What do trading interns do?

I just got an offer for a Trading Summer Analyst position at a large international bank.  Being from a non-target I know very little about what a trading internship entails.  I am curious if anyone who has had one can tell me what they thought of their internship and what work  interns actually do in a SA role.  I am also worried that (as a person with a math and CS background) I may be limiting future employability or that this would look bad on a resume if I decided trading was not for me.  I am really interested in the idea of trading I just do not know enough about it to make a decision.  Someone Help!

 

some banks have the interns work on a project, build excel spreadsheets (if you know how to code in VBA / python you will have an advantage..tho not usually a requirement).  Often there is a research project.  You are expected to not know very much, but be highly motivated to learn and do work above and beyond what you have experience in college.  You will be judged very harshly by everybody you interact with, so act accordingly.

 
Funniest

I’m on the buyside but was speaking with a Dealer and he said interns at his BB use to get offers based on their memory. So him and 8 other traders for example will all send the intern out to get coffee, asking for all different types of coffee, and if the intern got it atleast 60% correct for each of them, they knew they could process information quickly and well so was likely good to bring on. Made me laugh when he explained this to me

 

Our interns are always tied up because of two things: 1) they don't have all the necessary licensing/approvals to do direct hand-on type work and 2) they don't have the knowledge base (yet).  Typically with our interns, our goal is to have them have a basic understanding of the market by the time they leave.  By the end of the summer, I think they should be comfortable pitching a few trade ideas, while being able to defend their views if probed further.  On top of that, I usually have the interns each do one longer-term project.  Usually its something modeling based, so hopefully it helps them develop ideas, while also making something that could be useful to the desk down the line. 

The most important thing for interns is that the desk your working with respects you and doesn't hate you, and that you also take the time to talk to people who aren't on your direct orbit.  At the end of the day, if they like you they will find a spot for you, but because of stuff outside your control (e.g. headcount) you may not end up exactly where you interned when FT allocation comes along.  Best to be flexible.

 
Most Helpful

I'm also a Math & CS major who interned at a BB in S&T this past summer. I had 4 rotations, here's what my day-to-day was like for each. Not saying desk names for sake of anonymity.

Desk (1): Studied trading algorithms written by quants, analyzed their performance via spreads & execution time, and then at the end come up with a final presentation to pitch the quant algos to the team as if they were a HF / client.

Desk (2): Research structured products and understand how they work - mostly involved asking good questions and doing ad hoc analysis. Prepare spreadsheets that tracked major political and economic events that affect markets.

Desk (3): Take notes on 7am morning call, send to entire desk, and then put together financial models to help research analysts. At the end, present a final project on a Long/Short strategy to entire desk as if they were a client looking to trade XYZ security.

Desk (4): Shadow traders and ask good questions. Got to know a bit them personally too since the conversations weren't about trading and markets all the time.

Every desk expected me to (1) reach out to every single person, Analyst to MD, and (2) ask really good questions. They didn't say this explicitly, but it was very much implied.

Hope this helps you! best of luck!

 

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