07:30 I wake up and have a cup of coffee and slice of toast. It’s not a huge breakfast but I would find it hard to get to work without eating something first! I sometimes take the U-Bahn to work, the Frankfurt underground system, but I usually walk, as the office is quite close.

09:00 The time I arrive varies. On my team, we rotate the time we begin: some people start at 9:00am, others start at 9:30am and others begin at 10:00am. Because some people usually need to work late at night, it doesn’t make sense for everyone to get in very early.

The work I do is defined by reports of the previous day’s and that day’s trading activities. Every morning I create a report, usually at least two pages long, which details all the trades that didn’t take place overnight and which remain unsettled. An unsettled trade means we either haven’t received or delivered the bonds in time, or that the counterparty didn’t match our transaction details and vice versa.

I work my way through each query, starting with those which have a value date today and should have been settled already and those for the biggest nominal amount.

I start by calling the counterparties to find out, for example, why they didn’t send the bond after we’d bought it. It means calling our traders and salespeople who can be anywhere from Paris to London, Frankfurt or New York, and asking them about the bond transaction in question. Sometimes they say they know the trade and are about to send it. Other times they know nothing about it at all! In this case, I have to unearth why it is that the trade is unrecognised.

The problem might stem from several sources. For example, a trader might have recorded a wrong nominal price or value date for the trade.

It can be a lengthy procedure and requires all my communication skills in German, English and French.

Every day there are about 600 to 800 bond transactions in this particular market that fall within the jurisdiction of my group. If all the trades were matched and all bonds were in place to be delivered to or received from the counterparty, we would have nothing to do. This never happens, though!

11:00 By mid-morning I’m usually well advanced in settling the most urgent trades, and have started tackling additional unresolved trades in Euroclear. Euroclear is one of the clearing systems where bond transactions that take place in Europe can be processed. It also operates a lending and borrowing facility. Sometimes Deutsche Bank sells a bond that is not immediately available to a counterparty who wants it instantly. In this situation, Euroclear might lend us that bond overnight, until ours is accessible.

The charge for borrowing a bond overnight is quite low, as long as it’s returned by 2pm the same day. If it comes back later than that, however, we will be charged with a large additional fee. As a result, in the run up to 2pm, I am always very busy trying to locate our bonds so we can return the loaned bonds in time!

As the deadline approaches it can get quite hectic: I’m constantly on the telephone all around the world to clients, our traders and salespeople and the middle office, trying to work out what’s happened to the bonds I’m looking for and to get everything matched and settled.

14:00 After the 2pm charge deadline has been reached, I usually breathe a sigh of relief and go for lunch in the canteen on the ground floor.

15:00 The afternoon is usually spent checking all the trades which are value date plus one, meaning they need to be settled the next day. Again, it’s a question of calling the other parties involved. Most of the time they’re pleased to hear from me: it’s in their interest to have queries dealt with quickly.

During the afternoons I also have time to talk with my international team about projects we’re working on. For example, we’re looking at ways of standardising our approach to settlements to make the department more efficient. It’s interesting and requires in-depth knowledge of how the bond markets operate.

18:00 The day usually finishes around 6pm. Sometimes I stay a bit later: if a trader makes a late bond transaction it’s my job to ensure the trade is entered into the computer system ready to be made in the next overnight settlement cycle, or the next morning. I rarely leave the office later than 8pm. Usually this only happens if other team members are ill or on holiday.

19:00 I try to make the most of the summer evenings, so when work’s finished I got out jogging or meet friends for a couple of drinks. It’s the usual stuff for when the day’s over: I relax and see friends and work is the last thing on my mind!