What does a "Trading Analyst" do?
So I am a fundamental analyst in energy sector and I want to move towards trading. I frequently see "Trading Analyst" roles advertised on LinkedIn and these roles have requirements which kind of lean towards a quant researcher role but then in energy trading business, desks are still a bit old school. There is mostly manual execution so I don't understand what these ppl want when they say they want someone to "develop trading models". I know many hedge funds jumped into energy trading recently but I know for sure that at least in Europe most desks have traders who manually buy and sell.
I will greatly appreciate if someone who works in Gas and Power trading can help me identify key skills that I should learn to get a job of a "Trading Analyst". I know standard regression and time series forecasting techniques. But have no understanding about "optimization". Optimization is the word that's thrown out a lot in energy trading roles. I can make a guess what optimization is when you have asset backed trading but I still want to know specific skills that will be useful for me to be able to do any optimization analysis.
Thanks in advance.
Can’t speak to gas & power specifically, but “analyst” at banks usually just refers to the most junior person on a trading desk. Your first 6 months-2 years is spent learning and doing the behind the scenes work for ur desk (flashing pnl, shadowing, building out tools for ur desk in python, morning note/axes email to send over to sales). I say 6 months to 2 years because depending on the complexity of the product, it may take more or less time to actually start trading (rates vol will take longer to start actually trading than cash equities)
“Trading analyst” at a big commodities shop mostly commonly refers to a job where you support the traders by running position reports, pnl calculations, deal entry, hedge ratable exposure changes, and solve busts in data entry systems. It’s often treated as a stepping stone to get into a trader role, though the position can be on its own permanent track as well.
If you’re a fundamental analyst in Gas/Power building/maintaining fundamental s&d models you should be able to transition to a risk taking/trader role if you’re at the right shop. Are you generating actual trade ideas or purely just data scraping and updating existing models? If you’re pitching good trade recommendations and market views the big difference is actually hitting the button and wearing the responsibility for the position risk. A move to financial trading should be more feasible than physical just because of the logistical knowledge. Personally think the jump from analyst to trader is easier than trade assistant IMO.
I work in a research/consultancy kind of firm. So think of ICIS/WoodMac/Bloomberg etc....I joined recently so I dont have any client interactions but I publish research every month. I interviewed for a shift trader role at a utility 6 months ago but didnt get the job. And I think thats best way to move towards speculative trading. But I turned 30 and have no drive to work in shift roles. So trading analyst is a good opportunity to learn practical skills and then move into a trading role within the firm when 1 year later.
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