FX sales - dead end business

Thats rough. Is this the same for pretty much every desk?

I think unfortunately this is true. Global macro in general is becoming more quantitative in nature.

Back to spot, fwd, option fx sales, it is true the automation and electronic trading in those markets disintermediates the intermediary so over time sellside desks will be less useful, ESP inst sales as govs hf corp clients beef up internal desks.

If u love the product you should embrace the quant side and understand there will be structural pressure on comp since plain vanilla fx sales adds less value thN ten yrs ago

To be fair, the high margin products are the more complex ones, so if you focus on those I think you'd be fine.

I agree with Revsly, the more exotic you get, the safer it should be (for a while at least). So try to move over to FX Structuring or even FX Options Trading if you can. Or if you're keen to trade cash, then at least move over to the EM Desk where there's still a good amount of opaqueness in those markets, such as Asian NDFs.

When spot started trading in deci-pips recently this year, it reminded me of what happened to cash equities when trading moved down to pennies from 1/8s etc. While I agree FX will never be the same as it was back in the day and margins will continue to decrease, there will still be the need for -some- institutional salespersons (obviously with less headcount of course). It's a lot easier (and more efficient, from a pricing standpoint) for a global macro HF to move like half a yard of risk by simply calling a few banks simultaneously and paying/giving them all at the same time. Trying to move that kind of size via DMA is too risky; the machines will definitely sniff you out.

But all-in-all, there'll definitely be less need to have a ton of bodies dedicated to FX Sales, especially in G10 and any other liquid crosses. I work in Institutional FX Sales and my boss straight up told me to learn and specialize in EM and Exotic Options if I still want a job in the long-term.

I do agree that this is the truth behind the FX market

However, there is no really pretty perfect career out there, you just have to admit that pros and cons and also try your best to make the best out of it. Remember, life is always unfair.

Recently spoke to a director of FX Sales and brought this question up during our conversation, to which he responded that eFX is going to pose a far greater constraint on the need for FX traders than sales. Perhaps he was biased.