Callum McDonald from the Fixed Income Digital Markets team at Mizuho EMEA recently sat down with TraderTV to discuss his non-traditional route onto the trading floor. Through drive and personal ambition, he has built layers of skills that have made him an invaluable member of the Sales and Trading function that Mizuho EMEA is currently building out.
After Graduating from the University of Leeds with a Bachelor of Science in Economics, Callum McDonald began his career in recruitment, something that he says taught him skills that would become important in future roles.
“In recruitment you are talking to a lot of different people,” Callum explains. “The main thing is to make sure that you are adapting to everyone's needs and having some sales tactics behind that, as well as empathy and resilience – these are things that I’ve taken forward into future jobs and I think that’s a really important lesson.”
Callum’s first insight into the finance sector and world of data came via back-to-back internships within a European bank, working in both the Operations team as well as on the trading floor within the Fixed Income Data Team.
“I was using a lot of data visualisation tools that I hadn’t used before, and this is where I pivoted towards a markets orientated focus.” He continues, “I went on to self-study outside of work and this was really helpful for data visualisation and automating a lot of tasks.”
To build on his self-learning, Callum decided to undertake a Computer Science Masters at the University of Bath whilst he was working at his next role in the City of London at a different bank, working closely with quants and structuring desks.
“Once you have something on your CV where you’ve shown that you want to pivot your career in a certain direction, that shows that you want to learn more, proves your skills and really moves your career forward.”
Opening the door to the trading floor
After gaining his Masters in Computer Science, Callum moved into a client analytics role at a North American bank where he gained experience across all desks, including credit rates, equities and FX.
As well as being able to apply his masters to his day-to-day work, this role provided him with insight into the dynamics of a trading floor.
“It really opened my eyes to how a trading floor operates,” says Callum. “I was getting to know the products and understand how certain people on certain desks are doing things. It was really good for me. The more I could automate, the more I could do and the more I could learn.”
Reflecting on his non-traditional route into trading, Callum says that his mixture of business knowledge is something that helps him on the trading floor.
He explains, “getting a story across through data is just as important as understanding your client. You have to understand how to use data to derive a compelling story that drives an accurate business decision.”
When asked what advice he would give to somebody just starting out in sales and trading today, Callum’s number one piece of advice is to be patient.
“These things take time, especially if you're coming from a background outside of finance, the barriers to entry on a trading floor can be quite high. Nurture your skillset, find your niche, and just try and be curious.”
Mizuho EMEA’s Fixed Income Digital Markets team
When the role came up at Mizuho, Callum saw it as the perfect opportunity to use the technical skills that he had built up whilst also sitting in a client/market facing environment.
“It was refreshing and interesting to see a role in a sales and trading team that required such a data centric skillset,” he says. “The role offered me the perfect mix of learning more about the business whilst adding value to Mizuho’s overall trading offering with the skills I had previously deployed.”
“Mizuho is hiring for that next generation on the trading floor. It is what is necessary to structure a business and trading strategy effectively going forward.”
Callum McDonald,
Fixed Income Digital Markets team
Whilst interviewing for the role, Callum says it became apparent of the direction that Mizuho is moving in to get the right balance of diverse skillsets to provide best-in-class service to its clients.
“You need the right mixture of market, product, and data experts, working towards the same goal, to understand what and how clients are trading. I think that’s the future, and Mizuho is hiring for that next generation on the trading floor. It is what is necessary to structure a business and trading strategy effectively going forward.”
Elaborating on how his team works together to support clients, Callum highlights the amount of work that they have spent integrating large data sets to understand trading inquiries and how to better service clients in the future.
“We visualise the data so we can be transparent with our clients and we can open up conversation on what they expect from Mizuho as an offering. It is a mixture of this quantitative and qualitative feedback loop that can help us shape a more profitable client-centric business.”
In summarising his experience at Mizuho to date, Callum highlights the inclusiveness of his team from highly diverse backgrounds and skillsets – all working together to drive the business forward.
“With the build out of the Digital Markets team and how integrated they are within traditional Global Market functions; Mizuho is clearly looking at future business sustainability and electronic trading is going to be a key component for that.”