BB equities - but I think I prefer deals?
Hi everyone
i will be starting at a BB (think GS/MS) in their Equities desk within their Markets Division.
It’s a long story why I applied to/ accepted that gig but I feel I would have preferred a deal-doing role.
Are there any sub-groups I should try to place in within the equity derivatives desk? I was reading somewhere that products like abs in FICC are very “deal like” so I was hoping to find something equivalent in Equities?
The alternative would be to try and pivot to the ibd division but I imagine this may be tricky.
If relevant, this is a FO trading role.
thank you.
Try pivoting to structuring... literally creating "deals" that clients may want
Success rate of clients actually agreeing to the deal will be higher than in IBD anyway, less worthless hours worked
Have been thinking about this too, but it just feels odd to step back from trading into a structuring role? Isn't compensation / exit opps more limited for structurers compared to traders?
Look into structured equity financing. Basically a IB role within equity derivatives
This isn't consistent with what I know whatsoever. As far as I know structurers make bank, so I wouldn't say you choose a trading role over structuring purely for the $. Additionally, structurers spend enough time in a deal-based environment / working in Excel to more easily transition to IB or a variety of other roles. And finally, perhaps most importantly, structurers enjoy better job security than do their trader peers.
The main pro that being a trader presents is that the star trader will make more than the star structurer, and will have access to more top-tier exit opps at hedge funds and PE shops (less so the second vs. the first). But you can do very well in both roles.
SFL at GS is one of the highest paid roles in the bank
I thought cash equities was a dead business.
I will be in the derivatives desk, not cash equities.
Why can’t you program equity derivatives like cash equity
Most derivatives are complicated enough (with the exception of stuff like delta one) and just don't have the two way flow that cash equities do, so that the only way to make markets in them is to hold inventory risk, which you try to hedge where no perfect hedge exists. Short of singularity level AI, you really need human decision making to price these types of derivatives when large risks are being taken that can make or lose the firm hundreds of millions. Computers have automated much of cash equities because its mostly an agency business of buying and selling shares without taking substantial risk, and outside of extremely large positions, the trading side is simple execution, which can be automated, with even principal trades being often held for less than a second. By contrast, in much of equity derivatives (and most derivatives), positions may need to be held for days, weeks, or even longer (for really exotic/structured stuff, sometimes years), depending on where it falls on the liquidity spectrum. Trades are hedged with liquid instruments, but its usually impractical to perfectly hedge anything but the simplest of derivatives, so a large degree of discretionary risk management is required for orders of significant size or complexity, which represents most of the trading revenue and jobs at banks nowdays.
try corporate equity derivatives
Isn’t corporate derivatives basically a sales/marketing desk to corporates for fx/rates derivatives (which is in the ibd, no on the trading floor anyway)?
or are we talking about different desks?
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