One theory bandied about is that the initial partner companies that Starfighter is working with (ie the ones looking to hire) includes a disproportionate number of financish companies such as might be found on the east coast.
I wouldn't be surprised if lots of companies in that domain would be very interested in the candidates coming out of Stockfighter, however there are so many subsystems involved in the problem environments disclosed so far that many valuable skill sets have the potential to be exercised. Part of the (general) success of both Stockfighter and Starfighter will be how well they manage to actually exercise those different skill sets.
There have been a number of comments from people who find the idea of the markets 'unfun', or just not relevant to the roles and tasks they want to be doing. My impression from what has been released so far is that there is actually a plethora of tasks/technologies/etc involved, and as such 'useful' skills will be used regardless of if you're in the finance industry.
I wouldn't be surprised if lots of companies in that domain would be very interested in the candidates coming out of Stockfighter, however there are so many subsystems involved in the problem environments disclosed so far that many valuable skill sets have the potential to be exercised. Part of the (general) success of both Stockfighter and Starfighter will be how well they manage to actually exercise those different skill sets.
I'm cautiously optimistic so far :)