What is a typical day like for you?

A typical day for a trader involves a fairly early start. For me, this is just before 6am. I study what happened overnight, particularly in the US and Asia, before the European markets open. So when I arrive in the office, I already have an understanding of what has happened, and what the important events are that might be coming up in the next few days and weeks.

Then when the market opens, around 7am, I will engage all the electronic systems, make sure the phones are working and then start to stream my prices into the marketplace. Once trading begins, I will be observing what trades are happening, what prices and what instruments are being traded; and I will be looking at how all of this is feeding into risk and adding to our existing positions. I will be manually checking the automated decision-making to see if I think it is reasonable, as well as looking at our systems and how they are operating. 

Alongside this, I’ll be looking at what is happening in the world and I might also do some research projects or some coding. The day runs from 7am until 5pm and then once the market is closed, I’ll make sure all the trades are cleared correctly, review and write up the day and finish by around 6pm.

What is it about market making that appeals to you?

The appeal of market making is that it is a very complex and multi-faceted problem, with lots of ways to approach it and lots of ways to solve it. Alongside this, it’s also very immediately demanding. You have to price, take risks and be constantly present in the market. This is what creates such a buzz and a drive of adrenaline, that makes it a fun and interesting role.

How did you get into market making?

I always enjoyed maths, problem-solving, games and competition. I read up about trading and saw it involved those particular traits. Then with market making, it also added this layer of technology on top as well because it’s very code and developer driven. All of these combined made up my interests, and what led me here.

Tell us about who you work with? What are the other roles in your team?

There are the traders, like me, who are responsible for providing the prices, doing the trades and managing the risks. Alongside them are the Quants, who are responsible for providing the models to create the pricing. Then there are the data scientists who are responsible for finding, cleaning and providing the data that everyone can use. And lastly, there are the developers who are responsible for the coding. They ensure its production quality and working as it should be.

To find out more about Maven Securities visit www.mavensecurities.com