Busy weeks meeting experts, cracking cases, pitching FX strategies and hanging out with Markets people – hear it from our interns

We’ve asked them - and you can hear all about their experiences, surprising insights, presentations and projects in their first blog in a series, where they also tell about their backgrounds, hobbies and motivations. 

By Anna, Henrik and Ebba

Anna Hult (25)

I am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Finance at Stockholm School of Economics with one year remaining, and hold a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Uppsala University. Prior to this internship, I completed an internship in DNB, Corporate Finance. In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with friends and family, trying out new restaurants and painting. 

I applied for the summer internship because of the opportunity to learn about the different teams and products, as well as the career paths within Nordea Markets. The structure of the program also appealed to me due to its great variety, case-based learning approach and the chance to enhance my presentations skills.

Only a few weeks into the internship, one of the things that I’m positively surprised about, is the warm and welcoming environment in Markets. Everyone here, at the trading floor and all the other people we’ve met in LC&I, are very enthusiastic about sharing their experiences and knowledge with us.

Henrik Edström (24)

I’m a fourth-year student at KTH, where I’m pursuing a master’s in applied mathematics. Additionally, I’m completing a bachelor’s degree in economics at SU, combining my interest in both fields.  Before I started my intern position at Markets, I worked part-time in a student team at Nordea Wealth Management. Outside of work, I enjoy going out for a run, and when the weather permits, playing golf.

The biggest reason I applied for this internship was because of its unique structure. To be able to learn about almost every desk on the trading floor in a high-pace atmosphere was something that really caught my eye when I saw the job application on LinkedIn. Instead of only learning about one desk (area), this rotational program let us learn from several desks, and provides a better understanding of the various products and services, and how the Markets organisation works - all of which I find very useful, especially ahead of my decision on which particular area I want to work with after my graduation. 

One of the things I look forward to the most during the internship, is to learn from the experienced and professional people that work at every desk. You can study some information beforehand, but you won’t be able to learn about the things that these people here on the trading floor have hands-on experience with without being here, and I am especially looking forward to obtaining some of their knowledge.

Ebba Jernmark Burrows (23)

I am doing the Engineering Physics program at KTH, with a Master’s in Applied Mathematics, Data Science track. I will start my last year this fall. I have also completed a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics at SSE, with specializations in Finance and Economics. In my spare time, I enjoy running – and like to run around a track as fast as I can – preferably with hurdles. I train with and compete for the track and field club Täby IS, where my favourite event is the 400m hurdles.

I applied for this summer internship as I’m interested in how the world works – and financial markets is a large part of that world. A part of the job within finance is to keep updated on world events, both political and economic. I knew that as an intern at Nordea Markets, I would be surrounded by highly skilled people who are actively following the world development and have so for many years, and so possess so much knowledge which offers an exceptional opportunity for me to ask question and tap in to their expert know-how. 

I am glad, we during the internship get to try out so many things in Markets. If I should mention one thing that has surprised me a bit, it is how common it seems to be to rotate and shift to a new job within Markets and across Nordea. That kind of flexibility, I find to be very nice in a workplace.

Week 1 – Deep dives and learnings from Macro Research and FX

We spent our first week at the Macro Research desk, where we received our first weekly case of the internship. The assignment was to provide an overview of the financial policy in Germany, France and the UK, which was very interesting, especially considering the elections in France and the UK. We got to really dive deep into the subject, and having the opportunity to discuss it with the Macro Research team was very valuable.

On Thursday, we sat with the FX team during the Riksbanken announcement, and although the outcome was expected and quite undramatic, then watching the market’s reactions and movements of the news was interesting. We also had time to squeeze in a quick ‘after work’ in between making the last preparations for our case presentation.

At the end of our first week, we then presented our Macro Research case, and received feedback on both the content of our presentation and our presentation skills which will be useful for our upcoming cases, and in general going forward.  To conclude, our first week was extremely educational meanwhile enjoyable. We’ve had a lot of interesting lunches and meetings throughout the whole week with the Macro Research team and other experts across Markets.

Week 2 – Gaining LC&I insight and pitching FX hedging strategy

We spent our second week with the FX team, and we were excited to learn about their award winning automated FX solution, AutoFX, as well as hear about how they hedge FX risk using several different financial derivatives, such as FX swaps, forwards and options. Seeing how far they have come in terms of automation was an eye-opener for all three of us.

We also got acquainted with other teams within the LC&I organisation with introductions to units like Debt Capital Market (DCM) in Investment Banking. Later that day, we had lunch with Erik Lindblad (Country Lead of Markets Sweden, and Head of FX/Derivatives Sales & Research Sweden), and Staffan Hentze (Head of Equities), who were happy to share their knowledge and experiences, and gave us some very useful advice and Nordea insights.

On Wednesday, we were invited to join the FX Sales and Risk Solution teams for after-work drinks and dinner in Gamla stan. We had a really good time, and it was fun to meet and spend time with the Markets people outside of work.

Thursday and Friday, we prepared our business case, and this week, we were assigned to pitch a FX hedging strategy for a company. The presentation went well – we believe. 

Two great weeks have flown by, and now we are excited to spend the upcoming week at Markets Derivatives.

Stay tuned for our next blog.

Meanwhile, check out some of the blogs from our 2024 summer interns in Markets LC&I in Norway, Finland and within LC&I ESG, in the Meet our Talents blog.