Equities Summer Analyst: A Day in the Life

As most of you all know, I am a big advocate of Investment Banking, however in order to come to this conclusion, I had to dabble in other parts of finance. My sophomore year, I summered in Sales & Trading and loved it as it provided me with perspective. My first three weeks of the job, I spent time on an Equities Sales Trading desk. I have written the following personal description of my first three weeks on the job to give you guys interested in finance an idea of how my experience in Equities went. Enjoy. Se7en.

"I wake up and wipe the morning crust out of my eyes only to realize that it is 4:30am and does not look at all like my ideal morning. There is a glaring, repetitive noise that wont seem to go away and the sky is the same color it was when I put my head down to sleep. Once I come to my senses and realize that this is not a terrible dream, but a reality, I wonder to myself why I chose to experience this unbearable feeling every day during my summer. After I snap out my trance, I realize how privileged I am to be working at one of the top investment banking institutions in the world and things begin to normalize. I then notice that I have a little under 45 minutes to catch the 5:15 train to place me at work by 5:45. I hastily get myself together leave the house in a dead sprint and catch the train in the nick of time.

The 30 minute train ride is often characterized by casual listening to my iPod and nodding off every now and then. Once I arrive at my destination downtown. I remember to make sure that I am the first in the office at 6am. Getting there before the first year analyst proves to be a very difficult task as they are fairly new on the job and have to prove themselves as well. I walk onto a dead trading floor that would soon turn into a lively scene with people yelling back and forth at each other, phones slamming, and all that other good stuff. The traders and salespeople usually walk onto the floor at around 7:15 am. I make sure that they all have the international market digest and 'The Gartman Letter' on their desks before they come in. Information is essential in the world of Equities.

The rest of the morning consists of me getting any and all relevant information to the traders in a form that they can easily digest. This means my skills of summarizing quickly and effectively are put to the test. Once the markets open at 9:30 am, I might as well go home for an hour because the traders are so focused handling all the names they are trading and talking to clients that my help is no longer necessary. In fact, at this point I am more of a nuisance than anything else and am best off just observing. Regardless of how confused I get or how many questions I have, I do not speak to any of the traders in this opening hour.

However, I do have to write down questions that I may have because after the first power hour, traders may have some down time. In this down time, it is my turn to shine and show off my intelligence. I have to strike a balance between asking the traders intellectual questions that keep their attention and displaying a great personality that is easy and fun to work with. Striking this balance is more of an art than a science and I get better as the day goes along.

Lunch time is not the traditional half hour break where one can leave the building to get away from everything. Instead, it consists of running from place to place picking up orders for guys on the desk. If you`re lucky, they may tell you to get something for yourself, if not then you run to the cafeteria, grab something and bring it back to the desk and scarf it down before anybody presents you with another task.

The rest of the day ebbs and flows with some really busy periods and some down periods for the traders. During the busy periods, I am working on multiple trade ideas and creating a model in excel that can predict option prices. During the down periods, I am trying to get to know the traders better on a personal level to figure out if I think that the desk is a good character fit for me. Once 4:30 hits, the traders begin to trickle out of the building. I stay around until my first year analyst leaves around 5:45. The day is not over here, next I have numerous power networking sessions where I have the chance to get in front of some of the most senior people in the firm. So yeah, right when my body starts thinking unwind, I have to turn the intensity all the way up. The networking sessions usually end around 9pm. I go back to the desk, pick up all my materials, tie things up, and head home. I reach home by 10pm and do a little reading before I go to sleep at 11pm. The next thing I know, the glaring, repetitive noise starts again."

Ndu Okereke, '10