On the joys of being a trader with young children

Can you survive as a parent on the trading floor? More precisely, can you survive as a mother on the trading floor, particularly when you've taken many months out for maternity leave?

Yes, but it won't be be easy.

Women are underrepresented everywhere in the front office of investment banks and financial services firms, but they're especially underrepresented on trading floors. There's evidence to suggest that women make better traders than men, but 85% of traders are male. If it's hard to persist as a woman on the trading floor, it's even harder to persist as a parent: take Greg Coffey, the hedge fund manager who retired at 41 because it was all too onerous after the birth of his third child. 

We spoke to Anne Devlin, a senior commodities trader at BP who "always has breakfast with her children," gets them ready for school, reads them bedtime stories and trades crude oil in between. Here's her distilled version on how to handle the grind.

1. Build your reputation first

If you're a woman in trading, you need to establish a reputation early. "Women have to develop certain skill-sets at an early stage of their trading careers to be successful," says Devlin. "I think the early part of a trading career is probably the trickiest, since, from the get-go it is harder for women to establish a reputation as a good trader."

2. Make sure your colleagues have your back 

If you're a parent on the trading floor, you're going to need support. Devlin's taken two lots of maternity leave - each lasting six months - and she says she took special care to build relationships with her colleagues both before she went and when she came back. You need your team to be behind you.

3. Work harder than ever 

Trading is all about spotting opportunities that other people have missed, says Devlin. Don't imagine that you'll be able to stop doing this because you have new demands on your time. You'll need a "significant amount of motivation" says Devlin. "Trading demands your full, dedicated attention and there is a point in time, once you have children where your energy and your attention level is also required at home," Devlin adds. If you're going to succeed, you need, "the stamina to do it all."

4. Know that it will all be different after maternity leave

When Devlin returned after her six months away, she found that her job was the same but that other people's weren't. This was awkward: "The team had moved on. You cannot leave a side of the market uncovered because somebody is on maternity leave. The accounts need to be covered. It is a delicate exercise to reassert yourself in a team while proving to yourself that you have still got it."

5. Have help 

Devlin has a nanny. The nanny looks after the children during the day, but she deals with all the family logistics in the evenings ("Packing PE kits, practicing for spelling tests, or arranging activities for the weekend.") "Dependable childcare" is crucial.

6. Stick to a routine

It's all about minimizing ad hoc decisions, says Devlin. If you have a routine, you won't need to make child-related decisions during the trading day. Try and keep the boundaries between trading and your personal life: trade during the day, spend time with your family in the evening.

7. Enjoy the markets 

Lastly Devlin says you'll need the old triptych of self-confidence, passion and ambition. "Pure enjoyment" of trading has helped her stick with it, as has "self belief" and an "understanding husband." If you're a mother and you're good, trading can actually be a great career, says Devlin: your achievements are assessed objectively.

Ultimately, it's not about how you juggle your career as a trader and your life as a mother: it's about your P&L.

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

Photo credit: phagwah baby by Cavale Doom is licensed under CC BY 2.0.