Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

Part of the investment team within the firm's Global Macro Hedge Fund business.
Research responsibility for Fixed Income and Volatility markets.

Days start early to recap overnight news from Asia. We'll also have a chat about any major economic data or central bank meetings that day so we can look for market reaction following them.

As part of running the fund we'll look to get the more administrative tasks out of the way early so we free up as much of the day as possible.

We are co-located between London and San Francisco, so following the US market open we'll have most of our research meetings to discuss what people are working on.

I love working to have a view on something and watching whether or not your view is provided right. Working for a systematic fund, we spend a lot of time developing signals to extract alpha from markets rather than trading the days’ news flow, so significant amounts of effort goes into signal development. It's hugely rewarding to see your work being traded in the fund and (hopefully) generating returns for clients.

Often there is no 'right' answer. One of the major problems lots of researchers have is giving up on ideas. I recently spent about 4 months developing a particular ‘signal’ around volatility within the oil market, and looking at ways of playing the different oil contracts against each other. Despite my deep belief there is ‘alpha’ to be extracted, I could not construct anything that would generate meaningful return and had to bin the idea. Knowing you've spent so long on something only to throw it away is tough, but you need to be able to do that to ensure you have time to work on the things that really do add value.

I had a fascination with financial markets from an early age. The potential rewards obviously don't detract from the desire to work in this industry, but if you are going to succeed you need to be passionate about what you do.

Interned at my current place prior to my final year at Sheffield, before securing a graduate role on the same desk.

Studied for the CQF (a condensed financial mathematics course run by Dr Paul Wilmott) to get a deeper understanding of option pricing frameworks and volatility that I now manage money in.

I'm one of the few on my desk without a PhD however I couldn't see myself leaving to pursue one.

I was very fortunate to get an internship with the firm I ultimately now work for. I applied to over 50 different banks, hedge funds and investment management firms and secured only one. My best advice is to not be afraid to fail. I see so many bright graduates join the firm but don't want to ask the 'dumb' questions. Ask them, you'd be surprised how well you are viewed for doing so.

If I was starting again, the one thing I'd want to be told is that hard work creates so many opportunties. I was very lucky to get that advice at the beginning of my career. Everyone in the industry is bright and everyone knows what the potential rewards are. The best way to create those opportunties is to make sure that you're prepared to work harder than the next person - I know of no-one who doesn't like the people in their team who works hard.