Week 4 Reflections-Enjoying the job that you do-Flexibility-Novelty-New experiences (Yoga and Ballet Performance)
July has crept in quietly–this marks the fourth week of my summer here in Hong Kong, and I look forward to every brand-new day with a different light-another eventful day to learn something new J I’m extremely grateful for what I have–a beautiful supporting network of family and friends, a convenient community, a job that I love, and a flexible lifestyle.
I really appreciate learning at RBC, I enjoy the team atmosphere, the fruitful tasks that I’m assigned with huge independence on self-research, the and rich supporting network. One of the best learning comes from talking to people-over brief chat you’re enriched with years of expertise, reflection, and guidance. Sat with traders Kathy and Clement, and also had a coffee chat with Derek after attending Aurora and Walnut Inc’s PDIE. I’m extremely grateful-the team granting me immense opportunity to learn, ask questions, and reflect.
As execution traders, Kathy and Clement start their day by updating the team with current liquidity levels of the fund, talk to sales traders throughout the day, carry out trade decisions from PMs, monitor Macro/Company news throughout the day and brief market colors to the analysts, and ends their day when the market closes. Sitting beside their 4 screens with market news updates, company trends, buy/sell volumes, and sales trader messages flashing simultaneously, I’d say one should be able to think on their feet, have careful concentration, and stand great stress during trading hours. Human interaction is minimal, mostly through phone calls, instant messages, and talking to your trading partner on the floor. Kathy briefed me on trading strategies, interactions with the buy side, while busily checking message updates and trading volumes-some moments are hectic when trades comes through, others are calm and peaceful as they wait for orders. I’d say that facing huge screens (even with yoga/ gym/lunch breaks) for the majority of the time sucks out your energy and concentration–a passion for markets, little people interaction and politics, ending the day after markets close are beauties of the job. Yet I guess team interaction, variability of tasks, and continuous learning are factors that I value as well, it’s great to glimpse a day of execution traders, made me better understand trade logistics of the buy side.
Derek loves his job-hearing from him made me realize passion for work you do from all dynamics-associated travel, flexibility in lifestyle, the competitive edge of having conviction for your investment choices, beating the benchmark, and being in a great and supportive team. I was timid in reaching out to Derek in these first few weeks– he seemed like a hotshot analyst that steps in occasionally–from the team calendar I saw that frequent overseas trips for company visits–Seoul, Bangkok, Taipei… staged his work weeks. I was impressed by his strong logical arguments in team meetings and charisma haha (formality and thoughtful in meetings, style, and presence) and listening to his fresh perspective on his passion for AM gave me a great understanding of the lifestyle dynamics of the job. Travels, team dynamics, learning something new every day, satisfaction from successful conviction in investments, and flexibility are impressions that lasted, and definitely would be important criterias that I ponder when choosing a future career. Grateful and blessed J
Novelty
“Step out of your comfort zone and explore new boundaries” were one of the lines I remembered from my TEDx talk a few years ago. Reading HBR sometimes validates certain reflection I have, and an article that stood out this week was how novelty increases life satisfaction and confidence. Trying out new habits, courses, tasks, products, recipes can be a daunting initiation of great experiences that follow-journeys start wobbly at first when you go uphill, and then adjustments and satisfaction from hard work kicks in.
Also reflected on changes in lifestyle in the past few weeks. I had significant lower levels of physical activity as compared with normal school days-in retrospection I thought that it was a bit crazy to persevere in 10K runs every single day in the year 2 first semester. Moderation settled in in the consecutive semester–I blended shorter morning runs, yoga, and swimming, and this summer it was mostly yoga and evening walks on weekdays, running and swimming on weekends. Initially I worried that I’m not keeping track on maintaining that previous peak performance, yet it later occurred to me not to worry about maintaining past excellence if you find new excellences. Life develops in different stages, finding what caters to your evolving present needs are important. Through chatting with MIG groupmates, Alex, and Daisy, I’ve also observed that they too are adapting to new lifestyle and finding their own tunr with work staging most of the day. Happy for them, and grateful to have a supporting network of mainlander friends with extremely hard-working ethics, inspires and stimulates me to do the same :)
Yoga class and Ballet Performance
…To be updated :)
