A practical experience in:
APPLIED GLOBAL
MACROECONOMICS,
INVESTMENT BANK
TRADING & ASSET
MANAGEMENT IN
PRACTICE
Amplify Trading would like to offer students who may be
interested in a financial career, an invaluable practical
experience relevant to today’s financial industry.
Amplify Trading’s world renowned financial market
training simulations are used each year by corporations
such as HSBC, Citibank, Barclays, Credit Suisse,
Bank of America and Deutsche Bank for the training of
their new graduate employees. These institutions all
recognise the gap that exists between financial market
theory and practice, and the ability of our technology to
help students bridge that gap.
As students engage with contemporary financial markets
from the reference point of an asset manager, investment
bank sales trader and a hedge fund they gain a practical
understanding of how the financial industry works today.
Students also get to find out to what career they may be
best suited within the industry, as they receive full
performance reports as they progress through each role
and an industry recognised certification on completion.
Students will:
• Apply a macroeconomic understanding to trade across
international financial markets in response to breaking
financial news and analysis
• Operate as a market maker and sales trader to
experience both the buy side and the sell side of the
industry using our flow trading systems utilised by all
our investment bank clients
• Allocate assets effectively during a portfolio
management simulation with the objective of beating
the benchmark performance
• Experience first hand the implications of behavioural
finance and the gap between financial theory and
practice
BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE
DAY ONE09:00 – 13:00
CLARITY ON TODAY’S FUNDAMENTAL DRIVERS
UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL INDICATORS
Review: Global growth | Political volatility | Commodity & USD trends
Review: Equities | Commodities | FX | Fixed Income
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
RETRADER 1: Candidates ReTrade the main political events of 2016 and 2017 to date.
SPOTLIGHT ON FED AND ECB DIVERGENCE
US growth momentum | US and EU inflation outlook
Eurozone growth momentum | ECB QE | Political risk | Fed outlook
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
RETRADER 2: Candidates trade ECB and FED decisions and discuss merits and impact of each central bank’s strategy.
RETRADER IN ACTION, LONDON 2016
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
RETRADER 3: Candidates trade across assets through the most significant recent economic data.
SPOTLIGHT ON ECONOMIC DATA
Understanding the impact of news | How to source information
Managing risk in a data driven environment
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT• Review: Economic Cycle, Asset Class Correlation.
• Review: Portfolio Construction, Geographical allocation, Client Profiles and Associated Risk Constraints.
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT SIMULATION 1• Students log into the PMTRADER platform on any Mac or
PC and form teams of 2.
• Teams analyse macro economic analysis hand outs, and begin to design their asset allocation for their $20mn global multi asset fund.
• Twelve months of real market movement then begins in 3 month increments, with each period of movement taking 15 minutes in the simulation. The platform delivers breaking news items as they occurred in that year, and delegates are able to actively trade whilst markets are moving to adjust their portfolios in reaction to the news development.
RISK MANAGEMENT• Risk management protocols for simulation.
• Performance Measurements: Relative Return, Absolute Return and the behavioural impact on performance.
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT SIMULATION 2• Teams analyse macro economic analysis hand outs, and
begin to design their asset allocation for their $20mn global long equity only fund.
• Another 12 month period of real data unfolds and students experience managing assets from the reference point of a long only equity fund.
SESSION REVIEW• Review and key learning outcomes following the two
simulations.
• Performance results: Relative Return vs Benchmark, Absolute return and relative Peer group leader board.
DAY ONE 13:00 – 17:00PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE
DAY TWOINVESTMENT BANK TRADING
UNDERSTANDING INVESTMENT BANKS• Review: Roles and objectives of an Investment Bank
• Review: Quote driven versus order driven markets
• Review: Investment bank client relationships
INVESTMENT BANK TRADING SESSION 1• Students understand, through experience, how
different assets are traded at an investment bank, and the information path necessary to facilitate clients trades.
• Students are split into 2 groups. On one side, students work as a pair in sales trading and trading roles for the investment bank; the other group operate as hedge fund clients.
• The way a student can trade will depend on the underlying structure of the instrument traded. For example, less liquid rates products will be tradeable over-the-counter only between the buy side and sell side.
• As candidates work together to make markets and unwind risk on the exchange, or through a natural-cross, the platform generates an electric atmosphere of competition and concentration.
14:00
PLATFORM INTRODUCTION• Students trial the FLOWTRADER platform in
different roles before the simulation begins.
• Methods of assessment during the simulation are explained to the students.
09:00
16:30TRADING REVIEW• Each student will receive a detailed report of their
performance in each role which can be used to further their career in finance.
10:30
11:00
INVESTMENT BANK TRADING SESSION 2• Students swap roles so those who had operated as
the investment bank now become the hedge fund clients, and the hedge fund clients work as the investment bank.
DAY THREELIVE MARKET TRADING
UNDERSTANDING TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
• Trends, support and resistance
• Momentum indicators and reversal patterns
13:00
AN INTRODUCTION TO TRADING PSYCHOLOGY
• Behavioural finance in 2017
• Prospect theory and investor irrationality
• Managing your trading mindset
09:00
16:30TRADING REVIEW
• Each student will receive a detailed report of their trading performance which can be used as an asset for their CV and future career in finance.
LIVE MARET TRADING
• Students use our LIVETRADER platform to trade the cash open of U.S. markets and manage their own trading desk, using news feeds from Bloomberg and Reuters.
• Connected in real-time to Amplify’s trading floor in London, students will be prepared for economic data as they take positions across multiple asset classes, applying the financial market theory learned into the real world.
• This invaluable trading experience will incorporate technical analysis, fundamental analysis and behavioural finance.
10:00
Combining direct investment banking experience with asset management practice,
will give any student an unparalleled competitive advantage in the financial industry
Piers Curran – Head of Trading
TESTIMONIALS
“Goldman Sachs mentioned the Amplify experience as pivotal in the decision in awarding me the internship.”
I would like to thank you for the amazing experience I hadthis summer. I had the opportunity to interview withmany institutions (Nomura, Goldman Sachs, Barclays,HSBC, ICAP) and I finally received two offers fromJPMorgan and Credit Suisse both in Sales & Trading
for the 2016 Summer Internship in London.
I accepted JPMorgan today. Amplify has been a huge selling-point andyou cannot imagine how many times the interviewers were delightedto talk about this experience.
DAVIDE KOTLAR: JPMORGAN
The Amplify experience on my CV has actually beencrucial in both getting interviews and also helping meperform well in them; all the employers seem verypleased with a candidate with actual market-facingtrading experience.
I managed to secure a summer internship with the Strats (Quant) groupat Goldman Sachs and they mentioned the Amplify experience as pivotalin the decision in awarding me the internship.
SHARON AGRAWAL: GOLDMAN SACHS
“Truly a highlight of training. The facilitators were incredibly prepared and the interface advanced. This was simply the best and most
important part of training.”
Kellie Burke, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
VP, Global Markets Learning
ABOUT US
In 2015 Amplify was awarded The CFA Institute global prize for innovation in financial education
Founded in London in 2009 by Piers Curran and Will de Lucy, Amplify has built a team of traders to execute short-term macroeconomic strategies in the post-crisis era of global market volatility.
Placing the highest value on the development of its traders, Amplify has created a ground breaking approach to capital markets training, now integral to many of the world’s largest financial institutions.
As participants progress through this unique practical programme, performance at each stage is recorded and reviewed to give candidates a full insight into how well they are suited to different financial roles.
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