KEY POINTS:
Handling millions of dollars of other people's money is all in a day's work for stockbroker Chris Lee. But with the industry in turmoil right now you might wonder how he sleeps at night, knowing that many investors trust him with their life savings and major investments.
Lee is the managing director of Project Resources, a company that handles about $1 billion of clients' money. He says his success is down to solid research and not selling investment ideas to clients - but rather information to help them to make informed decisions.
"Being a stockbroker is a communicator's career," he says. "And that person should obtain proper research. They are not selling investments. They should sell information, knowledge, experience, judgment, not someone else's big idea."
But making decisions over other people's money must keep him awake at night, especially in the current climate, with finance firms falling over.
"The way to sleep at night - and the way the industry has to head - is that advisers have to be information based, research based and you have to have people who are even-handed in what they are doing, unselfish and have utter integrity.
"They must be prepared to say to themselves 'this deal might make me three times more money than this other deal over here, but the client wants less risk - so I must do what the client wants'.
"Recent disasters have demonstrated that there are not enough people out there in the advisory industry who have these core things and [these things] cannot be taught."
Lee says being a stockbroker is not a young man's game.
Although young people can make a career out of the industry, he says, he thinks those aged 35-plus and with some solid banking or research experience make better brokers.
But he concedes that playing the money markets - buying and selling currency, hoping the exchange rates change in their favour - is not for the faint hearted and is best suited to younger people.
That's the role of Richard, a London-based Kiwi who, when the pressure's on and there's money to be made, thinks nothing of working all day and night to follow the money markets around the world, selling in one currency and buying back at a profit in another.
In one day he can be pushing more than $1 billion around on options and currencies.
"I have two PCs, one with four screens which I use to price derivatives, structures and manage the portfolio. The other PC is linked to two screens which I use to talk to market participants," he says.
"I also have two other screens through which I transact and confirm trades and finally a screen with financial news streaming through TV."
He says a typical trading set-up is two divisions: financial markets: debt, credit, currencies and commodities, and equities.
"Depending on the size of the bank, each of these divisions can have more than 500 people in each location such as London, New York and Japan," says Richard.
"Imagine half a rugby field filled with screens and that's what a London trading room looks like. So you don't really get to know anyone apart from the team you work with. I've worked next to people and I don't even know their name."
He says the pressure of the job varies from none to mind blowing.
"If you are trading and running a large position in the market then enormous amounts of pressure can arise quickly if the markets move against you.
"A normal day carries pressure that is definitely more than your average job. The nature of the job is dealing with large sums of money in what can be a fast-moving market and you have to hopefully make the correct decision quickly."
But Richard says errors of judgment can lead to huge losses.
"The bank should understand if the loss was within the realms of your loss-making limits and the decision making process you went through was considered and reasonable, i.e. you didn't flip a coin when deciding on where to invest their money.
"But too many of the these well-reasoned losses and you'll be out the door. There's plenty of people queuing for your job in London.
"It's a great job, though, as you get plenty of responsibility.
"You're working in markets that are influenced daily by economic and political workings of the globe and with people who are generally smart and driven."
Lee says the stock broking industry offers a wide variety of jobs that he says broadly attract three types of people.
He describes the first type of person as enjoying research roles, analysing information, being good at maths and commerce, with experience in science and banking or funds management.
"Those research people are important to the industry, but are a totally different beast to the second group of people, whom I call traders," says Lee.
He says traders - such as Richard - have to be extremely good at mental arithmetic, have good memories, be quick with their thinking and have the mentality of a salesperson.
"Those sorts of people often come from a background in foreign exchange, money market dealing or apprenticeships within money broking firms," says Lee. "These people have to be trustworthy, because you can't live in that market unless your handshake is as good as a written contract.
"They also need to write well, be good at comprehending reports, listening to presentations and understanding and interpreting what is happening. They have to obey rules and make good decisions quickly."
And the third type of person in the stockbroking equation, says Lee, are those that give advice to clients and corporate investors.
"They would have come up through the commerce, economics or law faculties. These people are measured, utterly trustworthy and honest, they put other people first and have had life experience," says Lee.
"These people are gold when you get them because if a member of the public has got a really good adviser who understands them, listens to their problems and interprets their needs properly and honestly matches their risk to their declared risk - then that person is a valuable person."
And the rewards for those at the top of their game can be upwards of $150,000 a year, with top achievers netting $200,000 plus - made up of a mixture of salary and bonuses linked to performance and company profits.
Lee believes the best stockbrokers are those aged at least 35. At that age, he says, they have a lot of life experience and don't have the baggage of a big mortgage or young children to worry about.
"There are some very good advisers around who are in their 40s, 50s and 60s and who are trusted by large organisations," says Lee.
And when it all turns to custard, what can a broker say to a tearful client who may have lost all their money?
"You have to support your clients as they go through it," says Lee.
