The Big Blank

First real post about the office life.

A quick intro. I am around a trading desk these days. Not much work and have been listening to things. Traders being the only revenue generators of this side of the finance industry expects to be treated like kings(desrevedly so). Traders, sales trader are in the king category and tech guy, booker etc are in the serving category.

Things I hear.
Trader to Tech guy and his assistant - "I am his worst nightmare and now I will be yours too...Muhahahahaha!!!"

Sales trader to agency trader- I want 20% of the volume. You have 30 seconds, work the trade with everything you have got, go Go GOOOO!!
5 seconds later - My mistake. cancel that order.

Sales trader to agency trader - Man... what are you doing go on with that order.
Agency trader - Oh..uh....yeah....a few seconds later.....You failed to shout at me this once ...he he he!!.
Sales trader - I NEVER SHOUT AT YOU.

Trader to booker - We have baught 1000 of these. Do you get it. So remember to book as buy 1000 not sell 1000. Thats BUY 1000 and not SELL 1000. Got it.
Booker - Yeah Yeah.
Trader - Brilliant!! So that will be Buy...right?

A few lessons learnt.
1) Never feel bad when somebody, in fact everybody, totally ignores you and only acknowledge that you exist when they need coffee, this could happen once or twice a day. The desk secretary can also come and ask you to get muffins for the desk. Its all in good spirit. After all you are getting free coffee and muffins. Just don't forget that you are in fact a B.Tech and going to be an MBA soon. And yeah also that you cleared CAT. Damn it!! This test was the thing responsible for all of this. Ban it :) (Actually this doesn't happen with me but with a colleague. :) )

2) Traders are nice people and generally don't swear and shout until someone comes in their way of making money. It can be the poor tech guy or the trade booking assistant. You being an intern, by default, interfere with their work but are not shouted at out of kindness(or the fraternity thing). Although a few warms up to the interns right from day one.

A Peek in
This friday somebody braught a star-wars sword and half the floor is enjoying the swoosh and the flicker of the tube. We are all kids at heart.

On the surface traders look like spoiled brats shouting at everyone. But are nice guys who don't take bullshit from the people around. They want to know who is working and who is taking the credit.

posted by Pankaj Jain @ 8:13 PM