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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Trade Support

💰 $65,000 - $110,000

FinanceOperationsBankingInvestment Management

🎯 Role Definition

The Trade Support function, often situated within the Middle Office, serves as the primary operational control point for the trading floor. Its core purpose is to validate, enrich, and monitor trades from the point of execution to their final settlement. This involves mitigating operational risk, ensuring data accuracy in downstream systems, and providing real-time support to traders. A successful Trade Support professional acts as a subject matter expert on the trade lifecycle, troubleshooting complex issues and facilitating smooth communication across various internal teams (Trading, Sales, Risk, Compliance, Technology, Back Office) and external counterparties (Brokers, Custodians, Clearing Houses).

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Operations Analyst
  • Back Office Associate
  • Recent Graduate (Finance/Economics/Business)

Advancement To:

  • Senior Trade Support Analyst
  • Trading Assistant
  • Middle Office Manager
  • Product Controller

Lateral Moves:

  • Compliance Analyst
  • Risk Operations Analyst
  • Client Onboarding Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Act as the primary point of contact for the trading desk, providing real-time support for trade booking, allocation, and lifecycle event queries.
  • Ensure timely and accurate capture of all trades executed by the front office across various asset classes like Equities, Fixed Income, FX, and Derivatives in the firm's systems.
  • Monitor electronic trade flows from execution platforms to internal systems, promptly investigating and resolving any breaks or failures.
  • Perform trade affirmation and confirmation processes using industry platforms such as CTM, DTCC, and MarkitWire to ensure agreement with counterparties.
  • Manage the complete trade lifecycle, including monitoring for settlement, handling corporate actions, and processing trade amendments or cancellations.
  • Proactively identify, investigate, and resolve trade-related exceptions, breaks, and discrepancies in positions, cash, or P&L.
  • Liaise directly with brokers, custodians, clearing agents, and other external counterparties to resolve settlement issues and trade matching discrepancies.
  • Conduct daily reconciliation of trading positions and cash balances between the front office trading systems and the firm's official books and records.
  • Assist in the production and verification of daily P&L (Profit and Loss) reports, attributing changes to market movement and new trading activity.
  • Oversee the settlement process, coordinating with back office teams to prevent and resolve failed trades in a timely manner to avoid financial penalties.
  • Support the collateral management process by monitoring margin requirements and facilitating the movement of collateral for derivative and repo trades.
  • Ensure all trade-related activities are compliant with internal policies and external regulatory requirements, assisting with regulatory reporting where necessary.
  • Maintain critical static and reference data, including security master files, counterparty information, and settlement instructions (SSIs).
  • Partner with technology teams to troubleshoot system issues, test new software releases, and contribute to the enhancement of trading and operations platforms.
  • Onboard new funds, accounts, and financial products by setting up the necessary configurations and workflows within the operational systems.
  • Handle complex lifecycle events for derivative products, such as resets, fixings, and expiries, ensuring they are processed correctly.
  • Prepare and distribute daily, weekly, and monthly operational reports to management, highlighting key metrics, volumes, and exception trends.
  • Validate and process wire payments related to trade settlements, fees, and collateral movements, ensuring accuracy and proper authorization.
  • Act as a subject matter expert on operational workflows, providing training to junior team members and other departments.
  • Investigate and respond to inquiries from internal (Risk, Compliance, Finance) and external (Auditors) stakeholders regarding trade data and processes.

Secondary Functions

  • Participate in projects aimed at improving operational efficiency, automating manual processes, and reducing operational risk.
  • Develop and maintain detailed documentation for all team procedures, workflows, and system functionalities.
  • Assist in gathering requirements and performing user acceptance testing (UAT) for new systems or enhancements to existing platforms.
  • Support ad-hoc requests for trade data analysis and reporting from traders, portfolio managers, and senior management.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Proficient knowledge of the trade lifecycle across multiple asset classes (e.g., equities, fixed income, OTC derivatives, repo).
  • Hands-on experience with trade processing and matching platforms like Omgeo CTM, Traiana, DTCC, or MarkitWire.
  • Strong competency with market data terminals such as Bloomberg Terminal or Refinitiv Eikon for trade validation and research.
  • Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including VLOOKUPs, pivot tables, and macros, for data analysis and reporting.
  • Foundational knowledge of SQL for querying databases to investigate trade discrepancies and perform data analysis.
  • Familiarity with Order Management Systems (OMS) or Portfolio Management Systems (e.g., Charles River, BlackRock Aladdin, Fidessa).
  • Understanding of financial concepts such as P&L calculation, corporate actions, and collateral management.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional attention to detail and accuracy, especially when working with large volumes of data under pressure.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to investigate complex issues and identify root causes.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex issues clearly to traders, operations teams, and external parties.
  • Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-pressure trading environment and effectively manage competing priorities.
  • A proactive and inquisitive mindset with a strong desire to learn, improve processes, and take ownership of responsibilities.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's Degree

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's or Master's Degree

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Finance
  • Economics
  • Business Administration
  • Mathematics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2-5 years of experience in a trade support, middle office, or investment operations role within a financial services firm.

Preferred:

Direct experience supporting a specific trading desk (e.g., credit, rates, equities) and working with complex derivative products is highly advantageous. Exposure to process improvement projects or system implementation is also a plus.

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