The world's brightest get a place at the centre of the action
It did not take much to persuade Raymond Ng, chief trader of European spot foreign exchange for Citigroup, to relocate to London last year after 15 years working in Singapore.
"Doing forex in London is a dream job," says the 41-year-old Singaporean. "London is the biggest financial centre in the world in terms of forex volumes. It is also the best time zone because you get a portion of Asia, a portion of New York and all of Europe."
This allows Mr Ng to fulfil his professional ambitions but helps his personal life too. "I have more time for family," he says, showing off pictures of his two small daughters on his mobile phone. "In Singapore, I would often be at work until midnight to capture a good part of the US market."
He breaks off to shout across the room, noisy with chatter, the clatter of keyboards, ringing phones and the occasional peal of laughter. Some 550 people work on this floor of one of Citigroup's two office buildings in Canary Wharf, the hub of London's revitalised Docklands to the east of the original City. There they churn out fixed-income trades, products and deals for the world's largest financial services group.
It is a microcosm of the New City. The opportunity to be at the centre of the action - while having a life outside the job - has drawn people from all corners of the globe. "London is the financial centre of Europe," says Killian Tracey, 27, who moved to London after a degree in actuarial and financial studies at University College Dublin and now trades cash bonds and credit default swaps. "London has a lot of energy about it and everything is going on here, so you have to be here."
Mr Tracey is one of two Irishmen in the European credit team that also includes people originally from Italy, France, Ukraine, South Korea and China. Down the aisle, a Texan twang can be heard.
Mr Ng's team is a dozen-strong and includes a New Zealander and an Australian. Gaurang Chadha, 37, a few rows away, was born in Bombay but grew up in the Netherlands. He went to Imperial College in London and earned an MBA from Insead business school in France.
Mr Chadha then dabbled in private equity, worked at a sports marketing company and a charity. Aside from English, he speaks six languages, including Dutch, German, Latvian (his wife is Latvian), and basic Japanese.
One floor below, amid a similar hubbub on the equities trading floor, sits 28-year-old Caroline Duriez, a Frenchwoman who trained as a lawyer at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. She now works in equity finance, supporting the prime brokerage sales team in London, a city she "fell in love" with.
There are complaints, of course. Elio Manca, director of equity derivatives, rides a motorcycle to work. "I avoid public transport: I suffer every time I use it," the 32-year-old Italian says. Biting into a late-morning sandwich of egg and bacon, he adds: "You miss the good food."
But the advantages seem to outweigh the annoyances. Cornelia Gibrand, aged 25, a Swede who deals with Nordic corporate sales, says: "I like the 24-hour life. I like being able to do anything at any time of the week."
It is also easy to get away. "It takes two and a half hours to get into Paris, it's a one-and-a-half-hour flight to Lyon or I can easily spend a weekend in Spain if I wanted," Ms Duriez says.
Stavros Siokos, 37, has been based in London for a decade. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Patras in Greece and earned a masters in computer science and a PhD in operational research at the University of Massachusetts. He is responsible for all types of alternative cash trading within equities, including program and algorithmic trading.
Mr Siokos says: "I like the mix of the European understanding of life and the American way of working. It is a mixture you don't find in any other place in the world.
"London is a unique place in that it is entrepreneurial but people are expected to live their lives, have a family. In the US, you feel guilty about taking a holiday."
伦敦金融城汇聚全球精英
花旗集团(Citigroup)欧洲首席即期外汇交易员雷蒙德?吴(Raymond Ng) 在新加坡干了15年。去年说服他搬到伦敦没费多少唇舌。
“在伦敦做外汇交易是梦想的工作，”这个41岁的新加坡人说。“从外汇交易量的角度来说，伦敦是世界最大的金融中心。它也是最好的时区，因为你能部分赶上亚洲和纽约，并涵盖整个欧洲时段的交易。”
这使吴先生实现了他的职业抱负，同时对他的私人生活也有所助益。“我有更多的时间和家人在一起，”他展示手机里两个女儿的照片。“在新加坡，为了赶上美国交易时段，我常常工作到半夜。”
他停了片刻，冲着房间的另一端大叫，这里全是谈话声、键盘声、电话铃声，偶尔还传出几声大笑。这里是花旗集团在金丝雀码头(Canary Wharf)两幢办公楼之一，有约550人在这层楼面上班。金丝雀码头是金融城东部重建的码头区(Docklands)中心。他们在这里为世界最大的金融服务集团进行固定收益交易，推出其它产品并达成交易。
这里是伦敦金融新城(New City)的缩影。有机会身处金融活动中心，并在工作之余兼顾私人生活，吸引了世界各地的人才来到此地。“伦敦是欧洲的金融中心，”27岁的基利安?特雷西(Killian Tracey)说。他在获得都伯林大学学院(University College Dublin)精算和财务研究学位后搬来伦敦，现在做现货债券交易和信用违约掉期(Credit Default Swaps)交易。“伦敦充满活力，很多事情在这里发生，所以你必须在这里。”
特雷西先生是欧洲信用团队中的两个爱尔兰人之一，这个团队还包括来自意大利、法国、乌克兰、韩国和中国的成员。过道另一头传来得克萨斯人带鼻音的英语。
吴先生的团队是12个人组成的强大组合，包括一个新西兰人和一个澳大利亚人。几排座位外，37岁的高朗?查达(Gaurang Chadha)出生于孟买，在荷兰长大。他在伦敦帝国理工学院(Imperial College)念过书，并在法国的欧洲工商学院(Insead Business School)获得工商管理硕士学位。
随后查达涉足私人股本业务，在一家运动营销公司和一家慈善机构干过。除了英语，他还会说6种语言，包括荷兰语、德语、拉脱维亚语（他妻子是拉脱维亚人）以及简单的日语。
楼下，在股票交易层，坐着28岁的卡罗琳?迪里耶(Caroline Duriez)，她周围是类似的喧嚣声。这个法国女士曾在卢森堡的欧洲法院(European Court of Justice)受训当律师。她现在做股本融资，协助伦敦的大宗经纪业务销售团队。伦敦是令她“钟情”的城市。
当然也有人抱怨。股票衍生品总监埃里奥?曼卡(Elio Manca)平常骑摩托车上班。“我避免使用公共交通：每次都让我受罪，”这个32岁的意大利人说。时近中午，他边啃着鸡蛋火腿三明治早餐边补充道：“你会想念好食物。”
但好处似乎胜过烦恼。25岁的瑞典人科妮莉亚?吉布兰德(Cornelia Gibrand)负责北欧公司业务销售，她说：“我喜欢这种24小时的生活。我喜欢能在任何时候做任何事情。”
动身到其它地方也同样方便。“到巴黎只需两个半小时，乘飞机到里昂只要一个半小时，只要我愿意，可以很方便地在西班牙度周末，”迪里耶说。
37岁的斯塔夫罗斯?西奥科斯(Stavros Siokos)在伦敦10年了。他在希腊的佩特雷大学(University of Patras)学习电气工程，在美国马萨诸塞大学(University of Massachusetts)获得计算机科学硕士学位和运筹学博士学位。他负责所有类型的另类现货股票交易，包括程序交易和算法交易。
西奥科斯说：“我喜欢欧洲人的生活观念和美国人的工作方式。这种结合是你在世界其它地方找不到的。”
“伦敦是个独一无二的地方，它崇尚创业精神，但人们也期望你过自己的生活，拥有家庭。在美国，你连休假都会有负罪感。”
