Can you tell me about your journey into the securities finance industry?
One of Northeastern University’s main appeals is its co-op programme where students work multiple six-month internships in place of a semester of classes. For my second co-op, I was hired by eSecLending as a supporting, back-end role for the trading desk, primarily providing reporting and data configuration for the desk. During my time as a co-op, I saw how interactive the traders were with the rest of the street and all the relationships they had built.
This attracted me to the securities lending industry, as I was looking for a career that involved lots of interaction and relationship building. After a successful co-op, I was asked to come back as a full-time junior trader. It was a no-brainer for me given my interests in finance and economics and the interpersonal nature of the job, but also the people on the desk.
Throughout my six months as a co-op, the team on the desk were highly supportive and collaborative, and made me feel like more than an intern. I knew this would be a great position to begin my career where I would have ample opportunities to learn in addition to being surrounded by a group of people who I knew would have my back.
As a young professional, what aspects of your role or the industry do you find most exciting?
Externally, building strong relationships across the street has been the most fulfilling aspect of the stock loan industry. I admit that it was at first a bit daunting being the new person at all the events. However, after interacting with people daily, I have created strong, lasting bonds with counterparts at different shops. Whether that be mentor figures or other junior traders, I always look forward to grabbing drinks and catching up both on a professional and personal level.
Internally at eSecLending, building out our portfolio pricing model has been very rewarding. Over the past two years, I have continuously added functionalities to our model to help visualise, automate, and more accurately estimate lending value on portfolios for prospective and current clients. Within seconds, we are able to input portfolios with tens of thousands of positions and receive an estimated forward or backward-looking revenue projection. This is all done using coding combined with industry-level securities lending data. We are able to further tailor the model to specific client programmes with different input selections, whether that be collateral types accepted, reinvest spreads, or lending limits.
Prior to co-oping at eSecLending, this was a much more manual and involved process to produce evaluations based upon custom parameters. Seeing how far the estimate tool has grown has been extremely rewarding.
Many companies offer various training and development opportunities for their employees. How has your company supported your growth?
While eSecLending is a smaller company, I have had numerous opportunities to gain exposure to trading different asset classes and markets which has led to additional responsibilities. Everyone on the desk has always been open to sitting down and talking through their different trades, movements, or special situations.
The company has also allowed me to travel, which has been a huge benefit for growth and development. This year, I was lucky enough to travel to the Canadian Securities Lending Association (CASLA), New York for our US borrower event, and London for our UK borrower event. I am super thankful to eSecLending for these opportunities, as I have been able to learn so much about the industry from so many different people.
What misconceptions about working in the financial industry have you encountered, and how do you address these challenges?
Initially, a huge misconception I encountered within the financial industry was how technical the behind-the-scenes trade settlement and account setup is. This forced me to constantly ask questions to understand what was occurring to be able to effectively coordinate any issues with our operations teams and counterparties.
Learning the different trade types and understanding where the money being made was coming from was another challenge at first. Especially within the Canadian market, there are several trade types we participate in. Again, asking questions on the why and how was crucial to gaining an understanding of these trades.
Looking ahead, where do you see yourself in the next five years in terms of your career goals and aspirations?
In the next five years, I see myself continuing to incrementally build up responsibilities with the end goal of being given a larger book to trade. This coupled with a greater role in facing clients on our end is something that is another aspiration. I hope to leverage the current and future relationships I have built to provide as much value as I can.
What advice do you have for other young professionals aspiring to pursue a career in your industry?
If I could offer one piece of advice to individuals pursuing a career in the financial industry, it would be to keep a broad view on opportunities. I was lucky enough to stumble upon eSecLending as a college student looking for a co-op. Prior to that, I had not heard much about securities lending. Three years later, I am trading my own book, travelling the world, and forming everlasting relationships with friends and mentors. There are so many careers out there that combine different interests and characteristics that are congruent to different people.
I think it is also massively important to surround yourself with people you trust, admire, and garner support from. Without the team on my desk at eSecLending, I can confidently say I would not be anywhere near where I am today.
Charles Rodgers bio
Charles Rodgers works as a securities lending trader at eSecLending in Boston. In this role, he is responsible for the coverage of the Canadian equities market, while also managing the back end of eSecLending’s Auction product.
Prior to that, Rodgers was a trading desk assistant at BNY for six months.
Originally from Montgomery, New Jersey, Charles attended Northeastern University where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics.
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