Interview Questions at JPMorgan Sales and Trading

[Jonathan]

Here is a question for a trader position.

If you are in a line at the movies for 2 hours and someone cuts you off and comes in front of you. What do you do?

Must be a lot of people on a 2 hour line. You obviously do not cut off the big tough guy but the one who you believe will not do a thing about it, also known as a little beyotch. Cutting someone on a line that big would be insulting, basically saying that "you can't stop me", so being passive is not an option. But then again, the movie most likely sucks especially if its a 3D one, waiting for 2 hours is foolish. I would just cut someone else in the front who looks passive.

 

[Joy Pathak]

Here is another interview from a S&T summer internship position at a BB

How do you fit a giraffe into a fridge?

 

[AlexandreH]

Here is another interview from a S&T summer internship position at a BB

How do you fit a giraffe into a fridge?

Probably the million $ question in FE...:d
Why do BB even bother with these questions?
My attempt to answer: in pieces or using a shrinking machine.

 

[koupparis]

Here is another interview from a S&T summer internship position at a BB

How do you fit a giraffe into a fridge?

Something along the lines of a hacksaw and a blender comes to mind.

Also they never mentioned what fridge it was, so I can assume we're dealing with a walk in cooler. Hence, I'll just lead the giraffe in with some carrots(?) (what do giraffes like to eat? Apples?)

 

[darth]

If you are in a line at the movies for 2 hours and someone cuts you off and comes in front of you. What do you do?



I think this question is directly related to a situation of real life as a trader.
Suppose you are bid at a price and someone comes and improves the bid i.e., you were standing in a line and someone came infront of you , if you really want to get filled obviously you will improve your bid as well which in this case translates to "You will cut him off and come in front of him ".

 

[Amber Roxanna]

Hi, let me try and see what i can do with these questions:

1) I can pay you twice your money every two years, three times your money every three years or four times your money every four years. Which option do you choose and why?

So here is what i was thinking, I have $N today and you'll give me 2N in two years, 3N in three years and 4N in four years. The present values 2NV = N, 3NV = N, 4NV = N so N = {2V, 3V, 4V} so then i would choose 4V because V = 1/C ; where C can be either compound or simple interest or any type of interest. 4/V produces the largest result.

2) I flip a coin. If it's heads you pay me £100. What should I pay you to play this game? What about if I only have to get 1 heads in two tosses, what is the new price?

Pay me 200 because i have 0 probability of losing my original 100. But if you only need to get one heads in 2 tosses, ummm....pay me more ?! well what if i assumed independence and modeled this using a binomial random variable...whatever i'm not that smart of a girl, lol.

3) What is the smaller angle between the two hands of the clock when it’s five minutes past nine?

9:00 = 90 degrees vs 270 degrees 9:05 = 120 degrees vs 240 degrees so 120 degrees is the smaller angle.

OK Don't laugh! I know i'm not that smart. gosh!

 

[AlexandreH]

1) one way of solving this is by comparing returns at year 12, which make 3x every three year the best option. I will return 81 times your money vs 64 for the 2 other choices. Even doing IRR for each at their respective year (2,3,and 4) makes 3x the best choice. I can explain if not clear.

2) for this kind of problems, E(x) should give 0. so , for first part, it is 100 given that probability of each is 50%. For the second part, P(heads) = 1/2 + 1/2 * 1/2 = 3/4. So 300 is the answer.

 

[Joy Pathak]

Here is another question from a S&T equity trading intern interview.


What song would be on the soundtrack of your life?

 

[pratikpoddar]

Bloomberg LP Financial - Software Developer position
“Out of 25 horses, pick the fastest 3 horses. In each race, only 5 horses can run at the same time. What is the minimum number of races required?”

7 races
5 races for 25 horses. Eliminate last 2 in all the races.
So, we are left with
A1, A2, A3
B1, B2, B3
C1, C2, C3
D1, D2, D3
E1, E2, E3

Race between A1, B1, C1, D1, E1 and without loss of generality, say the result is A1>B1>C1>D1>E1

Then the candidates for top 3 are
A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, C1 where A1 is the best
So, get the best two of A2, A3, B1, B2, C1 in the 7th race.

Solution at
http://pratikpoddarcse.blogspot.com/2009/10/top-3-out-of-25-puzzles.html

 

[sales guru]

Fixed income focused - whats 12% of 984 - whats 28 times 42 - What is the concept of negative convexity? - Why Fixed Income vs. Equities -

Happy to discuss further - www.salesandtradinginterviews.com