Personnel Update - Jan 2024
The winter months don't look the same across the 3 locations, but wherever you are we wish you a very good New Year for 2024!
New Intranet Sites:
These have been relaunched and are specific to each office. As ever, you can access the one relevant to your current location via http://ark/
On each, you'll find team directories; links for referrals, expense claims, etc.; simplified inter-organizational travel forms; benefits, lunch details & upcoming social events; and info about the various learning opportunities available to team members.
Feedback is welcome; both praise and criticism help make these better and more relevant! personnel@transmarketgroup.com
New Desks:
TMG's innovation is driven by its people. This happens in ways both big and small and sometimes it results in new trading desks and new products traded. This fall/winter TMG has started three new trading desks.
#1 Panda (Chinese Ags)
Lana Zakhorva said of the new desk: Bowen and Chaoping have been helping with the desk launch. Trading on both DCE and CBOT gives us access to the major share of opportunities in the global soybeans market. DCE-CME arbitrage trades are a good combination of robust fundamental relationships and decent intraday volatility. We are excited to continue our research in the soybeans space so we can add more products to the portfolio.
#2 Dragon (Chinese Energy)
Jesse Van Marter said of the desk: Spinning up the Dragon desk with Chris Decarlo and Cale McCormick has been a very engaging endeavor. The market is surrounded by outmoded processes but obviously has ample opportunity (most likely due to these frictions). While initially frustrating to deal with, we now count these frictions as an edge after some overtime work from JSF and Wawro and buttoning down desk processes. Our newest member, Mike Fidelman, has quickly adapted to this framework, successfully trading by hand both Asia and US shifts while confirming positions and trades through WhatsApp groups.
#3 Corporate Bonds:
John Kato said of the new desk: "The launch of the Corporate Investment Grade desk in November went smoothly, with Victor de Cagny taking the lead and help from Olson, JSF, and Wawro to get us trading quickly. We are slowly finding our way through a very competitive market by putting processes in place to help us streamline our RV-finding capabilities in overlooked sectors of the market. We look forward to 2024 as we better define our edge and grow our risk."
REMINDERS!
Interorganizational Travel: process & approvals
All travel should be approved by both your manager AND the location to which you'll be traveling. After receiving preliminary approval from your manager, please use the forms under LINKS on the new intranet pages (mentioned above) to start the process and ensure all relevant parties are informed.
Reviews:
Review season will kick off this Friday. This year, expect tighter and stricter deadlines. Start your notes already, and please plan on completing your review ASAP when it hits your inbox.
UPCOMING EVENTS!
Trading-Skiing Camp
In February, Oryctérope (the Swiss end of things) is inviting top European quant and CS candidates to a hackathon day in the office, 2 nights in a Verbier chalet, and a day skiing around the 4 Vallées with a guide. From ~100 applicants, 8 have been invited - see more on www.ortr.ch/trading-skiing-camp.
First New Cohort Trip
In February and April 2024, team members who joined between 1 Jan 2022 and 31 May 2023 have been invited to Switzerland for the first in a series of what should become regular gatherings of new members of our global team.
