In this article, one of QuantNet members describes a typical day as a market risk analyst in a big financial institution. The author holds an MFE degree.
6:45 am – Alarm clock goes off. The good side is that it’s a Friday and I have a weekend to rest. So I quickly get up, take a quick shower, have breakfast and pull myself together. Then pick up FT from the door, quickly skim through the headlines and head to the train for the daily commute.
7:30 am – After reading FT, look over the news on Bloomberg on my cell before I get in the tunnel and get ready for the day ahead.
7:50 am – Get to my desk and check email for any requests either from risk managers or my manager for the CRO . Some days can get extremely hectic and need to be on top of all the requests so that I can prioritize accordingly.
8:00 am – Every Friday the weekly stress testing results for the firm come in. Have an hour to put together the report, analyze the results and figure out the risk stories that I will need to present to the team and CRO. This is the time that craziness kicks in. Need to go through the changes in the risk measures for each desk and try to understand the strategy employed that would give me a more intuitive sense to the risk changes.
8:45 am –By now I have put a draft of the risk stories together, contacted risk managers to confirm the stories are in line with the changes prepared the necessary reports to back up the stories and have the presentation ready to be sent to the MDs and CRO.
9:30 am – After our team presented the major risk stories for the firm, I listen to each asset class risk managers that follow to brief the CRO with any details about any deals or risk profile changes that happened during the week at each desk.
11:00 am – Meeting is over. Time now to finalize my stories and dig through the millions of rows of data to make sure there was no feed issue.
12:00 am – Get together with some colleagues and go for lunch somewhere around Times Square.
1:00 pm – Back at the desk and ready to go discuss with the risk managers any questions they have and communicate with the research team any potential improvements that could be made to the model.
2:00 pm – Risk stories are finalized and the final comments are sent out. Next on the agenda is ad hoc stress scenarios that risk managers and the Regulators have requested.
4:00 pm – Slowly the day is winding down and the floor becomes somewhat quieter. It’s my only chance to pick up and finish coding the tools I left unfinished.
6:00 pm – Look over the calendar to get ready for the week ahead and prepare any necessary materials for my manager for Monday’s senior risk meeting.
6:45 pm – On my way home.
6:45 am – Alarm clock goes off. The good side is that it’s a Friday and I have a weekend to rest. So I quickly get up, take a quick shower, have breakfast and pull myself together. Then pick up FT from the door, quickly skim through the headlines and head to the train for the daily commute.
7:30 am – After reading FT, look over the news on Bloomberg on my cell before I get in the tunnel and get ready for the day ahead.
7:50 am – Get to my desk and check email for any requests either from risk managers or my manager for the CRO . Some days can get extremely hectic and need to be on top of all the requests so that I can prioritize accordingly.
8:00 am – Every Friday the weekly stress testing results for the firm come in. Have an hour to put together the report, analyze the results and figure out the risk stories that I will need to present to the team and CRO. This is the time that craziness kicks in. Need to go through the changes in the risk measures for each desk and try to understand the strategy employed that would give me a more intuitive sense to the risk changes.
8:45 am –By now I have put a draft of the risk stories together, contacted risk managers to confirm the stories are in line with the changes prepared the necessary reports to back up the stories and have the presentation ready to be sent to the MDs and CRO.
9:30 am – After our team presented the major risk stories for the firm, I listen to each asset class risk managers that follow to brief the CRO with any details about any deals or risk profile changes that happened during the week at each desk.
11:00 am – Meeting is over. Time now to finalize my stories and dig through the millions of rows of data to make sure there was no feed issue.
12:00 am – Get together with some colleagues and go for lunch somewhere around Times Square.
1:00 pm – Back at the desk and ready to go discuss with the risk managers any questions they have and communicate with the research team any potential improvements that could be made to the model.
2:00 pm – Risk stories are finalized and the final comments are sent out. Next on the agenda is ad hoc stress scenarios that risk managers and the Regulators have requested.
4:00 pm – Slowly the day is winding down and the floor becomes somewhat quieter. It’s my only chance to pick up and finish coding the tools I left unfinished.
6:00 pm – Look over the calendar to get ready for the week ahead and prepare any necessary materials for my manager for Monday’s senior risk meeting.
6:45 pm – On my way home.
