Trading Associate

Bridgewater Associates • Westport, CT

76d • Onsite

About The Position

As a Trading Associate, you will execute trades, generate and evaluate ideas for how to make better trading decisions, and collaborate with strategists and technologists to constantly improve our processes, focusing on improving the implementation of our logic or increasing efficiency.
Through extensive on-desk formal training and on-the-job informal instruction, TAs become well-versed in Bridgewater’s trade execution strategies, the logic used to implement our strategies, and the production systems used to facilitate our logic.
Once trained, our TAs carry out the core responsibilities of our department, including implementing our desired exposures, developing a distinct view of the outside world through close interaction with the markets, and driving the evolution of our execution strategy.
Traders at BW do not have discretion in their trading and do not “manage a book” – instead, traders execute our desired exposures using a systematic set of rules developed by our team and strive to improve those rules by developing a world-class understanding of markets.
This team is based in CT and trades global markets. Trading shifts may vary, but typical shifts include coverage during Asian, European, or New York market hours. During your first 2–3 years in the role, you can expect to primarily cover Asian or European market hours. Over time, most team members transition to New York market hours as they gain experience and seniority.
A deep sense of intellectual curiosity will be needed to fuel your ability to deepen our understanding of ever-changing market structure and to drive the evolution of our systematic process.

Requirements

• Are analytical, highly logical, and structured in your thinking
• Have excellent communication skills and can interact with counterparties and colleagues clearly and effectively
• Thrive in a fast-paced environment
• Are comfortable working nontraditional hours to implement our trades in Asia and European markets, and are excited about having a unique position at the nucleus of BW’s trading activity through close interaction with the markets
• Are deeply interested in understanding financial markets, market structure, and game theory
• Can think critically about outcomes and transform perceptions into strategic changes
• Have a knack for automation and naturally seek ways to improve processes
• Hold a high degree of personal responsibility and ownership in everything you do
• In addition, to succeed within our unique culture and work environment, individuals must demonstrate humility, innate curiosity, and openness to new ideas and approaches. Candidates must be driven, confident, and goal-oriented. All Bridgewater employees are expected to be honest, exceptionally direct, and eager to provide and receive objective feedback. Our employees constantly strive for self-improvement through feedback and self-reflection and are committed to the pursuit of excellence.
• Possess a BA/BS (or are on track to graduate in 2025-2026), with a quality academic record, from an accredited undergraduate institution

Responsibilities

• Executing Bridgewater’s desired exposures according to our systematic, proprietary processes
• Contributing to Bridgewater’s understanding of market microstructure, transaction costs, market participants, and products in the markets
• Working with technologists and researchers to construct new investment implementation systems and execution strategies or overhaul old ones
• Driving initiatives to improve the quality, reliability, and efficiency of the systems you own
• Developing and maintaining strong relationships with our liquidity providers and external vendors
• Work together with our analytics team to oversee our transaction costs and execution outcomes
• Traders may perform some engineering work to evolve our strategies and system logic and to conduct analysis.

Benefits

• One of our core priorities at Bridgewater is to enable our employees to build a great life and career, and we believe our benefits are an important extension of that philosophy. As such, currently Bridgewater offers a competitive suite of benefits.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees