They have about 4 to 5 development cycles a year. A development cycles is basically this: their big clients demand changes and enhancements to the trading system, everyone scrambles to document and code the enhancements, they test the enhancements and then roll out the enhancements to their clients. That's it. That's all they do.
Then if there is something wrong, that's when the finger pointing starts. If you are the newest person there then you will be the scapegoat.
There is no direction in the company. This place was created by JP Morgan back in 2001 and then spun off. The people who run it did not create the company, they just have buds in the right places at JPM. The reason why the stock goes up is because they are in a hot sector - electronic trading. Since the banks are not allowed to hold inventory and have cut back trading, these little electronic trading companies pop-up up to fill that need. Bloomberg dominates this market. MA is just reaping the benefits of being in the right place.
Management doesn't care what happens to the company, they are just trying to get the stock to increase as much as possible and then bail. (kinda like Enron).
WARNING: a lot of the positive reviews for MA are posted by HR in order to protect the reputation of the company. Notice that those reviews are vague and overly enthusiastic. Don’t be fooled. There is an enormous amount of turnover – close to 75%. Managers hire people just to be scapegoats. If anything goes wrong, “it’s because the new guy didn’t know what he was doing” and “we’ll let him go and get someone better.” So that’s the game they are playing.
