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Based on the most helpful WSO content, here are some tips and resources to prepare for your rotation in fixed income financing, particularly within rates financing and repo trading:
Understanding Repo Trading and Rates Financing:
Key Skills to Develop:
Recommended Reading:
Additional Preparation:
If you're looking for more specific primers or documents, consider reaching out to your team or mentors within the firm—they might have internal resources tailored to your role.
Sources: S&T Summer Intern Prep - 2 Months Out, How to prepare for summer ASSOCIATE internship, S&T Literature/Books for Interns?, S&T Literature/Books for Interns?, https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/asset-management/sales-trading-interview-guide-gekkos-guidance-part-2?customgpt=1
Ask a junior on the desk for primers if you have their contacts, try and organise a call within next few weeks to ask these sorts of questions. Whether it is coding/excel heavy will likely depend on desk (as in some FIF desks in different banks will prefer using different stuff) & projects they give you but wouldn't hurt to brush up. Current macro knowledge will also be quite important so read FT, WSJ etc. when you got time.
dont have contacts of juniors yet, only of my manager. But yes, will be brushing up on excel and keeping up with macro, thanks.
Ok cool, if you have your managers contact deffo try to set up a meeting with them as they will be able to direct you to the right resources. If not, I think there are some old Lemhan manuals out there somewhere that may be of some use (know there is one for equities and I think FX but not too sure about FIF)
Sat on both equity and fixed income repo desks -> learn what Triparty is, how the system works, understand what drives repo rates & how financing actually works (firm financing vs. short cover). Usually repo rates are priced as GC/Specials which are determined by collateral quality & demand, but in simpler terms its some O/N rate + spread, and if its term then ofc you use the term structure to price (in UK for example we used SONIA + spread). Its a lot of screens vs models as well (aka you use what market levels are as a heavy lever into where you bid/offer) as the repo itself is fairly basic & easy to price, so there is a focus on optimization (i.e. inventory management/allocation - triparty does this algorithmically w inventory but there's always room for manual overlay) Now its been 2 years since i sat on the repo desk & i was an intern so my knowledge is limited, especially on the pricing component but its a good place to start.
Essentially the plumbing of the market, and is pretty integral to trading floor ops but bcuz of that its low risk, low reward, more mid-office adjacent type of role. A lot of repo desks also dont have official PnL mandates (if they are earning a lot it means someone else on the floor is facing high costs), but typically there is a wider/more lenient product mandate which means risk can be taken (and does) across more than just the repo (i.e. IRS, Bond futures, etc.)
Thanks for the response, will definitely read up on what you mentioned. About the end, where you said there is a wider/more lenient product mandate- what do you mean? Do you mean that as opposed to just financing government bonds (which is what my team does to my best knowledge), they also finance things like IRS etc?
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