What's your job about?
NZ RegCo Surveillance monitors markets to ensure that trading on NZX’s markets remains fair, orderly, and transparent and that no participants are engaging in insider trading or market manipulation.
Approximately half my day is spent completing insider trading checks. Here, I am checking to see if I can discover any links between people who have traded a stock ahead of a major announcement and the company itself or its insiders. This means that I spend a lot of time researching links. If I discover any substantial links, I will open a formal case for potential referral to the regulator, which will further investigate and potentially prosecute eventually.
The other half of my day consists of real-time analysis of the market, looking for anomalies with regard to price movements, volume, or investor or broker behavior, as well as taking care of various routine reporting tasks that Surveillance is responsible for.
What's your background?
I was born in Australia and moved to NZ with my parents and two brothers when I was two years old. From the age of two - 18, home for me was Tauranga! After completing school, it took me a year or so to figure out what I wanted to do. I eventually found myself at Waikato University studying for a Bachelor of Finance degree, majoring in Finance. Whilst studying full-time I worked part-time at the Co-operative Bank as a Consultant, which gave me exposure to the corporate world.
In my final year of University, one of my lecturers mentioned that NZX was taking applications for its graduate programme. I applied immediately and received an invite to NZX’s graduate assessment day. Following this, I was offered a role in NZ RegCo Surveillance. I have now been in my role for 14 months and I love it. I like the people I work with. I like what I do. I like making a difference, and I like the fact that I am helping to make the market fairer for all investors – it's that simple.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes, definitely! Although I believe that working part-time whilst studying and having a degree in finance helped me get into my role, it isn’t a requirement. All that is required is a willingness to learn, attention to detail, organisational skills, and a healthy degree of both skepticism and curiosity. An interest in financial markets also helps.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The coolest thing about my job is making sure that we run a fair and orderly market and investigating any abnormalities within trading. I always get a rush of adrenalin whenever I find a link and it easily becomes the highlight of my day. Another cool part of my job is that I am one of a select number of people in the world who can see every single detail of every single trade executed on NZX’s markets.
What are the limitations of your job?
This is a hard question! It is sometimes annoying that we have to have eyes on the market every second of every day that it is open, meaning we can’t all be off the desk at the same time, and we need to coordinate lunch times etc. On the other hand, I am very fortunate that I never have to work over-time and can walk out the door and forget about everything at the end of the working day.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
If I could go back in time and meet myself at university, I would give myself these three pieces of advice: