Jobs you’ll do in interdealer broking

Interdealer broking has moved on. No longer is it a purely people-based business, but instead is reliant on ever-more sophisticated technology to get ahead. The result is that the number of jobs available to graduates looking to enter the sector has increased.

These are the main choices:

A voice broker: If you work as a voice broker, you'll be on the phone all day, matching up traders with products to buy and sell. You'll often be out entertaining those very same traders in the evening. Brokers are usually divided up by product. You could be an FX broker, a commodities broker, a credit broker, or an equities broker, for example.

An electronic broker: If you work in electronic broking, you won't be matching up buyers and sellers yourself - a computer will do that. You will instead be out schmoozing clients, persuading them that your electronic broking system is the best and asking them what you could to improve upon it. You'll also be the first point of call when clients have problems with the system.

An 'infrastructure' role: Like banks, interdealer broking firms need people to work in technology, risk, and accounting. In technology you'll be helping to build the electronic systems that are taking over from voice broking. In risk, you'll be working to make sure that the firm isn't over-exposed to the risk of trades going wrong (unlike banks, interdealer brokers don't actually own products themselves, for however short a time, so there's no market risk involved). And in accounting, you'll be keeping track of the revenues and costs that underpin the company.

Olutobi Osibodu, a trainee broker, Tullett Prebon, says brokers usually get arrive at work two hours before the markets open. In his case, this means around 7am as he works on the African desk and African markets don't open until between 9am and 10am London time. This first part of the morning is spent, "sifting through the news for items that might be of interest to our clients and then sharing that information with them," says Osibodu. "We spend the latter part of our day booking the trades and consolidating any market information generated during the day. This information can be used as a reference point for the next day trading to note any fluctuations in prices and general trading environment," he adds.