Today it’s time to interview one of the guys of our Content department. We want to present you Jordi, FXStreet’s Analysis Manager, who is in charge of publication, creation and management of reports published by external Contributors and FXStreet analysts. Discover how is for him working at FXStreet as a finance journalist and his big love for NBA and the American culture.
Jordi at work
How does a day in the life of the Analysis Manager at FXStreet look?
My day starts with a quick look at my email and at our Analysis feed. This allows me to settle in before we have a short stand-up meeting within the Content team where we track the main topics of the day. It is a useful meeting that gets us ready to cover all the action going in markets. My job consists on optimizing the articles that we publish in our Analysis section: this means reading and curating a lot of content everyday. Besides, I’m also in charge of the Trading Positions and Forecast Poll tools, which involves checking a decent amount of data too.
What do you like best about your job?
I studied Economics and then Journalism in college, so what I most like about my job is that it allows me to develop myself on the two fields. It makes sense for me to be an editor for a financial website. Also, I enjoy the relationship we have within our team. We are young and easy-going, so that makes the daily workflow easier.
Another thing I really appreciate is the immense amount of stuff I’ve learned during the three-and-a-half years I’ve already been working for FXStreet (by the way, most of it’s not about Forex).
What do you like least about your job?
Sitting down on a chair in front a computer indoors for eight hours per day. Some days, when the EURUSD is stuck between tight Support & Resistance levels, I wonder if my butt will get stuck to the chair too. That’s a bit depressing. I really enjoy outdoor activities, so I wouldn’t mind having a more physical kind of job one day.
If you were not an Analysis Manager, what would you like to do for a living?
When I was a kid I had these recurrent and prototypical dreams of being a football player for Barça and score a lot of goals. But soon I realized I wouldn’t be good enough, so then I started thinking about becoming a sports journalist to at least being close to the action. I really like reading, writing and discussing about hardly every topic you can find, so I think journalism fits quite well into my preferences.
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We almost all put our headphones on when working here at the office. What do you usually listen to?
That’s a question I like, as one or two years ago I would’ve given quite a different answer, probably mentioning a bunch of indie-rock music bands that now I barely listen to, as I find their music quite boring. For me, right now, it’s pretty all about American rap, R&B and soul music. As wild politically and socially as 2016 was, it was better and wilder for Hip-Hop, with a long list of excellent albums released that DJs could easily play for days non-stop. And it concurred with a three-week trip I did around the United States, so that was a game-changer for me.
Here’s the Spotify playlist with my favorite songs of last year:
Your favorite bands at the moment?
Like I said, a couple of years ago I would’ve said mainstream indie bands (yeah, that’s a thing) as Arcade Fire, The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys… I can still listen to their music here and there, but now I prefer playing rappers like Kendrick Lamar, YG or Kanye West and R&B singers like Frank Ocean or Michael Kiwanuka, to just name a few.
If I have to call an all-time favourite, though, that would be Bob Dylan. He had the craft of a folk songwriter, the charisma of a rock star and the vibe of a rapper to write astounding lyrics and rhymes. He basically made music in every imaginable modern style before everyone and even took home a Literature Nobel Prize in the process.
Any weird habit you have when working?
It’s difficult to tell one’s weird habits when you have them deeply integrated to your usual behavior. One thing I need to do periodically is getting up of my chair and just walk around, just to get some water or take a short break from the screen. Sometimes, when I’m listening to a song I particularly like at that moment, I start following the rhythm with a light kick and a small twist below the desk, but normally it goes unnoticed. I guess my habits are tolerable, as my mates usually don’t complain too much.
What are the software, websites or tools you mostly use at work? What for?
Not in a daily frequency, but I use a demo trading platform to place some orders and get a glance of what our users might be experiencing in the real markets. It’s fake money trading, but you can see what a trader looks at decision-making wise. Also, I try to be in touch with what the main financial websites and our competitors in the Forex market are doing, as it is necessary to keep getting better. Besides that, I don’t use much stuff outside of FXStreet, as we have plenty of tools and even a Chrome extension to follow every relevant update in the markets.
Jordi in his personal life
What do you typically do when you get out of the office?
I love sports, but my right knee is giving me problems since I tore the ACL four years ago, so recently it’s been all about working out to gain strength and stability in my legs muscles. A lot of gym time, not something I particularly like. On a brighter spot, I also volunteer one day per week helping in a teaching project for secondary school kids in my neighbourhood. It is something I find very rewarding, as it allows me to give back to the community while I learn from the younger generation kids in many ways.
Do you have a specific hobby?
As I said, I love practicing sports (especially football and basketball) but my knee issues have not allowed me to enjoy them lately. My 2017 resolution is coming back to play football with a regular frequency. I am a big NBA fan (particularly, a huge Portland Trail Blazers fan!) and I spend a (un)decent amount of time during the week watching games on NBA League Pass.
What are your holiday plans in the upcoming months?
Ugh, too early to tell for this year, I rarely prepare for vacation this early. Improvised trips tend to end up being the best ones, as I see travelling mainly as a way of escaping away from the routine. Last year’s trip to the US will be tough to beat, though. I got to travel alongside the Pacific West Coast and the Southern states, a long-time dreamed trip for me. This year I have a trip to Sicily with some friends kind of planned, but I hope it’s not the only one.
What are your favorite websites? Do not say FXStreet 😉
Being a big NBA, an American culture fan and a journalist, Grantland was a website I really appreciated. They had awesome writers that did a great job editing and presenting the content, mixing up solid analysis with the comedy, drama and joy that sports and culture intrinsically bring. Too bad Bill Simmons and ESPN parted ways, as the public (as usual) ended up being the biggest loser of that deal. The Ringer is not bad, but it lacks several key writers from BS first creature that are badly missed.
What is the last movie you’ve watched. Would you recommend it?
The Searchers, an all-time classic by John Ford. It is a must-watch film, specially if you like westerns, which I really do.
This Christmas I’ve also watched the first season of Atlanta, which turned out to be a great decision. It is not a comedy, but it has some hilarious moments in a very clever magic realism mix with a good dose of criticism to the American society. Plus: The show is set up in the new mecca of hip-hop and the show creator is Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino), which makes the soundtrack awesome.
A sport you like to practice?
Besides playing some football and basketball, I love riding my mountain bike too. On weekends, I enjoy riding it up and down the Collserola hills. Sometimes, we go for rides with some office mates, which makes it more fun, especially when I drop them on the climbs, ha!
Do you support Barça? If not, dare to say which football team you support… if any
The best question for the last, good stuff. I’ve been a huge Barça supporter since I was a kid. I supported the blaugrana through the painful times back when I was a teenager (going five consecutive seasons with no title lifted) and it paid off later in our Golden Era. One of the happiest moments I can recall in my life (no kidding) is the goal Andrés Iniesta scored against Chelsea in the stoppage time of the 2009 Champions League semifinals 2nd leg, but that team gifted the fans with so many good moments that it looks silly to just pick one up. It’s a shame that the club has not been well managed for the last years and we will face dark times again when Leo Messi retires.