Associate, Equity Derivatives Trading

About the role

Citic CLSA is hiring an Associate for its Equity Derivatives Trading team. The role acts as a primary trading contact for institutional clients, sourcing pricing and liquidity and managing orders from enquiry through execution, allocation and settlement.

Key responsibilities

• Act as primary trading contact for institutional clients, understanding their execution needs and offering timely, professional and commercially competitive solutions.
• Source pricing and liquidity internally and externally, including identifying and negotiating block opportunities.
• Manage client orders from enquiry and price discovery through execution, allocation and settlement, with oversight throughout the trade lifecycle.
• Exercise judgement in liquidity discovery and counterparty selection, balancing execution quality, price, liquidity, information sensitivity and counterparty considerations.
• Proactively identify block liquidity and crossing opportunities and share them with clients and internal stakeholders.
• Work with Sales and other trading teams to understand client flows and market activity, providing market colour and execution intelligence.
• Maintain awareness of counterparty exposures and trading limits, keeping transactions within approved credit, risk and operational parameters.
• Ensure pre-trade and post-trade controls are followed and developed in the systems, covering counterparty eligibility, trading limits, client instructions, order handling, allocation and settlement.
• Apply a strong control mindset and best execution policy in line with regulatory, compliance and internal policy requirements.
• Partner with Risk, Prime Operations and Middle Office on counterparty onboarding, trading controls, limits and escalation procedures.
• Own trade exceptions and settlement issues, coordinating across internal teams and external counterparties.
• Support the agency execution platform, including new counterparties, markets, products, workflows and technology enhancements, and identify automation opportunities to improve efficiency, scalability and control.

Required profile

• 3-5 years of relevant experience in agency trading, derivatives, Delta One, block trading, execution trading or a closely related institutional trading role.
• At least a Bachelor's degree and above with relevant experience.
• Client-facing experience and the ability to communicate confidently and professionally with institutional clients.
• Strong personal ownership, proactivity and resourcefulness, with the ability to make independent decisions and escalate when needed.
• Strong attention to detail, disciplined risk management and controls, and calm judgement on large or time-sensitive orders.
• Ability to build effective relationships with clients, external counterparties and internal stakeholders.

Required skills

• Strong understanding of Asian equity markets, market structure and institutional execution.
• Good understanding of the trade lifecycle: order management, execution, allocations, settlement and counterparty exposure.
• Awareness of counterparty, credit, operational and conduct risks in agency trading.