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Now's a good time to work in equity derivatives

18 August 2009

Paul Clarke

The start of the year was a relatively tough time for equity derivatives professionals, with many firms paring back their teams as a result of some fairly substantial losses. Now, however, they're enjoying something of a change of fortune.

Nomura, Barclays Capital, Rabobank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Daiwa Securities SMBC have all made some senior hires in equity derivatives recently, according to Financial News.

The sector has experienced "significant flows from pension funds, sovereign funds and asset managers" in the second quarter of 2009, says Emmanuel Dray, global head of delta one trading at BNP Paribas.

"Many banks are currently hiring across equity derivatives in EMEA," says John Burr, director of the capital markets division at Principal Search. "Several of the houses that reduced their teams in the last 12 months are now reinvesting as well as upgrading in both trading and sales, whilst other firms are actively building their businesses by hiring small teams and by making key headline hires to attract others to a new platform.”

Headhunters tell us that Citi, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse are all in the market for equity derivatives staff, while The Deal also points out that JPMorgan, Focus Capital, Deutsche Bank and IJC Partners are all looking for people.

It seems that hiring within the sector has seen something of a resurgence, but one headhunter who specialises in equity derivatives warns against over-egging the pudding.

"Banks have been forced to make emergency hires because they've over-cut and the reduced teams can't handle the now increased workloads," they say. "It's not a complete turnaround, I know a good number of experienced equity derivatives traders who are still struggling to find a new position."

Comments (14)

Any chance to work in a team if you don't speak French?

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Comments (14)

  • ...and 70% of all front office derivatives staff in all banks are French. Any chance to work in a team if you don't speak French?

    Anglo-London 18 Aug 2009

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  • It's also a good time to go on holiday, to be fair.

    Charles 18 Aug 2009

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  • whats the salary is like if one speak french plz??

    kelpso 18 Aug 2009

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  • i don't think speaking french per se is a pre-requisite for working on a equity derivative desk - the predominance of the french, stems from the fact that the french bank societe generale pioneered this product, and the natural migration of talent from their has resurfaced at other big banks. But yes, from a cultural "fit" perspective, speaking french is definately going to help....

    Rico 18 Aug 2009

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  • if you are not french is ten times more difficult, in equity derivatives. Learn to speak frenc and be as arrogant as possible if you people want to make it i nthis business

    max1 18 Aug 2009

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  • Max1,
    I speak French, Spanish and Italian.
    but I'm not working there...

    eibepi 18 Aug 2009

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  • french peoople are degeulasse...they dont take bath for 3 days but spray dior  3 times a day..

    bapitan 18 Aug 2009

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  • je parle francais mais je n'aime pas les francais

    SP 18 Aug 2009

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  • Yeah, because all those classes in solving 2nd order differential equations from your Grande Ecole really come in handy when you're trading equity derivatives. 

    In fact, just the other day I was deciding whether or not to sell a variance swap and I thought:  What Would Cauchy Do?

    Johnny Moondog 18 Aug 2009

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  • eibepi - thats because you need to work on your arrogance. =P

    Basically equity derivatives are big in the french banks; notably socgen.  French students take maths very seriously and so make great candidates for trading derivatives and ESPEICALLY Exotics. A large percentage of the exotics traders at the likes of Goldman Sachs,etc are french.

    The Judge 18 Aug 2009

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