Day in the Life: Rick Deutsch, head of credit research

I travel five to seven days out of the month, seeing investors and issuers. When I'm not travelling, a typical day is generally as follows:

0530 Wake up. I always set the alarm a few minutes earlier than necessary because I need a lot of coffee to get going. Only when I've had my caffeine am I ready to leave for the Paribas office near Marylebone Station - some way to the west of London's main financial district.

It takes about an hour to get there from my home in north London. I take the tube to Baker Street and walk the rest of the way.

0715 I arrive at the desk. I've usually bought the FT on the train and when I arrive I scan the other European papers and Bloomberg for all the top news stories. I keep a particular eye out for news relating to my sectors: media and telecoms.

I then have a quick morning meeting with my team, followed by a meeting with the traders. There are 11 researchers, including myself. Our job is to keep up to date with and to comment upon events influencing the corporate bonds market and the spreads and prices of corporate bonds.

Our clients are our investors firstly and the BNP Paribas' own corporate bond traders secondarily; we ensure both are kept well informed.

0830 A number of clients call with questions for me about Olivetti. Yesterday there was huge volatility in prices for bonds in Olivetti and Telecom Italia, and this is the first of around 10 telephone calls that I receive during the day from investors concerned about what might happen next.

I receive a similar number of questions from news agencies, which are looking for my opinion as an expert on the telecoms sector.

1030 From now on the day is a bit of a juggling act. On one hand, I'm dealing with questions from investors about Olivetti, on the other I'm keeping up to date with company reports.

Similar to equities analysis, the workload of a credit analysis can fluctuate and is heaviest during the company reporting season. It's the reporting season now, which means there are quarterly and end of year reports to look through, as well as conference calls to be listened to.

In reaction to each report and conference call, we generally produce a written document. This takes time; we don't just summarise what we've heard, but interpret and consider the extent to which the outcome was good or bad for bonds and make recommendations, accordingly.

1200 Time is short, so I sprint downstairs and shovel some food from the canteen into a small plastic container, then run back upstairs, sit down at the desk and shovel it into my stomach.

1230 Another conference call is due to start. I'm tied up, so I pass it over to my junior colleague to listen to. At BNP Paribas every senior researcher works with a junior. The juniors are all very competent: we hire people who have a lot of experience.

1400 As the afternoon progresses, things become a bit quieter and there is time to digest what's happened during the morning. This is when we start thinking about writing. Every evening we produce a 'daily', which is sent out to our investors.

The daily is a written report focusing on an event that took place during the day. We take a view on it and look at what it means for a particular sector and for corporate bonds. I also produce a weekly telecoms and media newsletter, as well as editing the written output of other credit analysts. As the team leader, I have a final glance at everything we produce.

1530 I start writing the daily, which today is partially about Olivetti. We have an opinion piece on the front page, which takes a strong interpretative view of events, followed by a news summary looking at what's happened in the corporate bond market.

It's up to the sector analyst to take a strong view. As Olivetti is a telecoms company, it's my own view that is all important.

1900 I've finished the daily, collated the contributions from the other analysts, and sent it out to investors. Most days I try to leave by 7.30pm. I don't always succeed.

1930 I try to get to the gym at least four days a week, before heading home. Evening weekdays are spent with my family. At the weekend, my wife and I try to take some time to ourselves, and go out for a meal or to the cinema.

This can be difficult. We have a teenage daughter who usually needs a private chauffeur and one of us has to oblige.