First Name: Kanan
Position: Trader
Location: Sydney
Education: Masters in Nanotechnology, La Trobe University, Melbourne
Nationality: Azerbaijani

Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

I migrated to Australia at the age of 17 to study a Bachelors and Masters in Nanotechnology. I used to be pretty passionate about science, especially the experimental part of it. However, my studies turned out to have very little to do with experimental learnings, and mostly contained theoretical learning for academic careers, so I decided to find a new passion/path going forward. I’ve been playing chess professionally since I was 7, and always had an interest in quantitative/analytical things that require good forecasting and calculating skills. This led me to an interest in things like poker, sports-betting and trading markets. Fast forward several years, and I find myself working at Eclipse in a role I really love.

Why did you join Eclipse?

As most people do at the early stages of their career, I had selected a handful of trading firms that I wanted to work for, and applied to them. Eclipse was one of them. Trading is a small world. I liked Eclipse as I heard from a few of my university friends that it had a very high standard for trading and is considered to be one of the most successful trading firms in APAC. I received a couple of offers but ultimately chose Eclipse.

Describe your role and tell me about your day to day activities.

I’ve only been working at Eclipse for a year now, and I can attest that as a new starter, you really get to experience the entire spectrum of fun, challenges, and all the aspects of ups and downs throughout your journey. You start with a 3-month training program. The training program is extremely well tailored, and there is a large volume of material to learn and apply in practice, which can get overwhelming for someone who expects to just breeze through it. Looking back now, the training part of my career was really fun – jam-packed with challenges of all degrees of difficulty. I can say that the best thing about Eclipse during the training was that all the senior management and traders really put an effort into supporting and guiding me, and making me feel that all they wanted was for me to become a successful trader. They were always available for all the extra questions, help with concepts, and other things. As you start trading full-time on the desk, your responsibilities quickly pick up as you learn more. You pretty much trade all day, expand your knowledge about macro events and learn how everything that happens in the world is going to affect every single day of your trading in different ways and much more. I think Eclipse is doing a great job at emphasizing how hands-on experience benefits a trader much more than anything else. This is why the training program is rapid and packed with material to prepare a trader for actual full-time trading as quickly as possible. I’ve definitely learnt exponentially faster throughout my trading on the desk, as each day is always slightly different and you are faced with new tasks/problems/puzzles to solve.

Why do you like working at Eclipse?

Apart from the cliché reasons such as the team and perks we are entitled to, I think I really enjoy the very trader-focused mindset on the trading desk and the fact that everyone, starting with the CEO and ending with the trainees, pretty much have common interests that we can talk and joke about every single day. It is something I look forward to when I come to work and it brightens up my day.

What is unique about Eclipse?

I’d say the unique thing about Eclipse for me is that you are given a good amount of freedom as a new trader which really allows you to grow as quickly as you can while being diligently monitored by your supervisors. I find this kind of learning curve among the most optimal in a sense that you get to explore various things where you can burn yourself but realise that that is the best way to learn and improve your skills in the long term. Knowing that there are always senior traders at your side who will step in if you do something really wrong makes the whole process quite enjoyable and effective.

What would you say to someone considering a career at Eclipse?

I can only speak from a trader’s perspective of course, so for those who are planning to apply for a role at Eclipse as a trainee trader, I can wholeheartedly say that while the road ahead may be bumpy, it is definitely worth it if you are somebody who enjoys the aspects of trading financial markets. Trading is one of those careers that really doesn’t have many pre-requisites to get into, so I would encourage anyone to apply regardless of their background or personal situation. I had zero knowledge about finance, my university degree had nothing to do with finance/trading, not even any stats/probability classes. I had no prior trading experience! My only and main advantage was that I was really passionate about all things speculative and quantitative, and that’s how I first started learning about markets, trading, sports-betting etc., and this led me to develop skills that are quite transferable to my job as a trader. While relevant degrees and prior experience may be helpful, they are definitely not determining factors when assessing who is suitable for trading or not. You learn pretty much everything that you need to become a good trader on the job. All you need is passion, a sharp mind, a natural aptitude for trading and quantitative things, and be willing to learn!