By Aoife. 

Like most of the traders, we come into the office for 06:30-06:45 to make sure everything is set up for the open, have a look at the previous day’s charts and any overnight news items. We all seem to have fallen into routine pretty quickly; after we’ve switched on our computers, morning coffee is the first stop off every day. It can be hard to leave the desk in the first two hours of trading, so most of us usually grab breakfast before the open.

Lunch and other breaks depend on how the market is moving. Nobody wants to miss the best trading times, but the market does seem to have regular quiet periods so we take advantage of this by going for a walk, run, or some food at these times.

The evening session is usually less hectic than the morning. We settle in after lunch and spend almost all of the afternoon in front of the screens. There’s always coursework, research and things to help out with in the office so we mainly fit this into breaks during the afternoon. Time can move slowly when you’re having a bad day but changing things up and varying what you’re doing can help productivity – sometimes you just need some time away from the screens. We work until just after 21:00 each night but the evening flies by!