Front Office Investing interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Tell me about your most impressive analytical work or call.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
4. Why global macro? Why not single-name equity or another strategy?
5. Why the firm?
6. Why {discretionary / systematic} macro — or why a {single-manager / multi-manager pod} platform — over the alternative?
7. How would you describe the firm's macro process and edge in your own words?
8. How do you think the firm manages risk — at the trade level and the book level?

Technical concepts to master

• The macro trade — the universal scaffold

  View (top-down thesis) · Variant (vs market pricing) · Catalyst + timing · Expression · Sizing

• Yield curve + DV01 + curve trades

  DV01 — Dollar Value of a 01 · Yield-curve shapes · Steepener vs flattener · DV01-neutral construction · Butterfly trades

• Carry + FX frameworks

  Carry definition · FX carry — the canonical trade · Covered interest parity (CIP) · Carry-to-vol · Crash skew — 'up the stairs, down the elevator'

• Reading the central bank

  Reaction function · The dot plot / projections · Market-implied path · Forward guidance · Real rates + breakevens

• FX + cross-asset frameworks

  Rate-differential / monetary divergence · Purchasing power parity / REER · Balance of payments / terms of trade · Risk-on / risk-off (carry vs haven) · Real yields, the dollar, and gold

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

Sourced from

Wall Street Oasis (WSO) · Graham Capital Management — Global Macro Primer (2024) · CME Group — Yield Curve Spread Trades + Close Mountain DV01 paper · Macrosynergy — FX carry research · Federal Reserve / Brookings / St. Louis Fed (FRED) · Mergers & Inquisitions / Breaking Into Wall Street