A Day in the Life of a Trader!
I absolutely love my work! In fact, I grew up dreaming to be a trader. So trading, to me, doesn’t feel like working (except when I lose😂). It’s fascinating because it’s different every day.
Let me take you through what a normal workday in my life looks like.
8:00 AM: Alarm rings - Good morning!
A typical week day for me begins at 8:00 AM. I spend the next 30 minutes on my daily chores — get ready for office, grab a quick breakfast & have a hot cuppa coffee.
8:30 AM: Leave for office
I leave for office around 8:30 AM. It’s a short commute of around 10-12 minutes.
On my way to office, I check what happened at the Wallstreet overnight and how the Asian markets are performing. I then look for any macro or stock-specific news or event that could affect my investments or overnight positions or lead to big moves intraday in specific stocks.
As a risk management measure, I make sure to double check if the internet and broking terminal are working fine.
9:00 AM: Pre-opening session
It’s 9:00 AM on the clock! The pre-opening session begins. I keenly observe the pre-opening to get a general sense of where the market is it likely to open. At 9:07 AM, the pre-opening prices are out. I make a note of stocks opening with a big gap up or gap down and keep them on my watchlist.
9:15 AM: Market opens…
It’s 9:15 AM and the markets are now open for trading! I let the markets settle for a while.
I am primarily an index trader and I commence with analysing Bank Nifty. It’s my instrument of choice where a bulk of my positions are created. Now it’s time to unleash Snorlax!
For the uninitiated, Snorlax is a Pokemon that just sleeps & eats all day. In my case, Snorlax is my proprietary intraday theta eating strategy (This name was actually recommended by my 8-year-old cousin 😁) This model indicates the intraday trend for the index based on historical data, the opening and certain intraday patterns. I manually create skewed delta positions as per that and place my stops.
9:30 AM: Action begins!
It’s 9:30 AM and Snorlax has started doing what it does best - do nothing and capture time decay.
Now it’s time for Velocity, our Momentum based system. It scans the liquid F&O universe and puts automated orders in futures as per generated signals with an appropriate position size as per our risk appetite. Velocity tries to capture intraday moves and is built on concepts of momentum and intraday trading patterns.
10:30 AM: Midday doldrums!
Around this time, market moves fizzle out and remain sideways until late in the noon. Velocity system has done its job by now. We are now out of our momentum trades as per the Velocity model.
The day starts to get interesting. Skewed delta positions are still open on the index and the risk team is keeping a watch on the open index positions.
Now is the time to catchup with the traders at TheTradeRoom (www.thetraderoom.in) to check what are they doing, how are their positions faring and what’s on their radar. We exchange and collectively discuss our views.
11:30 AM: Meet the Quant Team
Next, I have a quick chat with the Quant team, who analyse raw market data, look for tradeable patterns and devise profitable trading strategies. A number of trading strategies such as statistical arbitrage, volatilty crush, volatilty dispersion,intraday patterns etc are back-tested by the team.We thoroughly review the performance of the strategies that we’re back-testing & have built our own backtesting engine inhouse.
The key focus area is to optimise our existing strategies and to solve all problems that are likely to crop up in the future due to changing market dynamics. Currently, we are working on Machine Learning models using CNN to see if we can find non-linear patterns from multi-dependent or independent variables. This is really exciting & path breaking work that the team is doing.
A substantial portion of the day is completely dedicated to back-testing, research and optimization.
12:30 PM: Lunch Time!
Markets in Europe begin to open. It gives me cues as to what to expect from the Indian markets for the second half of the trading session.
The risk team keeps a check of VaR (Value At Risk) and if all failsafe mechanisms are in place. We run a risk check for different scenarios and ensure that our contingency action plan is on track in case any of the scenarios were to actually happen.
The mind has been working endlessly, it’s time to refuel the body! Lunch time! My tiffin arrives and I have lunch with the entire team.
1:30 PM: Back to the grind
Its past 1:30 PM and time to get back to my trading desk. Here, I check how my positions for the day are doing and if Snorlax has been performing efficiently! It may be hard to believe, but my actual screen time is significantly low! Perks of being a systems’ trader! The only exception is Thursday, which is when the weekly options expire & I am actively in front of the screen.
Markets tend to gain momentum post 2:00 PM. We now tighten our stops on our intraday theta eating positions. It’s time to get Velocity back in action. The system scans and throws up trades where action is happening in terms of huge volumes/ large intraday moves/ stock breaking intraday high/ low etc.
2:30 PM: Scan for Positional Setups
By 2:30 PM, we are out of 80% of our intraday trades.
I manually see if there’s any good positional trade shaping up based on momentum and the top gainers for the day. I design a strategy, discuss the hedge with the team and calculate its risk reward payoff.
3:00 PM: The end is near
Time to close all intraday trades. The team ensures that all positional trades are set to carry forward with an optimal utilization of margin barring any shortfall in the margin requirements. Lastly, we run a risk check to see what happens to the portfolio in case of a major gap up or gap down opening on the following day.
3:30 PM: Closing time
I hate to see the markets shut🙁 but, its 3:30 PM and markets are closed for the day.
Now is the time to introspect and contemplate how did we perform.Could we have done better? What were the mistakes for the day? How can we avoid them in the future? How can we further optimize our systems without overfitting?
It’s this constant challenge that further makes me fall in love with trading each day. There is so much to learn and it’s a constant struggle to evolve and get better. Trading has evolved me to become a lifelong learner!
I manually update my trading journal. I also check the performance of my team and fellow traders at TheTradeRoom (www.thetraderoom.in)
The Bhav copy data is usually updated and uploaded by 5:00 PM. I again run my systems to conclude a summary for the day. I further scan for potential setups and opportunities for the following day.
6:00 PM: No pain, no gain!
With so much happening throughout the day, my brain is fatigued. It’s time to give the brain some rest & tire the body. 6:00 PM. I hit the gym for about an hour. Post workout, I spend some quality time with my family.
8:30 PM: Family Time!
The family sits down to have dinner together. The next three hours are spent on catching up and watching TV. Currently, I am watching Billions and liking it too!
11:30 PM: Reading is food for the soul…
I like to read something before I go to bed. 11:30 PM to midnight is my reading time.
As a trader, I like to read about- new developments in quantitative finance, innovative ivestment products, books on risk management/psychology and the list is endless.
Currently, I am reading ‘The Alpha Masters: Unlocking the Genius of the World’s Top Hedge Funds!’
12:00 midnight : The smarter you play, the luckier you get!
It’s the last hour of my day before I go to bed. I play poker online on an app called ‘Pppoker’ with my friends. (I go by the name ‘Siso’ in case you want to find me!) Like Trading, in poker too, you play only on the good hands, and drop out of the poor hands. When more cards are on the table and you have a very strong hand — in other words, when you feel the percentages are skewed in your favour — you raise and play that hand to the hilt. If you apply the same principles of poker to trading, it increases your odds of winning significantly. I have always tried to keep the concept of patience in mind by waiting for the right trade, just like you wait for the right hand in poker.
1:00 AM: Bedtime
Time to call it a day. Off to bed. Need to get some rest today to prepare for another tomorrow.
That’s what a typical week day is for me.
Weekends
Since we’re a start-up , the workload is often hectic.
- On most weekends, we train large trading desks & hedge funds on quantitative trading and how to leverage the power of algorithms & data science in trading
- Weekends are usually spent on brainstorming and discussing new products, ideas and future growth strategy
- We ponder over what did we do right that we might be able to replicate in another market, at another time
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Weekends are put to good use by having an outdoor activity in the form of Box cricket, Paintball or Rink football for the entire Team Quantify Capital along with my peers at TheTradeRoom (www.thetraderoom.in). Sometimes, the workload makes it difficult to have an outdoor event. But we hate to miss it. It’s actually helped us bond with each other. At times, we hangout for a good meal post a good game of cricket or football. Yes, we have fun too!
That’s all folks! That’s my story. This is Siso — Signing off!
