Day in the Life: Angela Bruce, European equities sales trader

Bruce is a sales trader in the European equities division of ING, where she has worked since the end of 2003 after moving from Morgan Stanley.

05:15 Up. If I'm in West London, I get a lift to work. If not, jump on Docklands Light Railway.

06:15 Arrive in office. Read newspapers and Bloomberg. I have half an hour to consolidate relevant news ready to disseminate it to our offices in Madrid, Paris, and Amsterdam during the morning meeting. We work with hedge fund clients following event-driven strategies (buying and selling shares and other financial products in anticipation of events, like mergers and acquisitions), so I look for event news. Today's quiet: Hays, a distribution and recruitment company, is looking to spin off its DX Services mail business. Yesterday was better: Santander was selling 50% of its share in Royal Bank of Scotland, a big deal as it could enable it to up its bid for Abbey National.

06:45 Morning meeting; lasts 15 minutes.

07:00 Snatch a few minutes to call hedge fund clients and let them know about Hays.

07:15 Researchers hold their morning meeting. I listen in. They flag companies reporting financial results, and profit warnings.

07:30 Snatch another 15 minutes to call clients on the Hays issue.

07:40 Hedge fund morning meeting. Everyone in my group attends. We discuss the Santander question: it looks like they can pay an extra 40p per share for Abbey National. Will they? Won't they?

08:00 Markets open: work really begins. I cover around 25 clients, all traders in hedge funds. I call them with trading ideas, flow (stocks that we're active in) and market news. If I receive an order, I place it with our trading desk and they execute it for me. I stay in contact with them to monitor my orders' progress.

The day depends on news flow. I constantly monitor Bloomberg and Reuters for market news and stock information. When something happens, I call clients or write a note on Bloomberg. It's unpredictable: I never know what will happen from one hour or minute to the next. Nothing could happen, or a major merger could be announced.

8:15 Nothing happens. I carry on calling clients. They want to talk about the Abbey/ Santander deal and the implications of the RBOS sale, but the spread is trading in the middle of the range, so no one's doing anything much. People are watching and waiting.

09:00 Someone goes out to get breakfast. We take it in turns.

09:15 I write the first of the day's Bloomberg notes. WPP, an advertising company, is interested in buying Grey Global. So is Havas and Hellman and Friedman; I discuss. Then I call clients to talk about it.

10:00 A client calls. I sent some info on a stock called Unipetrol. He wants to buy.

11:00 I ask one of our analysts for clarification on the Abbey/Santander issues. I want his take. New regulatory restrictions mean I can't go to his desk (research, sales and trading have to be separate), but he can come to mine.

11:15 Call clients

11:30 Conference call with our telecoms analyst on stock called T-Online.

11:45 More client calls. Another Bloomberg note, this time on Sainsbury, which is attracting takeover speculation.

12:00 Lunch, followed by plenty more client calls.

14:30 The US opens flat. Clients are not doing much, waiting for non-farm payroll figures on Friday.

15:00 Afternoon spent in lots more client calls, plus Bloomberg notes on Matalan, another potential takeover target, and DFS, the furniture retailer whose chairman is trying to take it private.

17:00 I'm out the door. My boss encourages me to leave promptly. I go home, get changed, and go to karate.