Case studies: Financial trader: Avi Tillu

While studying mathematics at Magdalen College, Oxford, Avi was President of the Investment and Finance Society and Vice-President of Oxford Entrepreneurs. He also gained experience on a summer internship with a major investment bank. After graduating in 2010, he's now working as an analyst within the Interest Rates Product Trading Group at Goldman Sachs.

I would be the first to admit that my route into trading was one of chance and serendipity. I was only 20 when I started, never having interned in my prospective business area or so much as met my team. When faced with two competing offers - Interest Rates Trading at Goldman Sachs versus Rotational Global Markets Sales and Trading at the rival bank where I’d done a summer internship - instinct trumped experience: I crossed my fingers and hoped all would work out.

Fortunately, it did. Now a third-year analyst on the Interest Rates Product (IRP) trading desk, I am part of a team of three that trades and manages interest rate derivative contingent credit and funding exposure. In practice, I spend most of my day working with Monte Carlo simulation models to understand and predict the future mark-to-market volatility of our derivatives positions. I also try and think up innovative ways to manage the risk of a very large derivative receivable arising versus a highly distressed counterparty.

Many think that traders are highly impulsive beasts, with lightning quick mental reflexes. In some areas of trading, this is certainly true. But I work on an exotics desk, where we may only execute one or two bespoke trades in a whole day. Many of our risks are highly structured and exotic, requiring an in-depth understanding of, for example, interest rate and FX volatility, cross-product correlations and structured credit. Unlike most trading desks, we don't have clients for whom we make markets. The majority of our trading is proprietary and focused on managing a complex portfolio.

My maths background definitely helps me, and I often find myself hand-solving various differential equations or probability problems. I usually get in at 7.30am and spend the first half hour digesting overnight news from Asia. As liquidity improves, I hedge risks I picked up after the previous day's London close. The majority of my morning is spent either pricing new trades or formulating longer-term trading strategies to manage exposure from existing trades. Lunch is usually taken at my desk. The afternoon follows a similar pattern to the morning, with most internal meetings and training sessions scheduled after the close; so generally, I finish between 7pm and 8pm.

I am excited by the opportunities afforded in my current job, plus I'm currently working towards a CFA (chartered financial analyst) qualification. I am reassured in the knowledge that, were things to change, the multidisciplinary skills learnt on the desk and via the CFA qualification will stand me in good stead to pursue alternative careers within finance.

No one can say where our business will be in ten years, but one thing I can be sure of - it'll be a great ride!