A day in the life

The snooze button can no longer be delayed, and after deciding that the gym can wait, I get ready then hop into the bus to head to the office.
On the journey I look out onto the escarpment on one side and the beach on the other, we’re not in the city anymore.

I walk beside the beach to arrive into the office overlooking it, then go to grab some breakfast.
Whilst eating it I read the news for my relevant markets and last night’s wraps to see how everyone’s strategies traded in the previous day.

We have a market making standup, where we discuss overnight news and market moves, and consider the effect that this news may have on volatility and trading.
After standup I grab a coffee, and commence a bout of caffeine fuelled coding. I’ll use vim and work on a linux box, although others use Visual studio.

A catchy jingle rings around the office to signify a whole office daily meeting, where profits from the previous day are stated, company wide news is announced and
global economic drivers are discussed. Following on from the meeting I pick up working on some research I’ve been doing in a python notebook.
The traders begin to get more vocal now as the markets wake up.

Lunch time! Everyone heads out onto the balcony to eat lunch, which is delivered by local restaurants. The food is always high quality,
although I’d recommend steering clear of the spiced tofu! Cockatoos regularly land on the balcony, which I doubt that I’ll ever get used to coming from London.

I’ll load up the strategy logs at this point, and keep an eye on them for the rest of the day, mainly focusing on our position and the profit and loss.
I also get started on some work in the code base, either picking up a ticket from where I left off or starting a new one.
If starting a new ticket I’ll often discuss with my supervisor the direction the strategy should take, and use this to decide what best to work on next.
This will usually be based off of research conducted in a python notebook. Today I have a ticket that I was working on previously though, so I continue from where I left off.

Early afternoon I always like to do something to chill out, thankfully the masseur is in today!
So I head onto the rear balcony and get a short massage to recharge my batteries, accompanied by some unrelated chat.
Taking time away from the desk is always good to refocus, I find the gain in productivity upon returning is nearly always worth the time spent away.

We have an in-house training scheme called Tibra Uni for all grad’s, today I have a 1 hour session with the team leader of software development.
Having not been proficient in C++ before joining Tibra, I’ve received lots of training and support while learning it.

A trader notifies me of some interesting behaviour with the strategy that I’ve been working on, so I refer to the logs and go hunting.
A config change later, I return to the ticket to work on. It’s really important to be able to switch focus quickly throughout the day based on task
priority, something that I hadn’t practised much prior to joining Tibra, although now I would say it’s part of what makes the job so exciting.

As the day starts to wind down, I’ll push my work and start a code review for the completed ticket. I’ll take a look at the logs and PnL for the strategy I work on whilst tucking into dinner. The office starts to take a more relaxed vibe and beers can potentially come out.