What would a Junior Trader be doing typically?How long do traders remain Juniors typically?What sort of educational background would you expect a Junior Trader to have?How much training is given? Do Junior Traders most often come through graduate programmes?

depends what desk and what level you are but you typically start by doing all the stuff the more senior traders dont want to do. ie: booking tickets, input risk to get live risk levels, mirror them on pricing stuff for clients, calculate appropriate hedges, check broker confirm details to make sure they tie to the levels you agreed to, getting breakfast lunch coffee for sr guys. its pretty thankless in the beginning but those are the fundamental things you need to understand and noone is going to let you trade until they trust you can do the easier stuff. than you will most likely start trading small stuff that if you screw up wont be a big hit p&L wise, do well and you get to trade bigger size

QuoteOriginally posted by: jax26depends what desk and what level you are but you typically start by doing all the stuff the more senior traders dont want to do. ie: booking tickets, input risk to get live risk levels, mirror them on pricing stuff for clients, calculate appropriate hedges, check broker confirm details to make sure they tie to the levels you agreed to, getting breakfast lunch coffee for sr guys. its pretty thankless in the beginning but those are the fundamental things you need to understand and noone is going to let you trade until they trust you can do the easier stuff. than you will most likely start trading small stuff that if you screw up wont be a big hit p&L wise, do well and you get to trade bigger sizeI'll be starting soon as a trainee trader in interest rates (I think its a swaps desk). I am looking to get onto an exotics desk sometime in the future. What should I do to maximise my chances? I am thinking of doing the CQF as well. Any comments? I recently graduated with a Maths and Finance degree.

well at my firm, the exotics guys are PHD's so in general I think it would be tough to get into that group. i will say if you are working on the swap desk you are going to have a lot of interaction with them as they hedge their trades through the swap desk and you will more than likely be sitting very close. you will have to do well on the swap desk and hope a jr. spot opens within the exotics group. why are you so sure you want to move to exotics when you havent started on the swaps desk yet?

" What would a Junior Trader be doing typically?"Learning to become a trader."How long do traders remain Juniors typically?"No idea, but I my firm Junior Traders start trading on their own after 4 months ish."What sort of educational background would you expect a Junior Trader to have?"I have a master degree."How much training is given? Do Junior Traders most often come through graduate programmes?"A lot of training, naturally. I joined the trading desk straight from school, not sure what's the most common way.Hope this helps and good luck! I'm a currently a Junior Trader (Equity) and I love it!

QuoteOriginally posted by: jax26well at my firm, the exotics guys are PHD's so in general I think it would be tough to get into that group. i will say if you are working on the swap desk you are going to have a lot of interaction with them as they hedge their trades through the swap desk and you will more than likely be sitting very close. you will have to do well on the swap desk and hope a jr. spot opens within the exotics group. why are you so sure you want to move to exotics when you havent started on the swaps desk yet?It seems like an area where I can use my maths skills (I interned in a couple of front-office quant jobs before). How can I use my maths skills/logic while working on a swaps desk?

Loads of stuff dude.You can spend time building models to analyse the relative cheap/richness of curve trades in futures and swaps, algorithms to take advantage of intraday price action of futures, come up with prop ideas for your boss...

exactly, swaps desks can be as quant as you want them to be and there is a ton of model development to be done even at the best firms. some firms are much more quanty and rely on the math behind yield curves more than others. i think your best bet is to see how things go on the swap desk bc no move is going to happen until you learn that business and make money for the desk. you arent going to walk in and master the swap market in 6 months so id concentrate on doing the best you can in the role you have. if you are good doors/opportunities will open

QuoteOriginally posted by: jax26exactly, swaps desks can be as quant as you want them to be and there is a ton of model development to be done even at the best firms. some firms are much more quanty and rely on the math behind yield curves more than others. i think your best bet is to see how things go on the swap desk bc no move is going to happen until you learn that business and make money for the desk. you arent going to walk in and master the swap market in 6 months so id concentrate on doing the best you can in the role you have. if you are good doors/opportunities will openQuoteOriginally posted by: PanangLoads of stuff dude.You can spend time building models to analyse the relative cheap/richness of curve trades in futures and swaps, algorithms to take advantage of intraday price action of futures, come up with prop ideas for your boss...Thank you jax26 and Panang for the advice. Do you have any useful links/references that can give me a better idea of these kinds of models/problems/strategies, etc?Also, is Lehman Brothers known for their quanty trading in this area?