Adventures Abroad: Adit's Global Traineeship Experience
Adit Daftary’s career as an IMC Trader has already taken him across the world and back.
There's seeing the world and then there's seeing the world IMC style! Having joined IMC in Mumbai in 2022, Trader Adit Daftary has already travelled around the world and back – first during his three-month Global Traineeship in Chicago and later during a stint in IMC's Amsterdam office. We asked him what he's been working on, what he likes about IMC's international learning opportunities, and why he chose trading as a career.
What first led you to the world of trading?
It all started in early 2020, when a friend and I naively decided to short the Index a day before the Global Indices limited down. Who was to know that one trade would literally change the course of my life!? A few months from then, I had the opportunity to do a summer internship at an investment bank on their equity derivatives desk, which was a more formal introduction to the world of options!
What really got me hooked though was when I was studying at home during COVID. I began trading on my own personal account, trying to put my bookish knowledge into practice. Those few months made me realise that there was a huge potential to make money by doing things systematically and methodically.
I discovered IMC a few months after I graduated from IIT Bombay. The culture and values of the company really resonated with me. I did the interview, received an offer, and within a few weeks I was in Chicago for the Global Traineeship.
As one of the first sets of graduates from IMC’s Mumbai office, what was it like to take part in the Global Traineeship?
I loved every minute! It was my first time in the US, and there are few places better to soak up the American experience than Chicago. The IMC office being 40 floors up in one of the country's most iconic buildings, the Willis Tower, was the icing on the cake.
The training also lived up to expectations. I'd been working for nine months and now I was back in a classroom with some of the brightest minds in the world. I particularly enjoyed the deep dive into options theory – it's not something that many companies offer rigorous training in.
What was your personal highlight from the Global Traineeship?
It came during the final week when we got together in groups to write our own trading strategy in Python. I enjoyed brainstorming with the team, and there were also mentors on hand to offer ideas and advice. On the last day of the Traineeship, all the different strategies were played out in a trading simulation on an unknown data set. We got to see how much money the strategy would have made – it was a fun way to round off my time in Chicago.
What did you find the most challenging and how did you cope with it?
I didn't have much experience with Python coding, so the coding component of the program definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. Luckily, my team member was fluent in the language, so I learned a tremendous amount just by sitting next to him and watching him code. Throughout the Traineeship, I learned so much through discussions with my peers that those seven weeks gave me ample time to get up to speed. The culture at IMC is all about collaboration, and this really carries over into the day-to-day running of the company. Traders work side-by-side with engineers on a daily basis; there's a sense that everyone is in it together.
How have you spent your time at IMC since completing the Traineeship?
I returned to Mumbai after the Global Traineeship, where I have been working primarily on the India EO desk for more than a year, helping the team expand its onshore presence. I recently had the opportunity to spend three months in the Amsterdam office, where I got to see how IMC trades on a range of markets using different trading styles. I shadowed a variety of desks and met some of the team members who work for India from Amsterdam. During this stint, I had the chance to work on a short project for IMC’s Brazil desk, which had a successful outcome. It was great to be able to have that kind of impact early on.
I’m now back in Mumbai, where my day-to-day work mainly focuses on overseeing the entire trading operations for my desk, along with trying to structurally improve our strategies. A major part of this involves working closely with the developers and engineers to roll out new features and debug occasional issues. At IMC, tech and trading go hand-in-hand and that is something that excites me.
What would you say to someone thinking about applying to IMC Mumbai?
Do it! The Mumbai office is growing fast and I'm a big believer in the Indian markets and the prospects they offer. Being part of the Mumbai growth story is really exciting – in two or three years, I’d like to be in a position to run or manage a desk myself.
The office has a nice mix of people from the Sydney, Chicago and Amsterdam offices, so you really get the best of all worlds. And, as I've described, there are also opportunities to visit these places.
Above all, IMC Mumbai feels like a place where people of all ages can really make a difference. When you have a good day on the trading desk, there’s no better feeling!
Have you got what it takes to join our Mumbai office?