Day in the life: international oil deals never sleep for Dubai broker

It's a full day for commodities broker Joanna King, but despite the hours, she says she thrives in her new job in Dubai.

Joanna King is a senior commodities trader for Lannister Knight in Dubai. Razan Alzayani / The National

Joanna King is a senior commodities broker at Lannister Knight DMCC in Dubai’s Jumeirah Lakes Towers. She arrived in the UAE at the end of last year from the UK to broker a new type of oil investment.

7.30am

I am up by 7.30am. Susie, my yoga instructor, comes over and we meditate and do some yoga for about an hour. I speak to so many people during the day, so it’s very important that I feel rested to begin the day. That’s when I find my mind is most alert. I am a Londoner – I am very new to Dubai and very excited to be here. Dubai has so much going for it, it has so much potential. I don’t know why I haven’t been here earlier.

9am

I am not really a breakfast person. I’ll have a quick cereal of some kind then I am driven to the office, normally at about 9.30am. We don’t really start as a team until 10am. There are about 20 or 25 of us. I switch on my laptop and check emails. I will have already read the market news before I leave my apartment. I pretty much do that 24/7 – Bloomberg is normally on the whole time. We’ll have a meeting and discuss oil and various bits and pieces such as precious metals. We are looking at how things are performing in the world, the political climate and the knock-on effect on the economy. The meeting can go on – sometimes I just go off and make phone calls.

10.40am

I make all of my local phone calls because obviously I can’t get in touch with my UK client, for example, until after lunch. Sometimes I can be in my office very late with American clients. I was [previously] working as an independent financial adviser, going right back to the eighties. What brought me here is the investment that I am brokering.

1.30pm

I’ll take clients over to the Almas Tower or to the Dubai International Financial Centre for lunch. Occasionally I have lots and lots of calls and don’t have lunch at all. Sometimes I will be here until 9pm or 10pm. The afternoon is chaotic because I have to deal with whatever I didn’t deal with in the morning, and then the UK wakes up and the rest of Europe. [On calls] I try to stick to what we are doing at the moment because it’s exciting. We are selling oil at source. The United States and Canada are the only countries in the world where is it possible to invest into oil at the source – in the oil well. Now they are opening this up to private investors, particularly small private investors. We didn’t think it would be possible, for example, for someone to buy 0.2 per cent of 10 oil wells for as little at £12,500 (Dh76,311) but it is. Obviously it costs the companies that are drilling for the oil a substantial amount to get these projects up and running, so small investors are very welcome. On this basis I think it’s possible to build up a huge client base here in the UAE and, of course, internationally as well. Everybody is aware of the boom in terms of shale oil, but there is a new technology for horizontal drilling called hydraulic fracturing where it’s possible to reach oil it wasn’t possible to reach before. It was very costly, but now companies can sell positions to facilitate this type of drilling and it will enable more of this to continue throughout the US. It’s a 15-20 year investment, so as part of a pension plan it’s wonderful.

5pm

I have [calls to] the US. Really, I could work 24/7. It can be quite exhausting by the time I get home in the evening. There is no worst bit about my job. The thing that would worry me most in life is to have regrets, missed opportunities. If I didn’t enjoy what I do every day, I wouldn’t do it. I’d retire.

7pm

It’s rare for me to leave the office at 7pm, which is when I’d like to leave ideally. At home, I lie exhausted on my bed. I am not a great eater during the week. I’ve usually had a business lunch so I’ll just have a snack and perhaps go on my exercise bike or walk along the shoreline. I miss my family. I have two daughters – one is at boarding school and one is recently married.

10pm

I always want to be in bed by 10pm but never am. I normally switch off my light between 11pm and midnight. I like biographies – at the moment I am reading Richard Burton’s diaries – that’s just a form of relaxation.

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