// EXAM HALL24 QUESTIONS · 30 MINUTES

Trader Practice Test

Markets arithmetic without a calculator, a desk at the close, and what you do when the position is against you.

BY MICHAEL SHANG · SIXTEEN YEARS IN COMMERCIAL BANKING · UPDATED 2026-11-02

// THE SHORT ANSWER

A trader practice test checks that you can do markets arithmetic quickly and keep your discipline when a position moves against you. This paper has three parts: basis points, forwards, duration, delta and carry; one desk's positions against its limits and stop-loss, set on an exhibit; and calls on front-running, marks and your own mistakes. Every question is original, and none comes from any bank's test. It does not replace a desk's own mental arithmetic round, so practise speed as well. Sit it against a thirty-minute clock, or take it as practice.

BASIS Practitioner judgment from sixteen years in commercial banking, set out in How Bankers Think (Highbank Press, 2026). Every borrower on this site is a composite constructed for teaching, not a client. The market is mid-market commercial lending as practised in New Zealand and Australia; where a convention differs elsewhere, the page says so.

// HOW TO SIT IT

Answer below as practice, and each read opens as you go. Or sit it as a test: 30 minutes, with every read held back until you finish.

PART A

The desk's arithmetic

Do these without a calculator if you can. A desk will ask you to work out loud, and how you get there counts.

PART A · QUESTION 1

A client has US$50m of floating-rate debt. Rates rise by one basis point.

What does that add to the client's interest bill over a year?

PART A · QUESTION 2

Spot EUR/USD is 1.2000. One-year interest rates are 5% on dollars and 3% on euros.

Roughly where is the one-year forward?

PART A · QUESTION 3

A bond has a duration of about 4.5 years. Its yield rises by half a percentage point.

Roughly what happens to its price?

PART A · QUESTION 4

Without a calculator, in the time it takes to say it. A client buys US$7.5m at 12 basis points over your cost.

What does the trade make?

PART A · QUESTION 5

An estimation question. A country of 5 million adults each spends about US$20,000 a year by card. Someone proposes a fee of 0.1% on card spending.

Roughly what would the fee raise in a year?

PART A · QUESTION 6

You have sold a call option on EUR 10m, and its delta is about 40%.

To take out the direction, what do you do in spot?

PART A · QUESTION 7

A trade makes US$200,000 if you are right, and loses US$100,000 at your stop if you are wrong. You think you are right 40% of the time.

What is the trade worth on those numbers?

PART A · QUESTION 8

You buy US$50m of a bond yielding 5%, and fund it overnight at 4%. Its price does not move for a month.

About what does the position earn in that month?

PART B

The desk at the close

One desk, nine questions. Read the positions against their limits before you read the day's result.

EXHIBIT G · THE DESK AT THE CLOSE

A bank's foreign exchange and rates desk at the end of the day. One position line per product, with its limit.

Positions
	Held	Limit	Rate
EUR/USD	long EUR 12m	EUR 10m	1.0800
GBP/USD	short GBP 4m	GBP 8m	1.2500
USD/JPY	long USD 6m	USD 10m	150.00
Rates book, long bonds	DV01 US$18,000	US$25,000

Today, US$000
	US$000
Client margin	140
Positions	(450)
The day	(310)
Daily stop-loss	(400)

At 4:52pm an exporter sold EUR 15m six months forward to the desk. The desk sold EUR 3m spot against it, and has not sold more.

PART B · QUESTION 9

From Exhibit G.

Which position is outside its limit, and by how much?

BACK TO EXHIBIT G ↑

PART B · QUESTION 10

In Exhibit G, the desk is long EUR 12m at 1.0800.

What does a one-cent fall in EUR/USD cost?

BACK TO EXHIBIT G ↑

PART B · QUESTION 11

In Exhibit G, the desk has lost US$310,000 today against a daily stop-loss of US$400,000. Assume only the EUR position moves.

How far can EUR/USD fall before the stop-loss is hit?

BACK TO EXHIBIT G ↑

PART B · QUESTION 12

In Exhibit G, the rates book is long bonds, with a DV01 of US$18,000.

What does a 10 basis point rise in yields do?

BACK TO EXHIBIT G ↑

PART B · QUESTION 13

In Exhibit G, the EUR line went over its limit at 4:52pm, on a client's trade. The trader says: 'It is client flow. I will clear it in the morning.'

What should happen before the desk goes home?

BACK TO EXHIBIT G ↑

PART B · QUESTION 14

Exhibit G's exporter sold EUR 15m six months forward. Suppose the desk now sells the whole EUR 15m spot. The exchange-rate risk has gone.

What market risk is left in the book?

BACK TO EXHIBIT G ↑

PART B · QUESTION 15

In Exhibit G, the trader has lost US$450,000 on positions today, and says of the new EUR long: 'The euro has to rise. If I double this tonight I make the whole day back.'

What is the right response?

BACK TO EXHIBIT G ↑

PART B · QUESTION 16

Exhibit G's day: US$140,000 of client margin, less US$450,000 on positions. A salesperson says: 'Great day for the franchise.'

What does that split tell you?

BACK TO EXHIBIT G ↑

PART B · QUESTION 17

In Exhibit G, the trader says: 'I am long EUR and short GBP, so the two lines net off. There is no real dollar risk.'

What is wrong with that?

BACK TO EXHIBIT G ↑

PART C

The calls

A stop-loss, a mark, a mistake of your own, and a market that has just moved.

PART C · QUESTION 18

A corporate client will sell EUR 50m at this afternoon's fixing. A colleague says: 'We know it is coming. Let us sell some first, for the book, and buy back when the fixing pushes it down.'

Your move?

PART C · QUESTION 19

A trader you know at another bank messages you before the fixing: 'How are you positioned? We can both avoid getting run over.'

Your move?

PART C · QUESTION 20

A thinly traded bond in your book has no recent trade. You mark it at 98, on your own judgement. The product controller's sources say 94, and they ask for your evidence.

Your move?

PART C · QUESTION 21

You meant to sell US$5m of USD/JPY. Your screen shows you sold US$50m at the market. It has been twenty seconds, and the price is moving.

What do you do?

PART C · QUESTION 22

Your position has reached the stop-loss you agreed with your head of desk. You still believe in the trade, and data due in an hour should prove you right.

What do you do?

PART C · QUESTION 23

A trade you did last night was lost in a chat window, and you have just found it. It shows a US$60,000 loss. Today's book is up US$80,000, and a colleague says: 'Book it today. Nobody will notice the date.'

What do you do?

PART C · QUESTION 24

A central bank's surprise move has just hit the screens. Your salesperson asks for a price on EUR 20m for a corporate client, and you cannot tell where the market is.

What do you do?

0 OF 24 ANSWERED · 0 WITH THE SENIOR READ · 0 STANDS UP · 0 OFF THE LINE

// THE REST OF THE ROUND

Every question here is original; none is any bank's real test. Written for: Trader.

Trader: the interview questions, against a two-minute clock.
Situational judgement, for any seat.
The assessment centre: a whole case in forty-five minutes.

Trader Practice Test

// THE SHORT ANSWER

The desk's arithmetic

What does that add to the client's interest bill over a year?

Roughly where is the one-year forward?

Roughly what happens to its price?

What does the trade make?

Roughly what would the fee raise in a year?

To take out the direction, what do you do in spot?

What is the trade worth on those numbers?

About what does the position earn in that month?

The desk at the close

EXHIBIT G · THE DESK AT THE CLOSE

Which position is outside its limit, and by how much?

What does a one-cent fall in EUR/USD cost?

How far can EUR/USD fall before the stop-loss is hit?

What does a 10 basis point rise in yields do?

What should happen before the desk goes home?

What market risk is left in the book?

What is the right response?

What does that split tell you?

What is wrong with that?

The calls

Your move?

Your move?

Your move?

What do you do?

What do you do?

What do you do?

What do you do?

// THE REST OF THE ROUND

The Lab.