Trading and Card Tricks
Two Days on Wall Street
Sundar Shankar, MBA '06
Issue date: 11/5/04 Section: Careers
The "Day with a Trader" program continues a long tradition at the Johnson School to take students interested in finance careers on a whirlwind tour of Wall Street. According to Professor Alan Biloski, who organized the program, this program is meant not only as a recruiting tool for students but also as teaching tool because it includes four lectures and the trading game. The 'Day with a Trader" program was a great way for students to explore careers on Wall Street and to meet with corporate recruiters. A record number of 51 students, including the author, participated in this year's program.
Monday began with a breakfast hosted by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and a talk introducing us to derivatives trading strategies. Several Johnson alumni from JPM dropped in to introduce themselves and offer tips on Wall Street careers. We then split into groups to head off to seven different firms that had agreed to participate in the program. Each one of us had a unique experience. Some of us were hosted by traders, some by salespeople and some met several people doing different job functions. All hosts took the time to answer questions, give career guidance and explain their day-to-day job functions.
Candace Davies '06 spent the morning at Lehman Brothers meeting an equity research salesperson, an equity research analyst, and a middle market sales trader. "I had such a great time" said Candace. The students who were invited to BNP Paribas were given an overview by the CEO of Capital Markets and the Chief Economist before sitting with individual traders and salespeople. Archil Gachechiladze '06, who sat at the BNP Paribas' credit trading desk, says that it was very exciting to actually watch the traders close deals.
All of us gathered again at the Yale Club for lunch and listened to Travis Jordan '04 of Deutsche Bank talk about prime brokerages and the value of providing services to hedge funds. Mr. Jordan also offered valuable career advice to the students. The lunch meeting concluded with a talk from Max Ansbacher on options. Mr. Ansbacher is the founder and president of Asnbacher Investment Management, one of the largest firms in the US devoted to managing options exclusively.
Monday began with a breakfast hosted by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and a talk introducing us to derivatives trading strategies. Several Johnson alumni from JPM dropped in to introduce themselves and offer tips on Wall Street careers. We then split into groups to head off to seven different firms that had agreed to participate in the program. Each one of us had a unique experience. Some of us were hosted by traders, some by salespeople and some met several people doing different job functions. All hosts took the time to answer questions, give career guidance and explain their day-to-day job functions.
Candace Davies '06 spent the morning at Lehman Brothers meeting an equity research salesperson, an equity research analyst, and a middle market sales trader. "I had such a great time" said Candace. The students who were invited to BNP Paribas were given an overview by the CEO of Capital Markets and the Chief Economist before sitting with individual traders and salespeople. Archil Gachechiladze '06, who sat at the BNP Paribas' credit trading desk, says that it was very exciting to actually watch the traders close deals.
All of us gathered again at the Yale Club for lunch and listened to Travis Jordan '04 of Deutsche Bank talk about prime brokerages and the value of providing services to hedge funds. Mr. Jordan also offered valuable career advice to the students. The lunch meeting concluded with a talk from Max Ansbacher on options. Mr. Ansbacher is the founder and president of Asnbacher Investment Management, one of the largest firms in the US devoted to managing options exclusively.