Sales/Trading initial phone interview. what can I expect?
I have an initial call with the recruiter for the equities division of a BB firm. Can someone with experience share and ideas on how the conversation may go and what I can say to hopefully get an interview in NYC?
so ive never had a s&t interview before because ive been doing ibd, but for these initial interviews, do you indicate your preference for either sales or trading?
Search dood. This has been covered a hundred times before.
s&t phone interview (Originally Posted: 10/10/2010)
hey guys,
i have a dumb question regarding mental math in phone interviews, if they're asking multiplication or squaring problems over the phone whats preventing people from using calculators
They want to hear you work is out. 39x39 is not 1521 it is 1600 -40-39 or its 900+270+270+81.
and using a calculator for 1600 - 40 -39?
not relevant for me but just wondering haha
On the phone, they'll always ask you how you got to your mental math or brainteaser answer, so don't fuck yourself in the ass by cheating.
What are sales and trading phone interviews for bulge bracket banks like? How many rounds are there and what do they consist of? (Originally Posted: 12/18/2010)
So I have a phone interview with a bulge bracket for a summer sales and trading internship? What kind of questions do they ask, how many rounds are there? What should I expect? I go to a non target school and I had got in touch with an alum that forwarded my resume and made a case for me. Thanks
SEARCH FUNCTION!
Mostly competency as they tend to be with HR.
are you applying to Asia mostly fit it will be with a bus rep, not HR about half an hour one or 2 rounds then superday.
If it's Europe or US, then most likely will be HR.
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/gekkos-guidance-part-2-st-interview…
average is a phone interview, the a Superday with several interviews....no set number could be 1 could be 10.
could be hr, could be a business rep. They are going to ask why wall street, why s and t, why their firm. Are you prepared? Do your due diligence. How is your gpa and SAT scores?
I have a phone interview with a BB S and T Asia and it's with two MDs...
If your GPA is low but your SAT is high would this pose a problem after you get an interview?
Recent phone interview questions (Originally Posted: 01/30/2007)
Hello all,
Recently had a phone interview with a hedge fund specializing in fixed income, for a trading position. It was more basic than most of you are probably used to but here are some of the questions. Thought it might be of help to some people in their preparations. Best of luck to you all.
1) What is the Fed funds rate: what is the definition / where is it today?
2) What do you think will happen to the fed funds rate in the near future?
3) What is the yield on the 10 yr US bond?
4) What is LIBOR?
5) How will your predicted interest rate movements affect the housing market?
6) Are you familiar with black-scholes?
7) Is swapping a floating for a fixed rate more like buying a bond or selling one?
8) If delta = y, and the price of your option is x, then what is the change in asset price you need to just break even?
9) What is a big fundamental driver behind options prices?
thanks. that will be useful. frankly, i'm not very good with black-scholes and this was good practice
Can someone help me answer a couple of these questions? I'm interviewing for a hedge fund and I have a feeling that they'll be asking very similar questions... I'm just unsure about the following:
2) I would imagine that any answer is correct as long as there's sufficient reasoning. I would personally say that the fed fund rate remains constant (again, with sufficient reasoning)... but would an interviewer consider that an easy way out? If so, would you say that the fed fund rate goes up or down and why? 8) Delta=y=x/asset price change, so is the answer=x/y? 7) buy bonds because you're taking on more debt, right?It's likely wherever you interviewed was just trying to get a sense of whether you had even a cursory level understanding of the issues involved in trading.
In the very short term, the federal funds rate fluctuates randomly. In the longer term, the next FOMC meeting is on March 20th and futures are pricing the fed funds rate at about 25 basis points below (I think). Market pricing is a pretty reasonable indicator...
I believe it's buying a bond, but from my understanding the answer would be that you're buying a series of fixed payments, from a vantage point of uncertainty.
How familiar?
Vol
I'd agree mostly with that.
(2) If you feel that they're going to stay constant I would just throw in a few substantive reasons for why. ie: growth has slowed - but to what seems to be a more sustainable rate, but there have been hawkish comments from some fomc people - so it really depends (etc.)
(8) I believe your reasoning is correct. At the money options I think have delta = 0.5, and in my example the option was valued at 1.25 in the money. So the break-even point was $2.50 so that seems to be an indiciation that this logic is correct.
(7) Yep - buying bonds. What I said was something like "It'd be like buying bonds because you're locking in a coupon rate- unless you're buying a floating rate."
When you're a fixed rate receiver in a swap (and floating rate payer), you win if interest rates fall (as floating payments decrease, and for you, a market value of a swap increases)
Talking about bonds, its market value also increases when interest rates fall.
So, entering a swap as a fixed-rate receiver and floating rate-payer is like buying a bond.
isn't 9 rather intrinsic value + time premium?
Time to expiration, also price volatility. For put options, it's also very important to know whether its American or European option (as it influences the price of option directly)
A level of a risk-free rate also influences option prices, but its impact is not significant.
The answer would simply be vol. The other aspects of an option are taken as given (risk free rate, strike, stock price, time, etc)--in other words they might be considered structural aspects of the option.
9) how about price of the underlier??? also, the greeks have more/less influence at different stages OTM,ITM,and ATM which to be techncial and overacheiving you could specify.
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