Area of work:

Prime brokerage

Studied:

BCom in Finance/McGill University, Montreal, Canada; MSc in Finance/Cass Business School, City University, London
Joined: September 2008

Working in:

London

I am originally from Bulgaria where I studied at the American College of Sofia. Most of my school friends chose to continue their education in US schools, but I decided to attend McGill University in Montréal, Canada, where I could obtain a business school degree at a Bachelor level. I took a gap year before my senior year to work as an analyst at hedge fund trading in energy derivatives. After graduation, I decided to move back to Europe and completed an MSc at Cass Business School before joining BNP Paribas.

I discovered that BNP Paribas had been building a prime brokerage business within their equity derivatives unit, so coming from a hedge fund background, I thought it would be logical to see the other side of the coin. Accepting the offer was a careful choice considering the deepening crisis at the end of 2007. BNP Paribas' excellent derivatives house reputation and its status as the only AA+ rated bank at the time were among the major arguments for my decision.

The training programme was a good transition from the university setting to the trading floor. I also did a two-week derivatives modelling course, which was very challenging and stimulating: it proved essential for my role in the equity derivatives unit.

As I was learning the various trading, booking and reporting systems within prime brokerage, my trading role was more technical, focused towards the operation of our Middle Office. After some structural changes in the second quarter, my role has become more client-based, focused towards the sales-trading aspect of the business.

My day starts before the market opens, making sure all trades from the previous day have been correctly fed to our client reporting portal. After I resolve all issues with the help of the business analyst and risk analytics team in Paris, the production team publishes the client reports. Throughout the day, I communicate with clients regarding stock loan and financing trades, and I book new swap trades. In the afternoon, I look at daily P&L issues and foreign exchange exposure. After market close, I prepare the new Contracts for Difference (CFD) trade feed for our Middle Office.