[HELP] Struggling AN1, catching mistakes in S&T
Four months in at a mid-BB. For context, I come from a semi-target background and basically networked my way into a SA position during sophomore year. Worked my ass off during the internship and managed to secure a return offer.
Things were going well at first, but as I was given more work and responsibility I started making mistakes. A lot of them. My team getting pissed at me for screwing up impacted my confidence, and I soon found my upbeat and positive attitude at work replaced by stress and anxiety.
I have some strategies in place to reduce errors: I log all of my mistakes in a spreadsheet and double/triple/quadruple check anything I send out. This has been helpful in reducing the number of mistakes I make, but I am still not perfect and every small mistake that slips through feels magnified.
Does anyone have advice for catching mistakes in the high-pressure, crazy atmosphere of the trading floor? Also, how do I harden the fuck up?
I struggled with this too as a junior. The trading floor, as fun as it is, can be stressful - it's extremely demanding and everyone is on their A-game.
Most of the mistakes I made fell into two buckets: workflow and confidence.
For workflow, I was disorganized with all the basic tools - BBG, excel, turret, and trade confi system. I spent a few weekends and evenings tweaking my workflow so it consistently supported low-error execution - fading alerts in chat when my name was mentioned, color coding certain traders and clients, and keeping an open chat with myself where I scribbled quick to-do's. Even today, I am always tweaking my launchpad and other systems so they help me do my work in an error-free way.
This also applies to how you interact with sales and internal parties (middle-office, etc.) Watch your seniors on the desk and set up a framework on how you regularly communicate with sales, set 30 mins aside to clear breaks every day, etc. You've got to set up your whole routine for success, which is easier than trying to remember all of the one-off errors in your spreadsheet.
Confidence, which came with time, let me think with a clearer head and set up trades/workflows that avoided potential headaches or source of error. If a process was repeatedly causing issues, I felt comfortable reaching out to the head of the middle office and setting up a project to fix it. I set up my trading and risk in a way that better suited my style and meant I wasn't as nervous all the time, which let me focus on being a better risk-taker.
Keep your chin up - it's part of the learning process, and you can do it.
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