Nick Hamilton

University:
Bristol

Degree Subject:
Accounting & Finance

Desk:
Electronic Broking

I spent the majority of my internship on the electronic broking side of the business. I began my rotation on BrokerTec, the fixed income electronic platform and then moved to EBS, the spot FX platform. After a short introduction about the desks I was given a task of giving a presentation about the platform at the end of both rotations. This actually formed a focus point for my rotations, where through shadowing the various products I built up my knowledge enough to feel confident in talking about each product at the end of the week.

I was also given the role of analysing one of BrokerTec's competitors and tracking the weekly and monthly progression of the company against BrokerTec's trading volumes. Over the course of my rotation I built a spreadsheet to record this which I believe they are still using to date.

This is what I was doing whilst I was in the office, but the majority of the time electronic broking requires you to be out visiting clients and pushing the platform. During my time I was lucky enough to visit a large number of investment banks, attend meetings and even attend a corporate entertainment evening at Sandown races; where I placed a few bets on the horses (and lost!).

Becoming valuable to a desk was by far the most challenging experience as an intern. If you have the hunger and drive to go beyond learning about the desk and asking questions, to actually helping the desk in their everyday tasks then you'll be adding value and this is ultimately what every head of a desk wants to see and this is what separates you from your peers.

My experience has exceeded my expectations of the internship. It was a very well structured programme, and presented itself as well balanced. The programme incorporated exposure to a range desks, management and clients, team building projects and tasks, socialising and networking events and regular feedback.

What is the best advice you can give to someone considering a career in interdealer broking?
1. Be confident - a broker needs to confident when they are shouting prices down the line to their clients
2. Be outgoing - a successful broker will need to entertain clients and forge relationships, so being outgoing is crucial
3. Be knowledgeable - know the difference between a broker and a trader, and the different skill sets of each and how you match these
4. Be up-to-date - exactly what it says, be up-to-date with financial news, market news and company news such as recent acquisitions etc.

ICAP actively promotes a very strong entrepreneurial culture to create opportunities and reward its employees. I thrive on entrepreneurial spirit and I believe my entrepreneurial background and attitude complimented the workplace environment and helped me succeed on this internship scheme.

What qualities do you think make a good interdealer broker?
1. Sociable, energetic and good interpersonal skills - you need to be able to forge and maintain relationships with clients, therefore you need to have a strong personality, a good sense of humour and flair about you, that will make clients enjoy speaking to you as a broker and hence will want to give you business.
2. Quick thinking - you need to be intelligent and be able to think quickly in a fast moving environment and not crack when under pressure.
3. Ambitious & driven - this is a highly competitive industry, both amongst competitors but also amongst colleagues, where deals are made or lost within seconds. Therefore you need to be hard working, motivated and ambitious to complete those deals and maximise revenue.