Friday, June 15, 2007
all right, i know i left the last post with somewhat incomplete information with regards to my job scope. So now, lets get on with the description which at first, may sound appealing to the uninitiated, but when one DOES actually the job, it tends to get routine and mundane after a while.
I am to collect piles of DESK TICKETS which are separated into 2 kinds: the local tickets that contains information such as contracts that are traded through SGX and the other, which are the foreign contracts traded through foreign exchanges such as NKM (Nikkei ), SGK(Singapore Exchange), TW(Taiwan Exchange) and HSI( Hang Seng Index.)
These are all world wide exchanges that are responsible for a large % of all derivatives, equities trading in the world! One of the key things that i must learn to remember is the MOO or 'market on open' timings for each individual exchange: basically, SGX opens at 0845 while the Nikkei opens at 0745 etc.
I am to compare the time stamps on these tickets, pick the latest execution timings and compare them against the respective MOOs and calculate the difference and writing comments that range from Satisfactory to Unacceptable if the difference falls beyond the specific time required.
But the fun part of this is that i get to meet the traders/dealers themselves if i have any doubts with regards to whatever they have written on these tickets.
THE FISH TANK:
yup, thats what my compliance officer Gerry remarked when he showed me this glass enclosed room that houses the main operations of the securities business. This is the
hive of the company where the dealers pick up calls from institutional clients, placed(execute) these orders and earn their business.
This is also the business line which saw Nick Leeson making his fortune, only to bring down one of Britain's oldest merchant bank.
In this digital wired and wireless age, gone were the days where such trades(my company is a futures and options trading firm) were made in the 'outcry' system. This was where traders yelled, gesticulate with arcane and sometimes incomprehensible hand signals that could shift the markets, causing losses and gains to be made.
Now, everything is computerized; Orders placed via the computers and traders becoming more relaxed in their methods of dealings than their early predecessors. I just love being in that room although i know that none of them makes much sense to me currently. I saw the clocks on walls that displayed different time zones, Bloomberg, and of cos, several figures on those computers that i guess, should be the prices of contracts like oil, metals etc.
I managed to interact with one of the French trader there. I think he's the new trader which explains his friendliness. I was asking him questions about the MOO and he thought i was from MAS! ( which i found it to be absurd because that would make me a poor auditor who doesn't know his MOO).
Then he was kind to photocopy the list of MOOs for me and Lilian, one of the accountants who met Nick Leeson before, chatted with him and i heard this French man saying: "Tomorrow Toto huh? We strike the jackpot we can both retire!"
Interesting. I didn't know foreigners play the local lottery. Anyway, there's this other female dealer which i find quite attractive because she looks like the intellectual kind who is damn smart. She looks like 25 years old. And she's polite with me when i asked all those MOO orders though she is busy with the trades. I think every dealer there is quite polite there. I caught the French man chatting on his MSN and looking at photos of gals on some website!!
Haha, I just hope to talk more to these traders, learn more about the futures and options business and make my time there worthwhile.
