Since 2008 it's really changed. To get around the government and media focus on bonuses, investment banks have pretty much trebled a trader's basic salary from around one hundred thousand pounds a year to three hundred thousand a year. Bonus rates have been slashed massively and traders now get paid a significantly higher proportion of their bonus in shares.http://www.trade2win.com/knowledge/articles/general_articles/anton-kreil-interview/
PM: Can you talk through what a typical day is for you ?
AK: Typical days now well, I generally get up around six thirty to seven o’ clock, watch the financial news for half an hour and have a coffee. I'll know things probably haven't moved much overnight because I generally go to bed at midnight but its good discipline for me. It gives me an appreciation of all the major levels and what the media are reporting. A lot of people in the industry say you shouldn't watch the media because they're reporting what happened yesterday, but it actually gives me some really good clues for trade ideas.
If they're already reporting what's happened its useful for me because it tells me what the “unoriginal” trade ideas are in the market, so kind of what the idiots in the world are doing. I take a mental note of that and it might trigger some interest in looking up certain trade ideas. I kind of spend most of my day writing my own research, reading other peoples' research and building spreadsheets for myself and for other people through the institute.
It's really not as glamorous as most people think. I'll do this until 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. and then I'll watch more financial media to get their synopsis on what's happened in the world today. Then I'll unwind for a few hours and go to bed.
Comments
AK: Typical days now well, I generally get up around six thirty to seven o’ clock, watch the financial news for half an hour and have a coffee. I'll know things probably haven't moved much overnight because I generally go to bed at midnight but its good discipline for me. It gives me an appreciation of all the major levels and what the media are reporting. A lot of people in the industry say you shouldn't watch the media because they're reporting what happened yesterday, but it actually gives me some really good clues for trade ideas.
If they're already reporting what's happened its useful for me because it tells me what the “unoriginal” trade ideas are in the market, so kind of what the idiots in the world are doing. I take a mental note of that and it might trigger some interest in looking up certain trade ideas. I kind of spend most of my day writing my own research, reading other peoples' research and building spreadsheets for myself and for other people through the institute.
It's really not as glamorous as most people think. I'll do this until 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. and then I'll watch more financial media to get their synopsis on what's happened in the world today. Then I'll unwind for a few hours and go to bed.