NO #7: Putting their knowledge to the test – challenging but super exciting!

By Andrea  and Theodor   

Time has flown, and we are now walking into the last week of our summer internship! Most of us have new projects, and this week, we are working on a project for Research and Risk Solutions.

Challenging but super exciting!

At the Research and Risk Solution desk, we are taking a deep dive into retail customers’ exposure to foreign exchange by analyzing and modelling macroeconomic numbers and exchange rates. We are researching variables, such as KPI, disposable income, interest rates and population growth, as well as looking at correlation coefficients and performing regression analysis. All with the goal of trying to create firm-specific FX strategy recommendations.

We are both super excited about this project, particularly as we are able to work closely with two of the great minds at the Nordea Markets trading floor, Kjetil Olsen, Head of Macroeconomics, and Ole-Håkon Eek Nilsen from Research and Risk Solutions.

Working with Risk Solutions has really put our technical knowledge to the test as we are combining statistical analysis with somewhat obscure financial products. It’s been a challenge! We’ve had to dig deep into half-forgotten knowledge from some of our university courses but it has also been very rewarding getting to apply concepts we’ve previously only looked at through the theoretical lens.

What are the other interns up to?

The other interns are all busy with their own tasks as well. Ole and Joachim have continued working with the M&A Advisory team, and from the little they’re able to tell us, it sounds like pretty cool work experience! Janne is diving deep into company websites and annual reports as she is maneuvering her way through equity research, probably doing swimmingly. Helene has been officially relieved of her ESG project responsibilities and is now working with email encryption.

Summer is over…

It is also clear from the office environment that the summer break is over. Before starting this summer internship, we were all a bit nervous for the potential changes of our programme due to Covid-19, which is why we are all thankful that we were be able to do our internship physically, not virtually.

During the first couple of weeks the office was fairly empty and we were often told: “It is usually not this quiet!”. This week, the summer break is certainly over, people are back.  As interns, we have appreciated the perks that come with quiet summer weeks, as everyone have had time for a 5 (or 30) minutes chat with us. However, it is also cool to experience more “normal” circumstances with more people and a higher office volume.

With only a little over a week left, we are putting in some extra hours to wrap up previous projects and create project slides for our final presentation for the Nordea Markets Management this Friday!

/Theodor & Andrea