Bob Qi - Analyst, EM Trading, Hong Kong

I had some friends who worked at Barclays as interns and full-time analysts. I heard their stories about Barclays Capital and their pleasant working experience which encouraged me to apply. At the time of my application, Barclays Capital gained a lot of publicity when it acquired Lehman’s North American business in the fall of 2008. That development was very positive. Barclays weathered the financial crisis well and had a huge opportunity to grow.

People may think trading is all about a group of angry men shouting at each other. What a misperception. Trading is more about analysis and making good decisions. I am a quantitative type of person and like to put my thinking into the test of market. I think this is a good fit.

Trading is also a business where you need to sell to your clients. In particular, trading in Greater China products offers great opportunities as China’s financial markets are growing exponentially. The market is untapped in many respects.

I am currently an analyst on our Greater China trading desk. We make markets for a variety of interest rate and FX products. I mainly look at offshore CNY products. My main responsibilities include quoting price, pricing and managing risk, creating updates on markets, and providing trade ideas.

I come in before 8am every day. Typically the day starts with researching overnight market development by reading a variety of newswires and internal commentaries and discussing trading strategies with my colleagues.

Regular trading sessions are from 9am to 4pm. Sales, IBD and structuring colleagues will ask for our quote through different channels and I’ll help execute the trade. I also trade on the interbank market to hedge and adjust our portfolio. Additionally, I write market commentaries and update market news around the clock.

At the end of day, I assist in evaluating the risk of our desk, calculating the profit and loss for the day, and writing end-of-day commentaries. I usually leave around 7pm and then the New York trading desk steps in.

Our desk trades interest rate and FX products spanning all three Greater China currencies, CNY, HKD and TWD. We are part of the Emerging Market franchise which delivers top-tier trade execution and liquidity to our broad client base, including hedge funds, real money, corporate as well as central banks. Greater China desk is a key part of our franchise as China continues its ascendancy on the world’s stage both economically and politically.

The Sales Team is my most frequent contact as they come to ask prices for investors including hedge funds, real money and corporate clients around the clock. My job involves updating our sales team on market development and providing trading ideas. The final click will be when sales bring in orders from our clients for a trade execution.

I also interact with our IBD team, which manages our origination clients. Another contact is our research team who works on macroeconomic pieces for China. Research gives our trading desk a broad view of the macroeconomic picture, including their in-depth analysis of secular trends as well as their interpretation on economic data.

I have the freedom to make decisions even as a very junior person in the team. Trading is about thinking, interpreting information and making decisions based on that. It’s like a creation business in that you set your own rules, playing field and style. From time to time, there will be setbacks, but I learn from this process and experience great joy when my view turns out to be correct.

The graduate programme is very systematic and conducive to my growth within the firm. It started with a two-month Initial Training Program (ITP) held in London where I was able to learn necessary technical skills and network with fellow graduates as well as senior people. ITP was kind of a fast track for me to know more about Barclays and people who later would become my contacts during work. I think this was very important for my future development within the firm.

I started to work on the trading desk after ITP and it was a very steep learning curve. I was exposed to different products and learned a lot from my managers and other colleagues who are very experienced and have deep insights. During this period, I also spent one month in Singapore learning more risk management and pricing skills. I talked to more traders, sales people as well as colleagues in supporting functions.

I think the best part of the training was a lot of exposure to different people and products.

I would say fast and sound judgment is extremely important. In a rapid moving market, the ability to interpret market events and conditions is key to our success. When clients come for a price, the trader needs to decide how market liquidity is, what the economic trends are, and what position we’d like to take before quoting. The decision needs to be made in a very short period of time and possibly under pressure.

Communication skills are also very important. Interaction with sales and other teams happens from time to time. Making ourselves stand out immediately is essential for the daily trading business. On the other hand, our client franchise requires us to provide excellent trading ideas. How to promote the ideas persuasively is another facet of a trader’s communication skills.

Getting a quick start was pretty challenging as I needed to know a multitude of in-house systems and pricing models. Thankfully, my teammates were are all very helpful and gave me guidance along the way. I was put to work on new models for the desk and learned a lot from these tasks.

My colleagues are very friendly. Whether it’s junior or senior people, they are all willing to answer my questions. They are interesting people who have diverse views about different topics. It’s really lovely to work with them!

We are rapidly expanding and building into a premier investment bank. I would say this offers great perspective for a fresh graduate who doesn’t have much experience and still in search of the right career path. I have the chance to work with a lot of intelligent people and that is great experience.

On the desk, you’ll resume more and more responsibility as soon as you join the team, and the learning curve is very steep. It’s a very meritocratic working environment so Barclays Capital is definitely where young graduates can flourish!