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IMC Trading Australia

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4.5
  • 500 - 1,000 employees

Audi Li

7.45 AM

I kick off my day with bootcamp at Observatory Hill, organised by IMC. It’s a great way to have fun with colleagues from different teams, while getting in a solid workout before work.

9.00 AM

After bootcamp we head to the office for a shower and a change then onto the desk. Breakfast is available in the breakout area so I’ll prepare some food and make a coffee as I greet my teammates.

Day-in-the-life-IMC-Audi-Li-breakfast

As a trader within the APAC team, the start of trading hours depends on the market you trade. After eating breakfast, I get busy with operational set up, reviewing any impacting overnight events and make sure that we are ready for the market open.

Leading up to the open it’s all hands on deck since this is often the busiest period of the day so we need to ensure that everything is as we expect.

Day-in-the-life-IMC-Audi-Li-on-laptop

11.00 AM

We have kicked off trading! My desk can get noisy, particularly the guy that sits next to me who will be pretty vocal in his excitement for a great trade or his frustrated groan when things move against us. I have to say there is an energy to the desk which continues throughout the day which I love.

Most of the time after the open is spent scanning trading, keeping an eye on what is happening in the market and ensuring that trading is going positively and as we expect. If not, we need to make an informed decision about if parameters need changing and how we can improve. Like all of the new trainees, I was given the responsibility to own my own trading strategy from early on.

A lot of the analysis we perform is done using tools written in Python. It’s great to think how much knowledge I’ve built up in this language just from the last year at IMC, considering I’d only dabbled in tools such as MATLAB and R at Uni. Python is now my go to language of choice.

Day-in-the-life-IMC-Audi-Li-discussions

I sit very close to a couple of developers who are on hand for discussions if I have any questions about the behaviour of our software, and for updates on project work. If our systems are down I can lean on our systems and network engineering teammates who again are sitting very close by.

Taking a long lunch break is not a realistic option given the market stays open so I need to make do with our view of Sydney Harbour from the window! We take turns grabbing lunch and bringing it back to the desk so that someone is always watching trading. When the market is particularly busy, lunch will be brought to us.

As we head into the afternoon, if the market is a little quieter we often have a team catch-up. Since I’m part of a team of three, this generally just involves sliding over a desk and chatting about what we’ve been up to, and what we’re currently working on. More comprehensive team meetings are saved for before open or after close where we can book a meeting room and have an in depth discussion.

Day-in-the-life-IMC-Audi-Li-reading

After the market has closed we have a chance to assess our trading for the day. I’m responsible for sending out a daily summary to all the Team Leads, with information about our performance over the day, as well as any comments and parameter changes.

6.00 PM

Dinner is served in the breakout area. I’ll grab some food and complete anything else that needs to be done for the day, as well as any other projects that I’m working on.

Day-in-the-life-IMC-Audi-Li-playing

7.00 - 7.30 PM

I’ll head off to catch up with friends, go to the gym or just straight home to relax. It’s been a busy day and I leave some of my colleagues whose market hours close a bit later than mine. I wouldn’t want to be working into the early hours of the morning. My days are intense and challenging but fun and always full of plenty of chat on the desk.