Is it halal to work as a risk manager at a brokerage company specialized in CFD trades? In the company website they say that the revenue is generated mainly from spread gains and commissions. The role I am interested in is the Risk Manager position who needs to monitor market and counterparty risk, prepare regulatory reporting and calculate internal capital requirements. Would working for such a brokerage company be relatively better than working for banks or fixed income roles at asset managers? Currently I am actively looking for a job and I am avoiding banks and asset managers due to heavy investment in debt. My current job is in asset management but other opportunities in the same industry involves working with fixed income instruments and derivatives. I would appreciate your response.
CFD trading is not permissible as you do not have ownership of the underlying asset. There is also the gambling element attached to CFD trading.
Thus, it would not be permissible to join a CFD brokerage company.
JazakAllah Khairan. Thank you very much for helping us to make right decisions. Now this is clear to me. I have other alternatives:
Risk management position in another asset management company. But my role would involve working with interest rate products and derivatives. Although I will not be influencing investments I am not feeling at ease to go for this option.
Model risk manager at a derivatives clearing exchange. This would only involve working with derivatives.
Recently I have lost my job due to restructuring at my current asset management company which will end in December and I need to find a new job afterwards. Would this risk management job be permissible in my case or should I keep looking for completely halal opportunities? The more I search for risk management jobs in finance the more disappointed I am becoming as all available jobs seem to involve riba or gambling. I do not know where I should draw a red line when looking for new jobs and where a compromise may be acceptable. I am completely excluding banks.
May Allah reward you in this world and hereafter for helping us.
JazakAllah Khairan.