Precious Metals Trader

Overall Purpose
The Precious Metals Trader will be responsible for pricing, structuring, evaluating, and managing risks for the Precious Metal Trading book including swaps, leases, deposits, and physical precious metals inventory.

Main Responsibilities

• Strategy & Business Planning
  • Maintain awareness of all market trends & developments, economic and financial data and other important factors likely to affect the trading book.
  • Participate in meetings and client visits, as required.
• Quantitative research
  • Work with the quant/IT teams to ensure that appropriate models/tools are implemented. Sponsor specific development.
• Structuring & sales
  • Work closely with sales and structuring teams to ensure that appropriate products are proposed to clients.
• Financial Performance
  • Aim to maximise long term revenues and control costs within the context of the CM business line strategy and trading limits.
  • Formulate and implement trading strategies and effective hedging strategies arising from client transactions within authorised trading limits.
  • Monitor trading positions against performance and take timely action, as required.
  • Participate in the Bank's efforts to service client organisations: Ensure transaction execution meets client and Natixis requirements, notably with regards to providing timely and professional pricing and ethical execution of customer flows.
• Reporting and Communication
  • Ensure that information on market trends/developments flows freely to head of desk and post information to other GMC staff on internal.
  • Report to Head of desk on the progress of the business and specific issues (e.g. excess on limits, compliance problems, important jump — positive or negative - of P&L, operational risk).
• Control
  • Ensure clients are cleared by Risk, Legal, Compliance and Operations before trading.
  • Ensure that new products are approved by the NPC before trading.
  • Ensure that, before trading with any market counterparty, an appropriate credit line and documentation is in place.
  • Ensure that products within the trading book are correctly recorded and marked to market/model; ensure that all parameters that the desk is responsible for are correctly marked. Escalate unmarked positions to management.
  • Ensure that the daily P&L of the book produced by SDR and reported client contributions are materially accurate.
  • Provide cover for absent colleagues on desk, as required by line management.
  • Ensure that all trades executed are recorded in a timely manner. To assist in the timely resolution of trade breaks, as required. Report late booked or amended trades to Risk & SDR.
• Counterparties
  • Liaise with counterparties to provide quotes and obtain market intelligence.
• Risk
  • Sign and adhere to market risk mandates in terms of limits and products at all times.
  • Report any suspected operational risk incidents (loss or gain) to the Head of Desk and to the Operational Risk department.
• Legal & Regulatory Responsibilities
  • Comply with all applicable legal, regulatory and internal Compliance requirements as issued from time to time, including, but not limited to: the London Compliance manual; Compliance policies and procedures; Security policies & procedures; Financial Security requirements, including but not limited to the prevention of Financial Crime and Fraud including reporting obligations to the Money Laundering Reporting Officer.
  • Maintain and develop product knowledge to ensure ability to undertake the role. Complete all mandatory training as required to attain and maintain competence.

Key Internal Contacts
GMC sales and Structuring, Trade support, Middle and Back Office, IT and Quant teams, DRMSDR.

Key skills

• Working practice in precious metals trading.
• Good understanding of clients and client needs.
• Knowledge of usual trading media (brokers, intermediation platforms, etc.) and compliance procedures.
• Exposure and pricing experience in a broad set of commodities underlyings (precious & base metals).

Personal attributes:

• Extremely rigorous and reliable, especially on deals pricing and book risk management and P&L production.
• Good resistance to stress and pressure.
• Fluid, clear, and efficient communicator.
• Team-player who can also work independently.
• Fluency in English.