Buy-side profile
Finance is not
all about "Red
gravel drives and
BMWs"
Richard Nelson
Head of Australia & Japan Equity Trading at T. Rowe Price
With a diverse career spanning three decades within buy-side trading, Richard
shares his personal experiences and views having worked in trading rooms around
the world.
You’ve been in the financial industry
for an impressive 30 years, how did
you come to choose this profession?
"I think my interest was piqued in
the second year of Uni when we had
to choose my course major and the
Finance professor stood up and said
“Red gravel drives and BMWs, do
Summer 2018
Finance”, then sat down again! I don’t
have either of those but it was that
humorous introduction that set me on
my future career course.
I loved the fact that in this industry there
is not necessarily a right answer, that
no two days are ever the same and that
history repeats but also doesn’t. To me,
Trading is more than just executing an
www.buysideintel.com
order, it’s the information traders gather
in their interactions with brokers that are
just as valuable as a good execution.
These aspects of the industry have kept
me jumping out of bed each morning
for so many years, reading up on the
night’s events and trying to translate
what it all means for the positions we
hold and the world at large."
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