Kanan Izzat

7.00 AM

I wake up at 7am every day. The first thing I do is turn on my phone and check what the markets did overnight in the US. As a trader, it’s important to keep on top of the news. My first instinct is to go and explore all the markets and look for opportunities that have arisen post US markets close. This helps me plan ahead and prepare for how the overnight price action is going to affect the trading environment throughout the day. Luckily for me, I live pretty close to the office, so I have time to squeeze in a 30 minute gym session in the morning before jumping on a train and getting to work at around 8am.

8.00 AM

As markets in Australia open at 10am, I have around 2 hours to prepare myself for the trading day ahead, and set up our systems accordingly. As every trading day is different, I usually spend this time setting up my desk and parameters, doing more research about stock specific news, and making sure the team are on top of every bit of news that could affect our trading day and planning.

9.00 AM

I grab a coffee with my team before our day begins. We discuss and share news, ideas and our views on what happened overnight and what is going to happen throughout the day. Once we get back into the office, we have a more formal meeting to discuss any news that’s rolling in before the market opens. We finalize our plan for the day and decide on several strategies and their executions for the day ahead.

10.00 AM

This is when the real fun begins. No matter how well prepared you are as a trader, the market is always full of surprises. When the entire desk trades so many stocks, expect unpredicted scenarios to take place! The atmosphere on the trading floor really heats up, everyone is busy and the floor is buzzing with every trader having to juggle and react on the fly to hundreds of things happening at once, while also taking phone calls from different brokers and making trades with them. It can become really intense but the adrenalin rush makes it exciting!

12.00 PM

Usually the intensity tapers off as we approach lunch time. I’ll grab something to eat from the kitchen or go downstairs to the food court. This gives me the opportunity to have a break from the desk and refresh, ready for what the afternoon brings.

1.00 PM

After lunch, and until the markets close at 4:30pm, the day is full of action and discussion around strategy and position based on the ever-flowing bits of new information rolling in throughout the day. The great thing about being a trader is that every day is always different, whether we employ different strategies, try to position ourselves for some sort of macro events, or simply get caught off guard by something that happens out of the blue and have to immediately react and readjust all our plans/strategies.

4.30 PM

The market closes and I now spend some time doing a bit of admin work after a busy day of trading, responding to emails, and reflecting back on the day as a whole.

5.00 PM

I take a quick break before spending some time working on projects that can help improve the performance of our systems and trading tools. I will also spend some time analysing the trades I made during the day, and look at areas where I could have performed better.

6.00 PM

It’s the end of the day and things usually wrap up between 6-7pm. On Fridays, I usually join the team for a game of table tennis or pool, where we relax and talk about... you guessed it - trading!