When it was time for Neil John Barnes \u201917 to choose a college, he knew he wanted an
\nexperience that would be dramatically different from his youth in Antigua.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at several New Jersey colleges but fell in love with the Montclair campus,\u201d he
\nsays. \u201cThe grounds are beautiful and well-spaced, with new athletic facilities. I also
\nappreciated the large number of majors available. I was able to find the exact program
\nof study that I wanted. I was hooked!\u201d<\/p>\n
For Barnes, that meant a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics with a
\nconcentration in Business and Finance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have always liked finance,\u201d he explains. \u201cAnd I have always been drawn to Wall Street
\nand what is going on in the stock market. I wanted to work on the data that is used to
\nmake trading decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barnes is putting his Montclair education to work in his role as Vice President, Business
\nData Analyst (Systems Trading) at Citi. \u201cMost trading today is systemic, and every
\nsystems-level investing decision involves hundreds \u2013 even thousands \u2013 of data points,\u201d
\nhe says. \u201cIn addition to reviewing corporate annual reports and trading activity, we
\nconsider what drives investors to make buy or sell decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where the human factor \u2013 behavioral economics \u2013 comes in,\u201d Barnes continues.
\n\u201cWe can infer buying and selling interests from market activity. We look at how often an
\nequity is traded, of course, but will also pick up when a company is trending on social
\nmedia. It is very nuanced.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the emphasis on data, the market can still surprise. Barnes points to the recent
\nrun-ups of GameStop, AMC, and Bed Bath & Beyond stocks. \u201cFrom a systemic
\nperspective, it didn\u2019t make sense that these stocks would rise the way they did,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is our job to analyze the factors creating these phenomena, and to work what we find into future trading models.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since graduating from Montclair, Barnes has boosted his resume with 26 licenses and
\ncertifications in areas ranging from Algorithmic Trading Accountancy to Linux Shell
\nScripting. He is also completing a Master of Science in Financial Engineering at
\nStevens Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n
While still a student at Montclair, Barnes landed a full-time spot at Fidelity Investments
\nas an operations analyst. Once graduated, he took on a role as a Financial Data Analyst
\nat Bank of America, then as a Business Data Analyst with Prudential and as Business
\nData Analyst (Compliance\/Risk) at UBS. He joined Citi in early 2020 to work on
\nregulatory reports before rising to his current role.<\/p>\n
Barnes credits his time at Montclair with setting him up to rise quickly in his profession.
\n\u201cCourses in my major and concentration prepared me for work in my discipline,\u201d he
\nnotes, adding that many of those courses were taught by professionals in his field who
\ncould share first-hand experiences and insight. \u201cI also took a lot of one-credit courses
\nthat helped me get ready for the work world, covering topics like interview practice and
\nresume writing. On-campus activities such as career seminars, resume review, and
\nguest lectures helped as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sense of community at Montclair was an added bonus for Barnes. \u201cI was living far
\nfrom home and commuting to campus,\u201d Barnes says, recalling particular fondness for
\nthe welcome-back activities in the fall. \u201cIt was really nice. They would have food trucks,
\nmotivational speakers, and lots of fun activities. There was even a special welcome for
\nus commuters!\u201d<\/p>\n
Barnes was an active student volunteer with the Office of University Development. In
\nfact, he quickly earned recognition as one of the University\u2019s top phonathon callers.
\n\u201cThat was a lot of fun,\u201d he says. \u201cI learned a lot about building a culture of philanthropy
\nand teamwork, and developed a whole new circle of friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Barnes has been busy with his full-time career and graduate study, he misses
\nhis alma mater and hopes to get back to campus soon. \u201cI hope to connect students to
\nopportunities,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are so many paths into the work world. I would love to
\nmentor students and offer some perspective as they plot out their careers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a graduate of the University, I can show students the potential of a Montclair
\ndegree,\u201d he adds. \u201cI can show them that success is as much about what you study and
\nhow you apply yourself, as it is about what college you attend. Utilize every resource
\nprovided to you, create new paths, and keep going. Persistence wins out in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Neil John Barnes \u201917 has always had a fascination for the workings of Wall Street. As Vice President, Business Data Analyst (Systems Trading) at Citi, Barnes delves into the fine print and \u2013 sometimes less apparent \u2013 nuances that drive systems-level investing. As he completes graduate study and settles further into his career, Barnes looks forward to returning to Montclair to get involved in alumni life at his alma mater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":211402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-76_alumni-news-and-events","category-77_alumni-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/326"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211399"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211408,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211399\/revisions\/211408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}