Shane Cryan, Assistant Trader, SIG

Degree BSc Economic and Finance (UCD)
Job title Trader
Employer SIG

I joined SIG’s Assistant Trader (AT) Programme in July 2011 having completed my degree in BSc Economics and Finance at UCD. I was always interested in trading as a career and I was drawn to SIG’s quantitative and decision theory approach.

Working Life

As an AT I worked on SIG’s equity Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) desk. At the start I worked on projects/ tasks for traders, many of which were used daily by traders to improve their trading. As I became more experienced, I received the opportunity to trade and develop real strategies under the guidance of Traders. Being an AT involves attending ‘mock’ trading two evenings per week. This is an education tool to teach ATs how to trade and price financial securities in a market environment.
ATs also attend game theory classes as part of their formal training and compete against each other in electronic trading simulations. Overall, SIG invest a huge amount of time and resources educating new recruits.I graduated from the AT Programme in 2013 after attending a ten week long Trader Class in our U.S. headquarters near Philadelphia. This class was an excellent learning experience. I returned to the ETF desk in Dublin and I now currently trade ETFs from a number of different European countries. What’s great about life as a trader is that no two days are ever the same. The market is always evolving, and you constantly have important decisions to make. The trading floor is a fast-paced, challenging and exciting environment and I am really enjoying my time at SIG.