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A Day in the Life of a Market Risk

Analyst
 QuantNet ·  7/24/12

7/24/12 ·  Replies: 13 

In this article, one of QuantNet members describes a

typical day as a market risk analyst in a big financial
institution. The author holds an MFE degree.

6:45 am – Alarm clock goes off. The good side is

that it’s a Friday and I have a weekend to rest. So I
quickly get up, take a quick shower, have breakfast
and pull myself together. Then pick up FT from the
door, quickly skim through the headlines and head to
the train for the daily commute.
7:30 am – After reading FT, look over the news on
Bloomberg on my cell before I get in the tunnel and
get ready for the day ahead.
7:50 am – Get to my desk and check email for any
requests either from risk managers or my manager
for the CRO . Some days can get extremely hectic
and need to be on top of all the requests so that I
can prioritize accordingly.
8:00 am – Every Friday the weekly stress testing
results for the firm come in. Have an hour to put
together the report, analyze the results and figure
out the risk stories that I will need to present to the
team and CRO. This is the time that craziness kicks
in. Need to go through the changes in the risk
measures for each desk and try to understand the
strategy employed that would give me a more
intuitive sense to the risk changes.
8:45 am –By now I have put a draft of the risk stories
together, contacted risk managers to confirm the
stories are in line with the changes prepared the
necessary reports to back up the stories and have
the presentation ready to be sent to the MDs and
CRO.
9:30 am – After our team presented the major risk
stories for the firm, I listen to each asset class risk
managers that follow to brief the CRO with any
details about any deals or risk profile changes that
happened during the week at each desk.
11:00 am – Meeting is over. Time now to finalize my
stories and dig through the millions of rows of data
to make sure there was no feed issue.
12:00 am – Get together with some colleagues and
go for lunch somewhere around Times Square.
1:00 pm – Back at the desk and ready to go discuss
with the risk managers any questions they have and
communicate with the research team any potential
improvements that could be made to the model.
2:00 pm – Risk stories are finalized and the final
comments are sent out. Next on the agenda is ad
hoc stress scenarios that risk managers and the
Regulators have requested.
4:00 pm – Slowly the day is winding down and the
floor becomes somewhat quieter. It’s my only
chance to pick up and finish coding the tools I left
unfinished.
6:00 pm – Look over the calendar to get ready for
the week ahead and prepare any necessary
materials for my manager for Monday’s senior risk
meeting.
6:45 pm – On my way home.

 Reply

Hemant Dua, CalvinPaean, Ed Schembor and 6 others

QuantNet
Staff member

Eric Zhang

7/25/12  #2

Thx for sharing. I always feel this kind of sharing is

very helpful

 Reply

Zhadnost
Z
7/26/12  #3

It is pretty much similar to my day. I am a market risk

analyst myself, but I only have bachelor degree. I am
quite surprised to see MFE graduates doing the
same thing as I do.

 Reply

Andy Nguyen 

8/1/12  #4

Zhadnost said: 

It is pretty much similar to my day. I am a market risk

analyst myself, but I only have bachelor degree. I am
quite surprised to see MFE graduates doing the same
thing as I do.

I would not be surprised to know people some

people doing similar work with only a bachelor
training. An advanced degree may result in higher
compensation or future career growth.

 Reply

Allison Nguyen

8/16/12  #5

Thanks for sharing. Im gonna be a market risk

analyst next week

 Reply

Hemant Dua

Andy Nguyen 

8/17/12  #6

Allison Nguyen said: 

Thanks for sharing. Im gonna be a market risk analyst

next week

Perhaps you can come back and share with us a day

in your life as a market risk analyst as well.
Congrats and good luck with the new job.

 Reply

Leah

9/18/12  #7

Very useful info! Thx for sharing

 Reply

Binit Kumar Bhagat

9/20/12  #8

I am looking for a good MFE program. I have good

exp. in prop. trading. My question is : Do people
who join hedge funds or maybe who r offered roles
directly related to trading also have a hectic
schedule like the one mentioned here??

 Reply

John L
J
5/24/13  #9

What is the pay progression and exit opps like as

one moves up in market risk?

 Reply

daleholborow

5/27/13  #10

Exit opps? Quit anytime you like.

Pay will differ depending on your roles, whether you

take a managerial or specialist track etc. no different
to any industry, the closer you are to being the guy
bringing in the jobs, the more money you earn

 Reply

Ken Abbott

John L
J
5/28/13  #11

Yes, I understand it varies. Can you give some kind

of range for the guy being in the specialist track for
example?

Btw i'm guessing the term 'exit opps' here is

different than in other forums...

 Reply

daleholborow

5/29/13  #12

Sorry, my first comment was kind of ironic, I just

meant exit opportunities, exit options

Speaking from an Australian perspective, someone

starting out in a consulting firm in market risk might
start on as low as say AUD40K, or as high as 70+ if
you landed a job in a good bank, with my idea of the
avg probably close to the 50 mark. With a few years
behind you, you'd be more like the 80-100K range.
Someone consulting, in a job of a high managerial to
associate director range, I believe you could expect
say 120-160 or more.

I know algo trader positions starting in the AUD80-

100K range, but they were also ruthless in cutting
people who weren't performing. They'd intentionally
take in 12-15 people on trial, and publicly declare
that they'd take 1 or 2 max by the end of two
months, with the rest having been let go. That said, I
know guys working in quant dev for similar algo-type
trading, in very successful firms, who make 150+
and something similar again in bonuses.

Note that Australians are very well paid compared to

most of the world, so these figures wouldnt hold well
for anywhere other than say, the USA and Britain I
expect.

 Reply

John L
J
5/29/13  #13

Thank you very much, daleholborow

 Reply

Michelle

2/17/23  #14

These series have been very valuable and I hope to

read more.

 Reply

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