Citi, Barclays, or Deutsche for associate trading position

I figured I'd post this here in case someone else other stumbles upon a similar dilemma. First off, congratulations, all of those are excellent offers in some very interesting areas.

I'll try to be as impartial about the two product areas as I can, because when I made my decision, two of the possibilities were Swaps/Swaptions (more likely Swaps) and FX Options, and obviously I chose what I did for many reasons, although I would have enjoyed doing either. Funny enough one of my friends is doing the swaps job now, so I'll try to give as much color as I can to the differences. Anyone feel free to disagree, these are based on my perspectives/experiences and no doubt others might have different.

From a macroeconomic perspective, both FX and rates traders look at a lot of the same releases and pay attention to the same signs. The most simple difference would be that in FX you might looking at a bunch of different economies at the same time, while in rates you're focusing on one (or maybe 2, but generally 1). Even this difference might not be so apparent because you could be a CAD Cross trader, for example. This is not to say FX traders are somehow more capable, its more likely that a rates trader is better versed in nuances of one economy since that is primarily what he focuses on. Either way, both have to pay attention to the other's product, because fx can drive rates trading and rates can drive fx trading. It's often very hard, in my opinion, to tell which is leading the charge at any given point.

Product wise, the life of a swaps trader is not all that different from a vanilla options trader. It has a quicker pace feel (not as quick as cash, but relatively), you deal in the bookies a lot to manage your risk. For the most part these spaces are pretty liquid, though of course there are exceptions. In swaps you are mostly focusing on your DV01, Convexity and spreads, while in FX Options you are mostly focusing on the greeks (Delta, Gamma, Vega, Theta, Vanna, GoV, etc) and smile/skew.

The feel of a Swaptions desk is more similar to a Structured Options trading desk in FX (correlation products like dual digis, worst-ofs, etc) in that risks are more difficult to conceptualize, the pace of the trading is much slower and liquidity can be non-existent. You might have half an hour to get back to a custy with a price. From what I can tell, the trading in these is more model driven than vanillas which is more supply/demand driven. Feel free to disagree.

Personally, I chose FX Options because I found the product itself more interesting, but I'm sure there are plenty of people who did the opposite for the same reason. Hopefully, you find yourself drawn to one over the other.

As far as the banks, DB is the best in FX, hands down. However, like is true at a lot of places, also make sure you enjoy the culture. DB has a very different feel from some of the other banks, which may suit you or not. Personally, I would meet with the desks of all of the different banks you are looking at if you can, and you'll almost immediately get a sense of whether you would like to work with these people or not, and whether you'd fit in to the bank/desk culture, because as strange as it sounds it can vary substantially. I know that was the case in my experiences, and one of the reasons I decided on the product I do now. None of your choices are slouches in these areas, so its not like you're going to make a horrible mistake by choosing any of them over the other imo based on "prestige" or whatever you want to call it. The franchise is good for all of them.

If you have any specific questions, or something I missed/didn't explain well, let me know.

TLDR: There is not a ton of differences between the two, each has similar parallels in the other. If you like one you'll probably find you'd like the other too. Banks have different cultures, meet with all the desks to see which fit you best.