The Market Maker: IG’s Kyle Rodda explains how he helps traders make the best moves

IG’s Market Analyst Kyle Rodda was majoring in creative writing at university when the GFC hit. The enormity of the situation made him realise that world events were underpinned by economics. He saw that by understanding financial markets, he had the ability to understand the world around him, he tells Yahoo Finance’s host of the Market Makers, Anastasia Santoreneos.

After swapping to study global politics and economics, Rodda is now an experienced market analyst. His role at IG is to explain how world events can have an impact on financial decisions and trades. “I’m here to explain, educate and inform our clients about what’s happening in the world, and how it affects them,” he says. He draws the links between what might be seemed as abstract events, and how it affects people at a grass-roots level in terms of what and how they trade. “We’re here to open up a world of opportunities for our clients,” he says. Whether it’s a new or experienced trader, it can be overwhelming to be across all the different markets. “I’m the boots-on-the-ground person so that when you’re working your day job and can’t be there – I am. I can step in.”

With the job comes a responsibility to be across as much information as possible – which can mean long hours. Rodda is often awake at 5am to catch the end of the Wall Street markets, before writing commentaries for clients and watching other markets all day. “It’s like you’re in a constant stream of information that you can never jump out of,” he says. “There’s always a market open.”

Being so widely informed allows Rodda to truly understand the macro trends that are moving the world of finance – and to inform his clients of the best way to take advantage of these. “Understanding the bigger picture lets me find a way for financial markets to take advantage and profit from that,” he says. “It can take guts, so it’s about looking for those big risk and big reward opportunities.”

The risk and reward factor will loom large in the next few months, Rodda tells Santoreneos. The risk of a double dip recession in Europe, and how the US deals with the economical, political and social change they’re experiencing, will greatly influence the markets. He also points to policy makers as leading the charge in the way markets react, as they try and steer countries through these turbulent times. Whatever happens next, one thing is guaranteed, says Rodda; the pandemic will drive the markets for the foreseeable future.

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