"Stimulating the Mind is Key to Engagement" Mick Quinn Two years on from my transition from professional football to Morgan Stanley, I am continuing to explore ideas on how best I can give back and how, as a sporting collective, we can support current athletes with education opportunities and co-existing career paths. As such, I reached out to ex-premier league legend, horse racing enthusiast, and friend, Mick Quinn, during Lockdown to get his thoughts on how the idea of education and a career along side sport has changed since his time in football.   Mick is best known for his time as a Professional Footballer in England's Top League, as well as for Racehorse Training and Punditry. Mick was prolific in-front of goal and even Erling Haaland could only equal, not better, Mick's record of 10 goals in his first 6 Premier League games!  Reflecting on his transition from footballer and pundit to race horse trainer, Mick admits that he never considered another career, or fo...

  18 Months on from my Blog Post " FIFA 20 to Finance Graduate "... Over the past 18 months my relationship with football has changed, my role with Morgan Stanley has also changed (now a Full-Time Analyst), yet my desired connection with the sport couldn't be clearer.  Giving Back is a huge part of any role with Morgan Stanley and some of the work I have been most proud of over this period has been my involvement with the Professional Footballer's Association. My below interview is testament to the PFA's willingness to promote those looking to support their fellow professionals and provide current, ex, and future members with opportunities beyond the changing rooms. Through 'Amplify Trading' and 'Mentoring Works' I have had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of students across the globe and learn more about how I can support those from all walks of life. Daily conversations helped to nurture my passion for helping others to succeed and I want t...

Amplify Trading: "Professional Football to Prime Broker" I am passionate about helping to guide other students, and particularly young athletes as they endeavour to balance sport & education. So I really appreciated the opportunity to have a discussion with Will De Lucy, Amplify Trading Managing Director, about my experiences on the summer internship program and my transition from professional football to a role in finance. I am extremely proud and excited to be joining Morgan Stanley’s Sales & Trading division, in Prime Brokerage, this summer. I would like to acknowledge more people than is appropriate for a short Blog post, but I have had such a positive experience during the application process with every member of the firm being open, welcoming and willing to engage with me. Having participated as a guest speaker, during our summer internship, Will and I talk about how Will Smith’s detailed overview of the unique nature of Morgan Stanley’s Prime Brokerage operatio...

Without doubt, Oil Commodity trading will continue to be a mainstay of the financial markets for the foreseeable future. Will, however, a seismic shift in the geopolitical landscape, towards sustainability, impact liquidity such that oil market dynamics change in the long run? Overview Alternative uses for oil are easily overlooked, and the focus of sustainability is often on the impact of pollution from various modes of transport. However, one 42-gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline, the rest is used as a component of products from golf balls, sunglasses and cameras to dentures, anaesthetics, artificial limbs and bandages.  I reached out to Renata Lee whose passion is everything oil, to discuss the future of Oil Commodities, and we concluded that a market for oil trading is not in any immediate danger of extinction. Notwithstanding that, a leading indicator of the tenability of oil markets will be the correlation between liquidity and volatility. A shift towar...

My background in professional football has afforded me the opportunity to work in highly pressurised situations where outcomes, dependent on individual performance, are influenced by one’s ability to make and execute decisions on the pitch. A common question, often asked of professional athletes, is whether they have any particular superstitions, and I know from speaking to my friends in football that many believe there is a distinct correlation between their performance and their ability to follow a pre-match routine.  When I started playing football for my local team, I remember reading an interview with Michael Owen where he stipulated that he always put his right boot on before his left. Jamie Vardy’s arm cast is a more recent example of the same. Despite recovering from a broken arm, Jamie continued to wear a strapping during Leicester City Football Club’s Premier League winning season in 2015/16.   Similarities can be drawn between sportspeople performing at an elite lev...

The market’s reaction to this week’s macroeconomic events shows that it’s going to take more than the boy who cried wolf to stop the recovery. The recurring theme this week is that it’s going to take something much more substantial to sustain downward pressure on the market. Although the outcome of the EU Summit has the potential to move markets, it would not surprise me to see assets remain rangebound through early next week and I have highlighted five reasons to be bullish about an economic recovery. The boy who cried wolf: Reason one: No sustained impact following Donald Trump’s escalation of the US-China trade war.   If you don’t follow Donald Trump on twitter, you’re missing out in more ways than one. More than any prior president, Mr. Trump’s use of social media has profoundly impacted market sentiment. However, has the market finally lost patience with his back and forth over the US-China trade war? Setting aside the Covid-19 developments in California for a moment, on Monda...

Has the recent spike in Robinhood traders proved beyond doubt that retail trading has been the Coronavirus substitute for gambling?  ‘Robinhood,’ ‘Retail Trading,’ and ‘Retail Punters’ are terms you’ve hardly been able to avoid in recent weeks, with Bloomberg and The Financial Times publishing articles discussing the impact ‘Robinhood’ investors are having on aggregate market prices. Data-site ‘Robintrack,’ downloads and stores the price and popularity of every stock, each hour, from the Robinhood API, making it very easy to analyse trends and form a view regarding the potency of such trading. Notably, Robinhood’s facilitation of retail trading has come under criticism from Ryan Preclaw’s team at Barclays, and Omega Advisors CEO, Leon Cooperman, who claimed on CNBC’s Halftime Report (June 15 th ) that Robinhood traders are “doing stupid things,” and argued, by continuing to, “let them buy and trade,” it, “will end in tears.” Source: Investopedia Deliberation over the increased amou...