Foreign Exchange Trader Interview

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disciple

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Hi guys,
I have a Foreign Exchange Trader interview early next week. Can anyone please tell me how to prepare for the interview? What should I know going into the interview?
Below is the posting for the job.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Reporting to the Head Foreign Exchange Trader, you will help to manage foreign exchange risk. Primary responsibilities involve providing exchange rate quotes, predominantly for transactions under $100,000. The Foreign Exchange Trader is expected to use sound professional judgment when quoting rates, incorporating decision making factors such as: the existing foreign exchange position, current market conditions, the opportunity to win client business and the overall foreign exchange profitability goals. The Foreign Exchange Trader also serves as the primary backup to the Head Foreign Exchange Trader and is expected to be able to transact with financial counterparties in a variety of foreign exchange products in order to offset large client transactions as well as manage foreign exchange position. Promote our foreign exchange products to new and existing clients. Monitors market developments to provide financial market commentary to various internal and external clients. Assist the Head Foreign Exchange Trader in preparation of daily, monthly and annual revenue reports. Other projects as required.
Your key responsibilities will include:
· Execute foreign exchange transactions for retail clients
· Manage foreign exchange position in the absence of the Head Foreign Exchange Trader
· Be fully aware of financial risk management policies, guidelines and procedures and ensure that all foreign exchange transaction adhere to them.
· Monitor and provide communication on all relevant economic, political and financial news
· Liaise with market counterparties to establish trading relationships and obtain market news.
· Act as a resource in the training and use of electronic systems
 
Congrats on the interview! Looks like a great opportunity.
I do FX trading for a Mid-Cap Tech company so it looks as if you’ll be working on the opposite side from someone as myself (from the bank). Who are you interviewing with?
Here is what I would have dialed before I went into the interview.
FYI - ForEx market is the largest and most liquid in the world (3.2 Trillion)
First thing you need to know is how to correctly quote the currency. For instance Yen and Euro are not quoted in the same convention (it takes roughly 107 yen to get back one dollar, and it takes about 1.59 dollars to equal one Euro, I believe GBP, AUD, and NZD are quoted the same)
Current spot rates of Major G8 currencies, and their recent movements due to major events (Freddie/Fannie, Bear, etc…)
Know how the Fed, the ECB and other central banks take actions to control the money supply and the strength of their respective currencies. A big part of my job is to monitor the political and economic environment for these announcements and analyze their effects on the market.
Become familiar with the major economic indicators (CPI, Mtg Apps, Un-emp, non-farm payroll, Beige book, etc) Leading vs lagging etc…
Familiarize yourself with strategies a company employs to hedge risk and how you can add value to that. (We are long Euro, and Yen so we buy fwds but mainly puts to hedge conversion losses) There are also some natural hedges available as well (taking out loan in foreign currency you are long)
I would now what a carry trade is also.
Get to know bloomberg if you dont already.
Hope this helps!
Let me know if you have any questions. Good Luck!
 
Hey fxguy1234,
Thanks for the help.
Is there any trusted website/book that you would suggest? I tried googling it but there are lot of websites that don’t have the info on what you mentioned.
Cheers!
 
Hey disciple,
congrats on the interview.
kind of sounds like what i do right now, you still have my email ?
 
“Currency and Interest Rate Hedging” is a good book that is out of print. I goggled it and here is the link
http://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Andersen, Torben Juul
There is plenty of info on the central bank and economic indicators out there. Wikipedia foreign exchange for starters.
Just curios - what is your comp structure? Just want to gauge what kind of exit opportunities exist out there for FX.
Thx
 
Hey fxguy1234,
I don’t know what the comp structure is yet. It was not disclosed in the posting. I’ll let you know though if I find out. I’m in Canada though FYI.
Thanks.
 
Transactions under $100,000? Risk management of 1 contract or something? The vol on 1 futures contract is not supposed to matter much in your PA.
 
disciple - the best intro book in my opinion is Foreign Exchange: A Practical Guide to the FX Markets by Tim Weithers. He’s holds a PhD from Univ Chicago, and spent most of his career working for the educational group of some pretty impressive funds. You’ll get the theory w/o the bs. Learn the quoting conventions like a mantra, and practice doing math in your head. Good luck!
 
L3 Buckaroo Wrote:
——————————————————-
> disciple, are you in montreal by chance?
i am.
I am also interested to know where this firm is.
 
the thing about fx that really gets me is coming in at 615 to 630 every am.
i hate going to bed at 1030 every night.
 
L3 Buckaroo & former trader: I’m in Alberta.
Update: There were three people who interviewed me: the head F/X trader, head derivatives trader and the HR advisor. The HR advisor started off the interview with a whole bunch of behavioural questions that I did pretty well in. Then the pretty generic questions of why this position and why this company?
Then came the technical questions of the current economic outlook and difficulties of financial institutions which I answered with the current state of credit tightening with regards to Fannie and Freddie. The next question was the implications of the CAD/USD exchange rate with the US gov’t bailing out Fanie and Freddie which I did okay on but don’t think it was the best answer for me that day.
There were also some questions on handling stress and talking on the phone(I’ll be on the phone a lot he said).
I just received notice of second interview next week with the head F/X trader and the vice president.
Any tips for the second interview? Also, if my long term career aspiration is investment management, how well would this role lead to it?
Thanks again.
PS. Do send a well written thank you note to all your interviewers. My recruiter said that it was the thing that impressed them the most.
 
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