Trading desks are always referred as a war zone characterized by a high-pressure and fast-paced environment. Traders usually specialize in specific investment product such as stocks, derivatives, bonds or Foreign Exchange. They need to gather all relevant news and carry out data analysis prior to the open of the market.
Proprietary traders (or prop trader in short) make use of the banks’ own money to buy and sell the products in order to generate profit for the institutions. They go through research reports and develop their own views on the market. They could trade frequently or build strategies and trade longer term.
For the transactions requested by clients, the traders performs the services including providing trading ideas and securing the deals for them. Throughout the process, they do their best to execute the trades according to the clients’ interest and needs. Communication skills are vital as they need to liaise with counter-parties and various departments across the institutions.
