Sales & Trading
Prepalyst has 21 fx & commodities interview questions with model answers, covering carry, curve shape, storage economics and policy sensitivity. Every question is graded on technical accuracy, completeness and interview communication. Practice is free.
A basic client-coverage question that tests whether you match an instrument to a real exposure.
Distinguish an FX spot trade, forward and option. Give one sensible use case for each.
Sales and trading interviews use a client order to test quote direction, execution and risk awareness.
A dealer quotes USD/JPY at 149.80 / 149.84. A client wants to buy $20m against yen immediately. At what rate do you trade, and what risk does the dealer have after filling the order?
A futures-market fundamental that separates derivative exposure from the cash posted to support it.
You go long one crude-oil futures contract representing 1,000 barrels at $80 per barrel. Initial margin is $6,000. If the futures price falls to $77 overnight, what happens economically and why is the $6,000 not the cost…
An FX desk uses this first-round check to see whether you can speak precisely about a market quote.
EUR/USD moves from 1.0800 to 1.0950. Which currency strengthened, by how much, and how would you explain the move to a US importer?
Physical-commodities desks use this to test whether a candidate can separate a screen price from what a customer can actually buy or sell.
A Midwest grain elevator owns local corn but hedges with Chicago corn futures. Define basis and explain why the hedge may still leave the elevator exposed.
Commodities interviews ask this to test whether you distinguish gold from industrial raw materials.
What are the main drivers of gold, and why is it misleading to analyse it like copper or oil?
An FX operations-aware first round checks whether a candidate understands that execution is not complete when a trade is agreed.
A bank sells €25m for dollars to a counterparty for value tomorrow. What is FX settlement risk, and how does payment-versus-payment settlement reduce it?
The client conversation an FX sales desk has daily.
A US corporate expects €100m of revenue over the next year. Walk me through the hedging options and what you'd recommend.
An FX-options interview uses this to test whether you understand how option risk becomes spot risk on a dealer book.
A dealer sells a client a EUR/USD call with a delta of 0.40 on €10m notional. How should the dealer initially hedge the spot exposure, and what changes if EUR/USD rises?
The foundational calculation on any FX desk.
EUR/USD spot is 1.0800. US rates are 4%, euro rates 2%, both for one year. What is the one-year forward, and why can't it be anything else?
A commodities desk tests whether you can turn a weekly inventory release into a conditional market view.
US crude inventories fall by 6m barrels against expectations for a 1m-barrel build, but refinery utilisation also drops sharply. Is the data bullish for oil?
A commodities sales interview tests whether you can reconcile a client's physical cost with a liquid but imperfect futures hedge.
An airline expects to buy 1m gallons of jet fuel in three months. Jet fuel is $2.20 per gallon, so it buys 20 heating-oil futures contracts, each covering 42,000 gallons, at $2.10 per gallon. At purchase, jet fuel is…
Oil-product interviews use a crack-spread question to see whether you can translate a relative price into an industrial margin.
Crude oil is $75 per barrel, gasoline is $2.50 per gallon and heating oil is $2.70 per gallon. Explain the 3-2-1 crack spread and what a widening spread says about a refiner.
Macro and FX interviews use carry unwinds to test whether you can describe risk, not just a yield differential.
You are long a high-yielding emerging-market currency funded in Japanese yen. The central bank unexpectedly signals tighter Japanese policy and global equities fall sharply. What happens to the trade, and how would you…
Commodities interviews test whether you can reason from physical balances rather than charts.
Copper prices have risen 30% in six months. How would you assess whether that's sustainable?
EM FX desks and macro funds test the mechanism, not just the history.
What conditions precede an emerging market currency crisis, and what does the central bank actually do about it?
The organising concept for any commodities desk.
Explain contango and backwardation. What determines the shape of a commodity curve, and what does it mean for someone holding a long position through futures?
An FX structuring discussion after a client finds that its hedge economics diverged from its USD funding exposure.
A European company funds a US acquisition with USD debt and uses EUR/USD cross-currency swaps to hedge interest and principal. EUR/USD spot moves in its favour, yet the reported hedge mark-to-market loss is large and…
A commodities trading interview on translating inventory evidence into a risk-managed futures-spread view.
Crude inventories at Cushing are falling, prompt physical differentials are strengthening, and the front-month WTI contract moves into backwardation. A colleague says to buy the front-versus-sixth-month calendar spread…
An FX-options desk asks this when assessing whether a candidate can turn volatility-market information into a disciplined client recommendation.
USD/BRL spot is stable, but three-month USD/BRL implied volatility rises from 12% to 18% and USD calls trade at a much higher implied volatility than equivalent USD puts. A US importer must pay BRL 100m in three months.…
A physical-metals scenario tests whether you understand the distinction between exchange inventory and deliverable supply.
LME aluminium inventories are high, yet nearby physical premiums and the cash-to-three-month spread both rise. How can those facts coexist, and what would you investigate before trading it?
Write your answer, get it graded on technical accuracy, completeness and communication, and see exactly which mechanic you missed.
Firm names indicate where a question type is commonly reported in interviews. They are not sourced from, endorsed by, or affiliated with the firms named.