Walk me through your CV.

What it tests: Story coherence + genuine markets curiosity. Macro PMs screen out default 'banking then HF' paths, they want sustained evidence of following markets and policy, and a reason for macro specifically.

Tell me about your most impressive analytical work or call.

What it tests: Depth of independent, top-down thinking + willingness to commit to a view. Tests whether the candidate forms a thesis from macro drivers, not just consumes sell-side notes.

Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.

What it tests: Self-awareness + real growth mindset. Cross-role canonical. Fake weaknesses (perfectionist / work-too-hard) downgrade immediately. Macro books turn fast and PMs cut wrong trades, candidates who can't admit a broken thesis are a risk.

Why global macro? Why not single-name equity or another strategy?

What it tests: Authentic interest in macro vs cycling buy-side recruiting. Tests whether the candidate has weighed macro vs L/S equity, credit, or systematic, and is genuinely drawn to top-down, cross-asset reasoning.

What it tests: Whether the candidate has done the homework. PMs hear generic 'great track record' daily, downgrade. Bar: firm-specific evidence from style, markets, recent themes, and people.

Why {discretionary / systematic} macro, or why a {single-manager / multi-manager pod} platform, over the alternative?

What it tests: Whether the candidate understands the structural differences and has made an informed choice, not just chasing the first offer.

How would you describe this firm's macro process and edge in your own words?

What it tests: Whether the candidate has internalized HOW the firm makes money, idea generation, expression, risk, not just WHAT it trades. Tests whether they read letters / interviews vs a Wikipedia summary.

How do you think this firm manages risk, at the trade level and the book level?

What it tests: Whether the candidate understands macro returns are net of drawdowns, and that leverage + liquidity make risk discipline existential. Probed hardest at pod platforms.

Front Office Investing interview prep.

Top-down regime thinker with a trader's instinct for expression, sizing, and risk.

What interviewers look for

Can the candidate separate a forecast from a trade? A view on growth is not a position, it must be expressed in an instrument, sized, with a stop.
Is the thinking top-down and cross-asset? Macro reasons from regime (growth, inflation, policy, flows) down to the instrument, not bottom-up from one name.
Does the candidate read the central bank's reaction function, and find where the market is mispricing the path, not just forecast the next meeting?
Can they express a view cleanly, carry, a DV01-neutral curve trade, options, and explain why that expression over the obvious one?
Is risk defined up front? Stop level, scenario asymmetry, what unwinds the trade (carry crash, policy pivot), and sizing to volatility.
Genuine, sustained curiosity about markets and the world, macro rewards people who connect politics, policy, and flows. PMs screen hard for it.

Behavioural questions to expect

Walk me through your CV.
What it tests: Story coherence + genuine markets curiosity. Macro PMs screen out default 'banking then HF' paths, they want sustained evidence of following markets and policy, and a reason for macro specifically.
Tell me about your most impressive analytical work or call.
What it tests: Depth of independent, top-down thinking + willingness to commit to a view. Tests whether the candidate forms a thesis from macro drivers, not just consumes sell-side notes.
Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
What it tests: Self-awareness + real growth mindset. Cross-role canonical. Fake weaknesses (perfectionist / work-too-hard) downgrade immediately. Macro books turn fast and PMs cut wrong trades, candidates who can't admit a broken thesis are a risk.
Why global macro? Why not single-name equity or another strategy?
What it tests: Authentic interest in macro vs cycling buy-side recruiting. Tests whether the candidate has weighed macro vs L/S equity, credit, or systematic, and is genuinely drawn to top-down, cross-asset reasoning.
Why this firm?
What it tests: Whether the candidate has done the homework. PMs hear generic 'great track record' daily, downgrade. Bar: firm-specific evidence from style, markets, recent themes, and people.
Why {discretionary / systematic} macro, or why a {single-manager / multi-manager pod} platform, over the alternative?
What it tests: Whether the candidate understands the structural differences and has made an informed choice, not just chasing the first offer.
How would you describe this firm's macro process and edge in your own words?
What it tests: Whether the candidate has internalized HOW the firm makes money, idea generation, expression, risk, not just WHAT it trades. Tests whether they read letters / interviews vs a Wikipedia summary.
How do you think this firm manages risk, at the trade level and the book level?
What it tests: Whether the candidate understands macro returns are net of drawdowns, and that leverage + liquidity make risk discipline existential. Probed hardest at pod platforms.

Technical concepts to master

The macro trade, the universal scaffold

View (top-down thesis): The macro reason the trade works, growth, inflation, policy, or flows. Two to three sentences, reasoned from regime down to the asset.
Variant (vs market pricing): What the market has already priced that you disagree with, the forward curve, priced hikes/cuts, spot FX, or volatility.
Catalyst + timing: The event that closes the gap within the horizon, a data print, central-bank meeting, supply / issuance event, or election.
Expression: The instrument that isolates the view with the best carry / convexity, outright, relative-value, or options.

Yield curve + DV01 + curve trades

DV01. Dollar Value of a 01: The dollar P&L change on a position for a 1 basis-point (0.01%) parallel move in yield. DV01 ≈ position notional × modified duration × 0.0001.
Yield-curve shapes: Normal (upward-sloping, long yields > short yields), flat (similar across tenors), inverted (short yields > long), humped (mid-curve highest).
Steepener vs flattener: Steepener: profits if long yields rise MORE than short yields (curve gets steeper). Flattener: profits if long yields rise less than short (curve flattens).
DV01-neutral construction: Size the two legs of a curve trade so their DV01s match, long $X of one tenor, short $Y of another, where X × DV01_short_leg = Y × DV01_long_leg.

Carry + FX frameworks

Carry definition: The return on a position if nothing moves: yield differential (FX carry), bond yield (fixed income), roll yield (futures / curves), or coupon (credit).
FX carry, the canonical trade: Long high-yielding currency funded by shorting low-yielding currency. Earns the interest rate differential as carry.
Covered interest parity (CIP): Forward FX = spot × (1 + r_quote) / (1 + r_base). The forward rate eliminates risk-free arbitrage between buying the foreign currency outright vs lending in the base currency.
Carry-to-vol: Sharpe-like ratio: annualized carry divided by annualized realized vol of the carry trade. Tells you how much you're being paid per unit of risk you're taking.

Reading the central bank

Reaction function: The rule mapping the economy to policy, how the bank weights inflation vs employment vs financial stability when setting rates.
The dot plot / projections: The committee's own projected rate path. A guide to intent, but one snapshot of views that shifts meeting to meeting.
Market-implied path: The path of policy priced into futures / OIS and the forward curve, the consensus you actually trade against.
Forward guidance: The bank's communication about the likely path, used to steer financial conditions before it moves rates.

FX + cross-asset frameworks

Rate-differential / monetary divergence: A currency tends to strengthen as its relative policy rate and expected path rise vs another's, the core short-horizon FX driver.
Purchasing power parity / REER: Over the long run exchange rates drift toward relative price levels; the real effective rate flags rich / cheap vs history.
Balance of payments / terms of trade: Current-account and capital flows, plus commodity terms of trade, drive currencies, surplus and improving terms of trade support a currency.
Risk-on / risk-off (carry vs haven): In risk-on, high-yield / EM and carry outperform; in risk-off, funding and haven currencies and duration rally.

Practical drills

Pitch me a macro trade you'd put on today, in the firm's core markets. 5 min prep, 5-7 min delivery. Be ready to be probed for 10-15 min on the view, what's priced, and your stop.
You put on a DV01-neutral 2s10s steepener: long $50,000 DV01 of the 2y, short $50,000 DV01 of the 10y. Over a month the 2y yield falls 30bp and the 10y yield falls 10bp. What's your P&L? What if instead the whole curve sells off 20bp in parallel?
You go long a currency yielding 8% funded in one yielding 1%, held for a year. (a) If spot is unchanged, what's your return? (b) The pair's volatility is about 10% annualized, what's the carry-to-vol? (c) The high-yielder then depreciates 9% in a risk-off week, what happened, and why?

Smart-question anchors

Idea generation, where the firm's themes actually come from (models, networks, top-down research) and how an analyst contributes to the trade pipeline
Expression + execution, how views become positions; who decides the instrument and structure; use of relative-value vs outright vs options
Risk framework in practice, volatility target, stops, drawdown discipline, risk budgeting across themes; one recent example where risk discipline mattered
Discretionary vs systematic balance, how judgment and models combine in the firm's process
Analyst autonomy + PM partnership, how much an analyst's view drives sizing and the book; the path to running risk

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