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I'm moving this to the Trading board for you.
thanks. :)
I would say that your best choices are Rates, Credits, Swaps. but I also want to work with derivatives so I may be biased. My top two would be rates and credits and then switch between G7 and emerging market between them so that you gain exposure and can talk about that if you start FT recruiting with another bank. So like EM Credit and G7 Rates. Since its in HK you will be covering some of the cooler EM because they are in your timezone.
Generally speaking the more complex the product the better, but if you have a stronger interest in one particular product you should sit on that desk. I would definitely sit on rates because they are connected to everything...fx, commodities, FI.
Also, I spent a Summer in China----its going to be a blast. Enjoy!!
Are you more interested in macro or micro based products?
I dont have much of a preference. Since I am pretty much open to everything, I would rather join a desk that has more transferable skills to maintain the flexibility (for instance, I guess i could pretty much eliminate cash equities right off the bet)
What is the difference between a rates desk and a credit desk?
I know the basics of the two, but you would have to ask someone else for more detailed info. Both are great desks to be on and have a degree of flexibility because of the skills acquired. With Credits you learn to analyze the credit worthiness of security and it is transferable to all areas of Fixed income. Rates is good because rates is a foundation that drives everything else...FX, FI, Commoditiies. Bondarb, a WSO member, was a rates desk before he became a PM at a large global macro hedge fund. He strongly recommends starting out on rates because it builds that foundation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_derivative
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest_rate_derivative
slightly off topic, but how would you rate all the different products to trade in order from most micro to most macro?
Most Macro
FX & Rates Agency MBS Commodities (this is a harder one to place, don't quote me) . . . Private Label MBS . . High Grade Credit . High Yield Credit
Most Micro
I think that's a decent approximation, feel free to chime in if you disagree.
The "we're expanding into product group xyz" pitch is usually BS - go to the proven strength of the bank. I'd go:
(1) Swaps (2) Rates (3) Repo (4) Credit (5) Index Arb
I agree with Gekko/Bondarb on the overview of rates.
I'd go with EM Credit and G7 Rates. Person above who suggested Repo trading in no.3(lol wut?!) probably doesn't work on the markets side.
Asian BBs all do the fast track cross-intern recruiting so pick two desks which would make you marketable to many desks in other banks. 1 micro desk (credit) and 1 macro (Rates) will put you in good stead.
Don't do repo... no lie.
I'd agree with the above that you do Rates & Credit because it gives you a broad view of the entire spectrum (micro to macro). This is particularly true because you admitted you have no idea what you're interested in. Hopefully this will help to tune that.
What would a trader do exactly on a rates, swaps, or credits desk? I'm curious, is it just like equity trading where you take positions based on current market and economic conditions? This is some very interesting stuff.
....
you can have equity swaps... I think rate swaps are only one example of rates derivatives
When someone tells you they're on a swaps desk, they aren't being specific. They could be on an "equity swaps desk" (meaning they are in equity derivatives), they could be on an interest rate swaps desk (meaning they are on an interest rates desk) or they could be on a credit default swaps desk (meaning they are on a credit desk).
So there is no `difference between rates and swaps, just understand that rates can HAVE a swaps component just like equities, FX, credit can all have swaps components.
Why the hate on REPO/funding those desks have been strong in the last year or so and as long as the market has uncertainity like right now, they will keep making some of the top profits with low VAR.
Most of REPO traders are older though.
What are the top BB for G7 rates, swaps, EM credit, and equity derivatives? Thanks!
Usually classified as G10 rates: but in general here's your answer:
G10 Rates-GS, JPM, C, DB
As i said above, swaps are products, not specific to any particular group (Rates, Currencies, Equities). So that cannot be answered accurately.
EM Credit is a very specific group, I'll look into it but typically we get market share numbers for Credit (Investment Grade and High Yield)
Equity Derivatives is pretty broad, but general market share in Equities for 09 was : GS, CS leading then C, MS, BAC, JPM all within 0.3% of each other
BOA is top tier in USD rates, over GS & C imo, with top 3 being JP, DB, BOA. #1 would probably be interchangeable based on specific desk. on a G10 basis im not too sure though....
I'm just wondering, how is barclays for US rates? Is it as strong as their FI ops?
They're pretty good.
This might be a complete noob question but what are macro and micro based products? Can anyone give me examples of the two?
The difference is essentially whether you're focusing in on broader market trends (ie: in foreign exchange you'd look at the strengths of each countries economies relative to each other in the currency pair, etc) versus a more micro product like high yield credits where its much more about the credit risk of a specific company.
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