Page 1 of 16 Junior Consulting Junior Consulting Programme Programme
First Derivatives (FD) Junior deployment model provides clients with high calibre Junior consultants to help deliver projects and meet their budgetary requirements. Project deadlines are unforgiving. They do not budge to accommodate unexpected events, sicknesses or difficulties. They don t bend when actual exceeds expected in man-day estimates or when remaining tasks, divided by available resources, clearly dwarf remaining days. Worse still in some cases the deadline may be fixed even before the project is fully signed off but doesn t move in tandem with ongoing delays in assessment, sign-off or final approval. These situations, and their possible resolution, are often depicted in the form of a Time, Quality, Cost triangle where a change in one area necessitates a change in one, or both, of the others. So, with budgets as unyielding as deadlines, this implies quality must suffer and whether formally decided upon or not this, by default, is typically what happens (and ironically leads to the late delivery and additional costs it sought to avoid). FD offers a solution to the Time, Quality, Cost dilemma. It offers a Junior consulting service which makes resources available immediately, appropriately and cost-effectively Time: FD has a long track record of delivering consulting services to the capital market. Adding junior resources to your project can distribute the workload instantly and begin to address outstanding tasks immediately. Moreover our consultants can be made available at short notice, fully trained and satisfying all work permit requirements. Quality: Our junior consultants are recruited from a wide range of disciplines including finance, technology, law, mathematics and science. All undergo the same rigorous in-house Capital Markets Training Programme as undertaken by our senior consultants and benefit from the practical knowledge and cross training that a 450-person consulting organisation provides. Cost: FD operates a low-cost delivery model that ensures resources can be provided at highly competitive rates. A unique aspect of our service is to offer junior resources Free of Charge for a short time period. This enables projects to get back on track without incurring immediate costs or compromising quality thereby solving the original Time, Quality, Cost dilemma. Moreover, by offering our services from both near shore centres as well as on-site, we offer further options to clients in terms of cost and proximity. In all cases clients are spared the costs otherwise incurred in hiring, training, management, sick leave, holiday cover etc. that FD manages as part of its standard consulting practice. As an integral part of its long established consulting services FD operates a comprehensive recruitment, training and assignment programme that provides the capacity to grow, replenish and optimise its highly skilled consultant pool. Clients can avail directly of this capacity to ramp-up or ramp-down on resources as circumstances demand. We are a customer-focused organisation that works closely with our customers to react to the changing environment in which they operate and to achieve best results by the application of skilled and motivated manpower, best of breed technology and best practices. Page 2 of 16
FD s Junior Model A Unique Service Despite best efforts to plan and predict project deliverables and timelines our clients almost invariably have to deal with the unexpected. Sometimes they may require additional headcount to meet a slipping deadline, or there may be new requirements for which extra manpower is needed, or unexpected events that require similarly unexpected measures to address. In each case, whether arising from unexpected delays, new demands or unforeseen disasters, a common feature is the unanticipated need for new resources immediately. This brings two challenges: availability and cost. Where can I get someone who knows Calypso (or Murex or Wall Street), someone who understands Dodd Frank (or EMIR or ISDA contracts) or someone who can query and match data across multiple databases? Where can I get them now? And how will I be able to afford them? This is where FD s Junior model helps. Cost Ex gratis induction and training period We are responsive and can ramp up and ramp down numbers very quickly blended rates FD absorbs all costs - expenses, travel, training, career progression Quality Our consultants are high academic achievers who have been selected following a rigorous screening process. They are drawn from pool of thousands of applicants from top class Universities with a background in science, technology, law, engineering and math. Our consultants have technical expertise AND domain expertise They have a range of accreditations including PRMIA, SAP HANA, ISTQB, Sun Certified Java Programming, MOOCs Our consultants have access to a netwok of 600 experienced captial markets experts for mentoring and for practical and theoretical support Our consultants also receive training in popular third party vendor products such as Calypso and Murex Even whilst on site our consultants continue with their professional development through the intensive Capital Markets Training programme Flexibility and Availability We can deploy our consultants globally, supported by our office network across 3 regions - North America, EMEA and APAC Our resources are flexible, keen to travel and eager to learn For large programmes we can discuss transitions to permanent employment We can deploy resources at short notice The Junior model makes diligent, highly-skilled, well-trained graduate resources, who can contribute immediately to project deliverables, available to clients at low, reduced or, sometimes, zero cost. This enables the project managers to distribute and reassign tasks in such a way as to truly benefit from the new skills and expertise at their disposal. Juniors may take on new tasks, assist in completing others or take some of the workload off more senior colleagues enabling them to concentrate more on the specialised tasks that need their additional experience. Moreover it can be done swiftly and costeffectively. Typically FD will place a number of junior consultants at a discounted rate, or for free, for a short period of time as projects are triaged, ramped-up and realigned. Only when our consultants start to add value and contribute meaningfully to the project do they revert to normal charge-out rates. FD s pre-employment screening, recruitment and on-boarding process has been industrialised to enable it to scale up at short notice and its core business is predicated upon flexing recruitment numbers to meet fluctuations in demand. As a result FD can ramp-up dedicated resourcing for fixed periods at short notice and we can also supply resources for additional ad hoc Statements of Work outside of the initial engagement. Page 3 of 16
Capital Markets Training Programme (CMTP) FD has developed a modularised training program specially tailored for the Capital Markets known as CMTP. We believe that this is a unique world-class program combining tailored content with rapid immersion and simulated real world conditions. Our experience is such that we have received positive feedback regarding the quality of our work and the competency of our resources, each of whom are productive within weeks of going on site despite, in many cases, being recent college graduates. Why is the CMTP different to academic qualifications and public courses? Internal exams supplemented by external accreditations - PRMIA, Java Certification, MOOCS A culture of learning and CPD supported by a world class training infrastructure Extensive syllabus with supporting material, workshops, lectures and online exams Consultants gain a unique combination of domain knowledge, technology and consulting skills Most courses focus exclusively on finance or technology. We focus on both finance and technology. We, unlike academic courses, pay attention to mundane but practical issues such as day count and settlement conventions, building order books, reference data or constructing yield curves. Each area of the syllabus is covered in depth and, where possible, uses a live trading system such as Calypso to help illustrate the issues. We have a rolling, continuous program (not fixed around the academic year) which blends experience gained on client site with theory. Theory doesn t become apparent until executed in practice and the quality of client deliverables is enhanced by appreciating the underlying theory. Participants proceed at their own pace so they can meet their primary commitment to meeting client requirements. The CMTP is mainly delivered online facilitating ad hoc, concentrated focus. The program continually evolves in response to external changes (e.g. new regulations and the emergence of new technologies) we deliver a program that is flexible and totally within our control. Lecturers from academia do not have the experience of working in consulting or development environments. CMTP trainers are experienced professionals who marry theory with practice. Participants have access to hundreds of seasoned, experienced consultants for help and mentoring. This is a key benefit of life at FD for a junior consultant, and this interaction is actively encouraged by Senior Management. Many of the engagements undertaken by FD involve the use of specialised third party software such as kdb+, Calypso or Murex. Training in these technologies is not readily available in academia or via publically delivered courses. Working with real, live systems and data is central to the training. Page 4 of 16
The Syllabus and Structure The CMTP is a structured program which takes approximately 2 years to complete. The program is modular and streamed and consists of a series of lectures, workshops, exercises, online presentations and associated exams. The program proceeds in 3 distinct phases induction, specialisation and onsite work. There are 3 areas of specialisation Financial Engineering, Big Data/Software Engineering, Legal and Trading. During the one month induction period all streams effectively undertake the same study. Following this initial period the participants specialise in their allocated field. We have provided some detail below as to exactly how our Capital Markets Training Program (CMTP) is structured. Time Financial Big Data Legal Practical Work Pre-FD 1.1 / 2.1 or Masters typically in Science,, Engineering, Maths, Law. Placement at a financial or technical company e.g. Susquehanna, Microsoft, JP Morgan. 0-1 months : Basic Financial Concepts IT Basics / Intro to Excel & VBA / UNIX / SQL 1-3 months Basic Concepts 2 Introduction to Databases (MOOC) Software Engineering 4-12 months Fixed Income Interest Rate Derivatives 13-24 months Market Risk Credit Risk Professional Accreditation Optional Consulting Java or C# Supporting Financial Systems Financial System Design Release Management ISTBQ (Software Testing exam) PRMIA ET Future & Options Equity Derivatives Credit Derivatives Structured Products Operational Risk Market Data Calypso,Murex, Wall Street IPC C++ Grid Computing GUI Design Equity Market Introduction to Databases (MOOC) Software Engineering Introduction to kdb+ Basic Concepts 2 Market Data Intermediate KDB+ IPC Algorithmic Program Trading ET Futures & Options Fixed Income Interest Rate Derivatives Advanced kdb+ Release Management Hadoop MapReduce SAP HANA Cert. Advanced Java Cert. C# Cert. Equity Derivatives Credit Derivatives Structured Products Feedhandler Development Supporting Financial Systems Financial System Design Software Testing Grid Computing Gui Design C++ C Programming CMTP Structure and Sample Syllabus Page 5 of 16 Basic Concepts 2 Equity Derivatives Credit Derivatives Legal International Financial Law Negotiation of ISDAs Capital Markets Regulation Securities Regulatory Compliance Fixed Income Interest Rate Derivatives Credit Risk Legal FATCA Compliance Project Finance International Trade Finance Law Market Risk Legal Mergers and Acquisitions Chronology of a Bond Issue Aviation Finance Law Real Estate Finance SQL Supporting Financial Systems Project Management I ET Future & Options Equity Market All Streams Practical Experience - Working with FD development team in areas such as testing, business requirements analysis and working with the support team. All Streams Professional Experience - First onsite engagement All Streams Professional Experience Second onsite engagement Credit Derivatives FD Marketing; Recruitment Training; Team Leader Skills; Project Management ; Communication Skills; Interview Training; Professional Documentation ( Word and PowerPoint Presentations) Market participants Default risk Downgrade risk Credit spread risk Credit default swaps Basket default swaps Credit events Asset Swaps Total return swaps Total return index swaps Credit linked notes First to default credit linked notes Collateralised Debt Obligations - CDOs Synthetic CDOs Managed synthetic CDOs Credit related spreads Credit spread options Option on a defaultable bond Option on an asset swap spread...
The FD Junior Model in Action Roadmap Pre FD: Placement/Internship Year 0-1 Month: Induction / Training Phase 1-3 Month: Workshops / R&D Secondment 3-12 Months: Onsite Deployment Project 1 12-24 Months: Onsite Deployment Projects 2,3,4 Our aim at the end of an initial 2 year period with the company is for a consultant to have completed a range of assignments. Working with different financial products Using a range of technologies Working with a range of different types of end users (traders, BO/MO, etc.) Working with a range of disciplines (PMs, BAs, DBAs, IT specialists, etc.) Working in a variety of roles in a number of different organizations. (e.g. support, project management, development, business analyst, implementations) Have a good rounded knowledge of the financial markets including FX, equity, fixed income and risk management From Theory to the Real World After the initial 3 month period which is largely theory based our consultants start working with clients; Juniors are placed in roles such as testing, level 1 and level 2 support, third party systems support (e.g.,. Murex, Calypso, Wall Street, Opics, Summit, Open Link, SAP HANA), data management, data mining and reporting. In particular we specialize in 3 areas outlined in more detail later 1. Third Party Vendors 2. Legal, Regulation and Compliance 3. Big Data All consultants will have undertaken our initial pre-employment screening to ensure that they can be dispatched on site immediately and with no barrier to deployment. FD s pre-employment screening includes criminal record checks, credit checks and passport and photographic identification. FD provides a Capital Markets Training Programme that ensures a stable supply of new talent equipped with comprehensive knowledge of the capital markets domain and core technologies. FD covers all Human Resource aspects of recruitment and absorbs all consultant expenses and travel and take care of career progression. FD also offers all clients a Near Shore support model from centers in Europe, North America and Asia providing the benefits of lower costs but maintaining proximity to facilitate good communication and rapid on-site deployment as required First Derivatives works with many of the world s leading investment banks and hedge funds, helping them achieve success in an ever-changing business environment. We capitalise on our experience as a provider of technological services and also as a dedicated product supplier. First Derivatives can find the right solution for you and has the expertise to get the job done. First Derivatives services offering can help you to achieve a number of business goals including faster speed-to-market, industry and technical experience that accelerates the quality and speed of development, and avoiding the cost and time required for internal training and skill development. FD s services provide skilled personnel to work under your direction to help you develop, maintain, manage and support your applications. Our skilled professionals can help you manage fluctuating skills needs, skills gaps and changing staffing needs to meet your aggressive project timeline. Page 6 of 16
Typical Assignments Junior resources can make immediate contributions in a number of important and varied roles. We work with all asset classes and with market and reference data. Over the years our clients have deployed our juniors in a number of areas. Software Development Testing Accounting Project Management Middle Office Support Roles Collateral Management kdb+, Java, C#,.Net, HTML5, Hadoop... GUIs, reports, integration, interfaces, devices Performance testing and profiling Test creation, execution and management UAT Non-functional testing Model verification Derivatives accounting Internal audit Project administration Planning, tracking, reporting Documentation review and gap analysis Credit Risk projects Market Risk projects Operational risk projects Level 1 and Level 2 support Front office desk support Legacy systems decomissionning Clearing and Settlement Collateral Management CCP projects FX Equity Commodities Fixed Income Legal Regulation and Compliance Data sourcing, loading interpretation and validation Contract and documentation research and revision Non-core project work Stress Testing Mortgage book analysis KYC Reference Data BA Work Third Party Systems Requirements gathering Documentation PMO assistance Application management and monitoring Implementation, upgrades, migration, retirement Requirement gathering, documenation and testing Market Data The calibre of our Juniors is such that they very quickly make a contribution and assume responsibility above and beyond what was envisaged at the start of the assignment. Page 7 of 16
Legal, Regulation and Compliance Stream First Derivatives provides legal consultants who understand financial markets, financial software and the technology that underpins it across multiple asset classes and markets. Each of our junior consultants takes part in our intensive, two year proprietary Capital Markets Training Programme (CMTP) to enable them to reach the peak of their capabilities. This programme equips our people with a comprehensive knowledge of Capital Markets, its technology and the institutional structures that exist within them. As a result our consultants have a unique ability in that they can provide assistance in both the system and legal challenges in meeting compliance. In this space, the volume of work requiring manual intervention is substantial and requires people who are experienced and able to organise, search through, and order large amounts of records for operational and, most importantly, regulatory relevance. Our consultants can understand stress testing models, capital adequacy regulations and can assist with model validation and internal audit. Capital Markets Legal Securitisation and Equity Finance Regulation, Risk and Compliance Non Core Programme Management Debt/Equity Issues Dodd Frank Structuring Counterparty Risk Asset Disposal Project Management Structuring EMIR Credit Derivatives Basel II /III Aviation Managed Services Valuations FATCA Securitisation Stress Testing Property Systems Support Derivatives ISDA Negotiations Real Estate Solvency II /MiFiD Data Management Project Finance Credit Events AML & KYC SPV's and Conduits Capital Adequacy Systems Integration Multijurisdictional First Derivatives is ideally placed to assist organisations in interpreting regulations and implementing the necessary changes. We are engaged globally with Tier 1 investment bank clients, providing professional resources with experience across many regulatory initiatives including, but not limited to, Dodd Frank, FATCA, EMIR and AIFMD. FD is proud of its track record in delivering consulting services to the capital markets and our Legal and Compliance services offering represents one of our flagship offerings. Our staff possess the skills and training to immediately engage in the wide range of tasks required ranging from retrieving and analysing data from multiple systems, to interpreting and categorising complex documentation to remediating and negotiating legal contracts and trading agreements. This ability to engage hands-on, highly qualified and informed professionals from FD offers a path to compliance that is both realistic and cost-effective. Unlike junior resources from legal firms our consultants understand derivatives ( what is an interest rate swap, what is a LIBOR reset?), can collect and analyse data ( SQL, VBA) from multiple sources and produce reports in a number of formats ( Excel, Powerpoint, Word) Page 8 of 16
Vendor Services Stream First Derivatives has over 16 years experience of supplying implementation and support services to the world s leading financial institutions on the choice and usage of vendor applications. We are not only experts in our field, but we have an expert methodology in place to ensure that our clients continue to get the best advice and support. As part of our Near Shore practice, we provide a range of remote services to our customers in third party technologies such as implementation, testing and support. As well as receiving formal training in these technologies, we embed our junior consultants in customer-facing teams which means that they also receive training in real-life situations they understand the importance and pressures of looming deadlines and experience the daily cadence of EOD runs and batch processing. They gain invaluable experience in all parts of the implementation cycle and get to use the vendor software as it is deployed in production. This means that they will be well equipped to join onsite client teams. Project Management Implementation Migration Monitoring Training Testing Support User Set-up Design Reports Workflow Configuration Interfaces Upgrades Custom GUI Administration We have experience in a number of other third party technologies; Page 9 of 16
Big Data Stream First Derivatives has been working with the world s largest banks and exchanges in delivering Big Data solutions long before the term was coined. We have been helping our customers solve the problem of capturing, storing and processing large data sets particularly in the areas of real-time and historical tick data, reference data and time series data. FD has a wealth of experience in Big Data technologies including kdb+, Hadoop and SAP HANA. In addition it has create a platform on kdb+ for developing, deploying and managing high performance, low-latency trading solutions. Our junior consultants will spend time with our Research and Development (R+D) team and Business Support Units and will have first hand experience of release deadlines and the pressures of 24/7 global support for multi-tenanted systems. Big Data and the Capital Markets Our consultants learn about electronic trading, market data, algorithmic program trading and the conventions of trading various financial cash and derivatives instruments across all the main asset classes. This incorporates an understanding of areas such as Order Management Systems, limits, margin and collateral, back testing, real-time risk, settlement, Smart Order Routing, reference data, TCA, FIX messages and P/L methodologies. Through working with our R+D team as part of their training they also gain an appreciation of issues in the wider technology world such as technology trends, hardware, networking, computer languages and operating systems, DBA issues, security, mobile and cloud technology and disaster recovery. Kdb+ Our kdb+ training is initially based around the material delivered by FD personnel in our public training courses including the q for Gods course. There is also an additional focus on architecture and design, ticker plant infrastructures and IPC. Case Studies After the first month the focus moves to practical workshops and real life trading systems are created in a workshop environment. These projects introduce the Agile development methodology in a practical environment and give an appreciation of deadlines, governance, project management, version control and deployment issues in a relatively benign environment. Junior kdb+ consultants have access to some of the most experienced kdb+ and market data professionals in the world Hadoop Our consultants have completed a Hadoop training course in order to gain extensive knowledge of the Hadoop architecture and suite of products. This training has increased their awareness of the benefits of using HDFS and the MapReduce framework on clusters of commodity hardware to increase the speed and effectiveness of large data throughput. Our consultants possess an extensive knowledge of the robustness and scalability of a Hadoop system allowing them to: Install, configure, and deploy new clusters/nodes; efficiently program MapReduce code with speed; and use Hadoop in practice. The main components of Hadoop training include understanding HDFS in command line and web interfaces; the HDFS Java API; the MapReduce Java API; How to use MapReduce combiners, practitioners and the distributed cache; Relational manipulation including map-side and reduce-side joins; Chaining Jobs and Unit Testing with MRunit SAP HANA Our Consultants have completed both HA100 and HA300 training courses in order to gain extensive knowledge of SAP HANA. This training makes them fully aware of the benefits that HANA has over classic databases by using inmemory hardware and software to manage large volumes of data, analyse at speed, and provide access to real time information. The main components of their SAP HANA training include: A detailed overview of the architecture of SAP HANA Understanding that SAP HANA combines row-based, column-based and object-based database technology Overview of the SAP HANA Studio; an environment for administration, modeling, development, and data provisioning Architecture of the Index Server, Data Replication Methods, SAP HANA System Landscape, and the Back-up and Recovery strategy SAP HANA programming languages, SQLScript and MDX and its Calc Engine Page 10 of 16
Case Studies Background: The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was enacted in March 2010 in response to perceived tax evasion by US persons investing in US assets from outside that jurisdiction and not disclosing their income in full. Drivers: The client needed to maintain its internal deadlines and rebalance the delivery resources in the FATCA project team to ensure it achieved regulatory compliance What FD juniors did: Benefits: FD juniors joined the FATCA team with no previous Business Analyst experience. They began by assisting the Certification team lead and progressed well. One of the juniors deployed on this project is now a Business Analyst in the Withholding and Reporting streams and, to date, has translated IRS regulations into regulatory and subsequently, business requirements for the Client and written business requirements for a Global FATCA solution for the client in relation to Withholding. Another acts as a Business Analyst on the Tax and Legal Advisory team and has carried out a jurisdictional analysis regarding the legal impediments across the Expanded Affiliated Group and how these impediments may impede FATCA compliance. FD juniors learned quickly from their colleagues and were on-boarded to the existing team without causing any disruption Low cost Both juniors commenced the project at a FOC rate for a period of time, then moved to an onsite rate First Derivatives juniors brought a fresh approach to the team More experienced resources on the project were freed up to work on other critical tasks The exposure to systems, processes and data within the bank enabled resources deployed on the project to transition swiftly to other projects Background: The client, as a result of their annual trade volume, was required to register as a Swap Dealer under the Dodd Frank Act. Drivers: The client needed additional resources to assist in analysing data, reviewing contracts, drafting reports and providing progress updates to management. What FD juniors did: Benefits: Junior 1 began her work on the team by helping to identify trading relationships affected by the Dodd Frank Act. She helped to liaise regularly with Counterparty Banks and Invest Managers to advise on the rules and guide them through the ISDA process. This junior is the team lead for the client s Dodd Frank compliance effort in the EMEA region. Junior 2 assisted the team across all areas but shifted towards being the client s main point of contact for external customers requiring assistance with using the ISDA Amendments. Juniors 3&4 both joined the team with previous experience on Dodd Frank compliance projects. They were tasked with compliance with KYC rules and producing first drafts of weekly progress reports for senior management. They have recently been tasked with negotiating ISDAs and CSAs on behalf of the client across multiple jurisdictions to mitigate credit risk. Junior 5. He is a member of the EMIR project team, however, his role involves liaising regularly with the Dodd Frank team to ensure efficacy across both efforts and avoid any duplication of effort. All 5 juniors were able to add value from day one on site. They learned quickly from their colleagues, initially becoming familiar and competent using the clients systems and practises by carrying out basic (but necessary) tasks before gradually taking on more complex roles and responsibilities. Low Cost 3 juniors are charged at a low onsite rate while 2, due to previous experience, are charged at a slightly higher rate. FD juniors were able to join this project and allow the business to function on a normal BAU basis. They have helped maintain the Client s external relationships on a daily basis and minimise any potential upset arising out of the Dodd Frank compliance effort. Further to this they have assisted in implementing an internal structure for documentation capture and storage, helped create a complete inventory of all Dodd Frank documentation and continue to produce regular updates/reports for senior management. Page 11 of 16
Background: First Derivatives have had a strong presence in Risk IT since 2007, providing IT support for both the Credit Risk and Market Risk core strategic systems. The teams were made up of a strong foundation of experienced FD staff and recent graduates. This provided an excellent environment for graduates to gain exposure to trading and risk systems, with structured training and guidance from the more experienced FD team members. Drivers: The Client needed BAs and support staff that were familiar with particular systems to join the project teams. FD s staff were ideal candidates as they had experience of the Risk systems and trade flows and had also built up strong networks throughout the bank very useful for a Front to Back integration project. What FD juniors did: Benefits: During the first phase of the integration project, three of the FD Risk IT support team were offered BA roles in the integration project teams. An integration IT project team was also set up, and as per the production support team, this was made up of a combination of experienced FD staff and recent graduates. This gave the graduates experience of a cross functional front to back integration project. The project ran in various forms for five years, with FD providing up to 16 staff at any given time. FD became the favoured service provider within the Risk Change department, and additional graduates were added to the team, covering a range of roles including BA, Data Analyst, IT support and development. FD s presence with this client grew due to experienced staff providing training and guidance to the graduates on their team the knowledge transfer was key to FD s success FD graduates were given hands on experience of front to back office projects, allowing them to build up connections across the bank and to gain an understanding of the full trade lifecycle The strong framework of experienced staff allowed the FD graduates to learn quickly and to progress from support roles into BA or development roles Background: The Data-Services team is a central data supply and management team for the quant division of the client. The quant division consists of numerous portfolio management groups who work independently. The project started in January 2011 with a free trial period. The data-services team had begun working on a project to centralise the divisions market data using kdb+. This market data consisted of global Equities, Futures and FX data. This was a big project for the group as up until that point, all data used by the quant groups was organised on a group-by-group basis. Drivers: The team wanted to integrate kdb+ into their already extensive data management systems, however they were not too familiar with the q language. The team where immediately responsible for not only loading the data, but building and maintaining the system, coordinating with the data providers on any issues the quant groups had and researching the various exchange condition codes to ensure the data was accurate. What FD juniors did: Benefits: Developed the historical loading process to load over 15 years of global equities, futures and FX data. Built a robust daily process which ensured that the data was downloaded, loaded to kdb+ and processed to meet end user requirements in a timely manner. Created monitoring systems which alerted the data team and end-users of any issues. Researched the data and condition codes coming from exchanges to ensure the data was processed correctly. Coordinated with a number of quant groups to ensure that output data matched expectations. FD juniors immediately became an integral part of the team due to the training undertaken in FD s training and competency centres in Ireland. Ensured best practices were used from the start of the project in order to optimise kdb+ as the main software used in the data management system. Completed several other research and development projects for the group. Based on the success of the 3-month trial, both junior consultants were contracted for a further 21 months to continue working on data projects. Page 12 of 16
Client testimonials We have had an excellent experience with the First Derivatives Graduate Programme over a large number of years. We love their ability to pick information up quickly; their pro-activity and their willingness to work hard. The latter being something that is typically paid lip service to but not, it seems, in the case of First Derivatives! We look forward to continuing our long standing relationship for many years to come. - Tier one Investment bank, London It is a pleasure to have First Derivatives Junior Consultants on board. They are typically fast out of the traps, very professional and absorb everything well. In most cases, they are extremely good at just getting "stuck in"! - Large UK securities firm We have had fantastic results with many of the First Derivatives Junior Consultants we have received. We recognise the first class training they pick up through FD s own in-house CMTP Programme; and it seems the training gives them a head start, and an ability to produce results quickly. We have actually investigated our own option to purchase or rent this training, but FD are not interested in giving up one of their key differentiators and we can understand why they do not want to! - Tier one Investment bank, NYC As a new client of First Derivatives, we have been pleasantly surprised at the mix of domain and technical knowledge present within the FD Junior Consultant group. We like that they come from strong academic backgrounds and love that, no matter from what degree discipline, they have asset class knowledge combined with a technical bent, and in some cases it seems a very deep understanding of both despite their junior levels of experience. This has allowed us to put them to work within days of joining us. - Large financial services firm, Boston Page 13 of 16
Near Shore Services FD offers additional cost benefits to its clients by providing its services on a near shore as well as on site basis. All our services, from vendor systems management and software development to infrastructure monitoring and legal and compliance can be delivered from our high quality service centres where robust technical infrastructures guarantee the required high levels of security, access control and resilience. A compelling feature of the FD s Near Shore approach is its operation from strategically located service centres in Europe, North America and Asia that enables us to offer our Near Shore service on a worldwide basis. The physical proximity affords swift, ad-hoc, on-site deployment of resources where required for specific tasks or projects while the cultural alignment it facilitates ensures the communication process is as streamlined and efficient as possible a critical component of any partnership engagement. This approach therefore provides the client with all the cost benefits of adopting a near shore model while still retaining the advantages of close contact, common time-zone and mobility for face-to-face interaction of on-shore or onsite arrangements as required. Cost Low cost service model Reduced recruitment, training and management overhead Eliminate costs associated with office space, training, hiring, reviews, holiday cover, sick leave, career management Our regional locations ensure a low cost base, guarantee resources in the same time zone and eliminate communication issues. In addition, our staff can be on site within 5 hours when required Capability Highly skilled multi disciplined resources: Capital markets professionals who understand the markets and technology and who can assist not only in the interpretation of data and documentation but also in its sourcing and reporting Avail of industry best practices, procedures and service efficiencies Proven Infrastructure Capacity On-demand capacity giving the ability to ramp-up and ramp-down resources as required Follow-the-Sun support model across worldwide near shore centres Dedicated recruitment and training programmes to ensure continuity Provision for pandemics and other disruptive events Our resources have the elasticity to respond to changes in demand. We provide staff that are highly trained in multiple disciplines and have first-hand expertise on client sites across a variety of projects, systems and assets so that a wealth of knowledge and experience is brought to bear on each assignment. On the infrastructure side, comprehensive Disaster Recovery and Continuity of Business provisioning ensures resilience and robustness of service. VPNs over dedicated bandwidth provide highly secure and resilient access. Segregated areas with dedicated and monitored access points enforce physical security while intrusion detection and vulnerability tests provide protection against host and network attacks. Clustering and failover configurations along with Business Continuity Plans ensure resilience and high availability. To further help client manage their costs FD offers an embassy model approach to service provision that enables them to select segregation levels appropriate to their level of risk: Gold level offers complete physical and logical separation including dedicated network, phone and power in a standalone facility, Silver offers logical separation within shared facilities while Bronze is appropriate for non-data related services where segregation is not a priority. Page 14 of 16
First Derivatives Corporate First Derivatives plc ( FD ) is a leading provider of software solutions and consulting services to the capital markets industry. Founded in 1996, FD occupies a niche market position in terms of deep domain knowledge and technical expertise. Headquartered in Ireland, FD has a global presence with offices across EMEA, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Publically held company on London Stock Exchange (LSE FDP.L) Headquartered in Newry, Co. Down, N Ireland 1000+ employees worldwide Consulting Services Multi Vendor Services Calypso, Murex, Wall Street, Summit, Opics Legal, Regulatory and Compliance Data Management Software Development Big Data and Data Science Big Data Solutions kdb+ Flow/ Flow+ Foreign Exchange Trading kdb+ Algo Low latency trading strategies and execution kdb+ Surveillance For Regulators, Exchange and Brokers kdb+ Data Factory Market and Reference Data Management kdb+ Stream High Volume data capture, analysis and distribution... powered by kdb+ and other Big Data technologies Page 15 of 16
Product Suite FD offers a range of kdb+ based applications providing capabilities in reference data management, market data management, CEP, algorithmic and high-frequency trading, FX trading, treasury risk management and exchange management surveillance. Deployed in some of the world s largest banks, exchanges and hedge funds, FD s kdb+ applications are designed for Volume and Velocity low-latency, high-throughput applications delivered as a hosted service or deployed locally. FD provides a range of brochures on its products and services. For more information please contact us via our website or the numbers below Contact Us New York +1 (212) 447-6700 Europe +44 (28) 302 52242 Asia-Pacific +61 2 9477 0200 info@firstderivatives.com www.firstderivatives.com This information is subject to change without notice and is offered for information purposes only. Page 16 of 16