The first session of NHC Capital Markets Salon started with the general overview of Capital Markets, followed by detailed discussion on Sales & Trading, Equity Derivative Business, and tips for a sucessful career in Capital Markets. More insights were brought to the table during panel discussion among the experienced professionals working in Sales & Trading later on.
Capital Markets are often classified into sell side and buy side. Sell side parties include issuers, origination and secondary market, while buy side functions were mainly driven by endowments, pension funds, mutual funds, individual investors, insurance companies, hedge fund, private equity, and banks, etc. On top of the market players mentioned above, different products, namely FX, money market products, bonds, equities, and derivatives/structured finance, are issued and traded.
Catherine Zhang, CFA, Director at Equity Derivatives Trading at Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets, shared her 10-year experience of working in Sales & Trading the requirements of working in such highly stressed environment. She believes that being detail-oriented and risk-conscious as well as a strong heart are what it takes to be a good trader; and for institutional sales, communication skills are essential. It would also be of great help if traders were fluent in mathematics and computer science. Roles on this trajectory were relatively limited and popular options were portfolio manager, risk manager and compliance, etc. Catherine went on to talk about the features and objectivity with respect to typical trading products, such as Total Return Swap (TRS) & Forwards, OTC & Exchange Traded Options, and Structured Notes Business. The presentation ended with Catherine’s career advice for young professionals to aim high, always be ready and focus on building network.
The first session ended with a both informative and interactive panel, thanks to our three fabulous panelists: Olivia Li, Trading Products Associate at BMO Capital Markets; Ava Jiang, Trading Product Analyst at BMO Capital Markets; and Cassie Li, Senior Treasury Analyst at American Express.
The discussion touched upon each panelists’ daily mandates at work, the tricks on “how to play on top of the game” and the biggest industry disruptors in their own opinion.
With the great success at first session, we look forward to seeing you again on the next session of NHC Capital Markets Salon 2017!