Trade Blotter Completion
Complete the missing booking field and flag every row that breaks the booking rules before anything settles.
The scenario
It's your first week on a trade-support desk. The overnight blotter has landed with a column missing and a handful of rows that look wrong — a mistyped side, some impossible quantities, a couple of blanks. Before anything moves to settlement, the desk needs you to complete the booking field and flag every row that breaks the booking rules. Nothing settles on a dirty blotter.
Where this shows up
Completing and validating a raw blotter is the classic first attention-to-detail screen on operations and trade-support assessments at firms of this type.
Firms such as J.P. Morgan, Citi, Optiver.
DeskPrep is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any named firm. Firm names are used for illustrative, educational purposes only and do not imply that these materials are official assessments of, or are connected with, those firms.
Task brief
# Trade Blotter Completion **Role relevance:** Trade support / middle-office operations take-home. **Estimated time:** 45 minutes · **Difficulty:** Intermediate · **Format:** Excel (.xlsx) ## What you are given - `trade_blotter_completion_starter.xlsx` — a **Brief** tab, a **Formula Help** tab (cheat sheet) and a **Blotter** tab of 12 overnight trades with a missing column and several bad rows. Amber cells are yours to complete. ## What you must deliver 1. Complete the **Notional** column (Quantity × Price) with formulas, not typed numbers 2. Add validation flags: valid **Side**, **Quantity > 0**, **Price > 0**, **Settlement Date** present 3. A single **Valid?** flag per row and a **count** of invalid rows 4. A *fails-by-rule* chart and a one-line read of which rule fails most
Your tasks
- 01Complete the missing Notional column (Quantity × Price) for every row.
- 02Add formula-driven validation flags: Side must be Buy or Sell, Quantity > 0, Price present and > 0, Settlement Date present.
- 03Combine the checks into a single Valid? flag per row and count how many rows are invalid.
- 04Chart the number of fails by rule and note, in one line, which rule fails most and why it matters.
How you're assessed
The full points-based mark scheme is included with the pack.
What you'll learn
- Why the blotter is the first control in the trade lifecycle — and what 'clean' actually means.
- How to express booking rules as formulas so a flag updates the moment the data changes.
- Why you flag exceptions rather than silently 'fixing' them.