As tradition, after six weeks of our internship, we got a weekly business case to jointly crack and then present. This week, our case at the Fixed Income desk was a little bit different; our mentors were traders, and not sales as we had in the previous weeks. We were to build our own portfolio of government bonds, corporate bonds, certificates, and swaps, with the goal to make it as profitable as possible within the week.
We learnt a lot while executing the trades; how to ask for a price, bid/offer prices, how to fetch market value of a product from Bloomberg, and the underlying mechanisms of each derivative. Also, we learned how news could affect our book – or have no affect on the different products. It made our understanding of the markets much more tangible.
By the end of the week, we ended up with a book profit, which we were very happy with, after the eventful and week. Our week with Fixed Income happened to coincide with a large unwind of carry-trades in Japan which resulted in the stock market deteriorating and the risk-off environment leading to a good market for fixed income products, especially the more secure bonds. For us, it was perfect timing since we got the opportunity to also learn about carry trades at the Fixed Income desk, and it also resulted in our portfolio performing. So, and exciting and rewarding week.
Securities Advisory – investing in equities and fixed income products
We then moved on to the Securities Advisory desk. Nordea has a lot of private customers who want to invest actively in both equities and fixed income products. These customers often contact Securities Advisory for insights on what bonds and shares that look attractive.
