keyrock’s Options Desk ​

On February 1, 2024, Keyrock announced an exciting new venture: the launch of its Crypto Options Desk. This desk offers investors, token foundations, and institutional players tailored options trading strategies. With options, risk isn’t just about price; it's a multi-dimensional concept encompassing metrics like volatility, interest rates, and more. This necessitated a robust, adaptable, and responsive trading interface—something our existing systems couldn’t adequately support.

Challenges ​

1. Complex Risk Management: Traditional market-making is primarily about managing price risk. However, trading options requires accounting for multiple risk factors, including price, volatility, and interest rates. This shift significantly increased the complexity of our systems.
2. Speed and High Data Consumption: The new options trading environment demanded real-time data consumption and faster interactions. The old one-dimensional layout simply couldn’t keep up.
3. UI Flexibility: The existing UI at Keyrock had a fixed layout, which was limiting. Traders needed more flexibility to configure their workspace to fit diverse strategies and rapidly changing market conditions. Relying on the Product and Tech teams to constantly update and maintain the UI was inefficient and unsustainable.

The Solution: A Customizable Options Trading Platform ​

Our project culminated in the development of a highly flexible and fully customizable Options UI, inspired by platforms like Deribit’s. This new interface allows traders to assemble their ideal workspace using a variety of widgets, significantly boosting efficiency and autonomy.

Key Features ​

• Widget-Based Layout: Traders can drag, drop, and rearrange widgets to create a setup tailored to their trading style and needs.
• Dynamic Data Handling: The UI efficiently handles massive amounts of real-time data, enabling fast and precise trading decisions.
• User Empowerment: By giving traders the ability to configure their own layouts, we eliminated the continuous burden on the Product and Tech teams, making our operations more scalable.

Technologies Used ​

Frontend ​

• Vite: Lightning-fast development environment
• Vitest: Unit testing framework
• Vue 3: Progressive framework for building user interfaces
• Quasar: UI framework for building responsive and high-performance web applications
• Grid Layout Plus: For efficient, customizable grid management

Backend ​

• GitLab: Version control and CI/CD
• TypeScript: Ensuring type safety and maintainable code
• Node.js: Server-side JavaScript runtime
• gRPC: High-performance, open-source RPC framework
• Jest: JavaScript testing framework

Conclusion ​

My internship project was a deep dive into the intersection of trading technology and user experience. By creating the UI for Keyrock’s new Crypto Options Desk, I learned not just about trading mechanics but also about building scalable and user-centric systems. This experience has been invaluable, merging my education with meaningful contributions to my workplace.

It’s a reminder that real-world impact and academic growth don’t have to be separate paths. Sometimes, they converge perfectly, as they did during this internship.