What desk is least popular in S+T?

well i'd think it'd be something which just seems very far from actual s&t functions....but otherwise, will vary by bank.

prime brokerage?

Equity cash sales?

Equities in Dallas... But serious, it depends on the place, and your options really.

some ppl would love cash equity sales. ditto prime brokerage.

you need to get away from this idea that the quant desks are necessarily better/more desireable. there's a range of personalities and interests out there.

Jimbo

im trying to maximise my chances of getting hired, so may go for a less popular desk.

That's why I am trying to find out..

Do you actually get a chance to interview for a specific desk? I understand the scenario where if your school alum is at am FX desk, they may look more towards placing you there. However, in the general job process I always assumed that you interview for S&T as a whole and then you are placed.

think some are rotational..

dont think there is any one group that is least popular and dude you thinking about this wrong if you go to a "less popular" desk and you dont like it orwhatever you are less likely to get hired then if you go where you want to go and kill it.

just work hard and you should be fine.

you are the biggest tool on this website. just b/c you have what you consider a strong GPA from a "target" (wow, you must be a fucking genius) does not make you any better suited for trading than trade4size or anyone else for that matter. You sound like you haven't even worked in S&T, so I am not sure where your sense of experience and wisdom is coming from..please do everyone a favor and never post again.

badam's comment is still really funny

there - I said it.

all this indignation from someone that has learnt the basics of valuations but doesn't know what to do with it. http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/why-would-shareholders-pay-anywhe…

Wow, do you know anything about banking?

Cash equities is basically the framework for trading. All derivatives, options are based on an underlying asset- the intrinsic value of which is determined by analysts and those in cash. What does Warren Buffett do? He invest in cash, and if needed brokers, he'd be going to cash guys, rather than derivative guys. Derivatives are just an instrument (like CDS, CDOs, swaps etc) to formulate an underlying opinion on the asset. Cash guys make that assessment more directly, whereas while derivatives salesman do the same, their job has become more pricing related and just back up the structurer.

hey badam, got a real brain teaser for you

cash equities at Goldman

OR

CDS trading at some unknown boutique

Alright alright, I am hear badam, are you happy? Clearly his post was directed at me (he singled me out). You are whats known as a troll. The reason i havent chimed in yet is that i dont argue with people that are intellectually inferior to me.

I really hope someone figures out who you are and forwards this thread to one of your superiors, or colleagues. Im sure they would be quite impressed by your overall behavior.

This is your last warning, stop being a nuisance or your going to be banned.

"Oh - the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion?"

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=troll

Dont you have work to do? Im just voicing what everyone else is thinking about you. I was making sure you knew how lame you were being.

"Oh - the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion?"

…out of your keyboard, it’s difficult to see where to begin.

badamLook. The title of this thread is "What is the least popular desk in S+T?". It has absolutely nothing to do with what might be more interesting, more useful, more necessary etc.

But wait, there’s more to this. We then find out from this thread (//www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/cash-traders-sales-traders-whats-the-poi…) that you’ve only had exposure to equities for about a month (“basically in my previous job I had zero exposure to equities”). So what you are basically saying is “I have no experience or direct knowledge of equities but I’ll run with what somebody told me (who I am guessing is not in vanilla equities) and regurgitate it”.

badamThe point is that general perception and common consensus, not just my own opinion, points to cash equities - proven by people above me also suggesting cash equities as the least favoured area, proven by me regularly seeing threads on multiple forums joking about cash equities, and proven by how on my and several other grad schemes, the people who came top of the class in the bootcamp tests went to structuring / exotics, the people who failed and not able to cope with the intellectual demands of other desks were pushed into cash equities. Anyone on a grad scheme just needs to look at the calibre of people doing exotics vs cash.

Certain technical abilities are a pre-requisite to exotics – don’t know the maths, can’t do the job. Just because these don’t exist in cash equities doesn’t mean it’s easier to do a good job – the desirable qualities can’t necessarily be measured (interpersonal skills, powers of persuasion, etc). I consider myself smarter than any salestrader I know but I couldn’t do their job – the ability to drink until 4am and be at my desk for 6 (three nights a week) is not one that I have.

And now, I’d like to finally answer the OP’s question. What’s popular is what is currently “hot”, either because it’s a new field or there is big demand for that product at the time. Whichever it may be, it’s the best opportunity to make a name for yourself quickly and get sucked up with demand. Maybe you are exceptionally talented at what you do but I’ll bet my bonus that you made VP at 25 because your field was hot. In the last 10 years, S&T has paid up disporportionately for people with research / emerging markets / ABS / telco / tech / exotics (plus a load more) experience. Mortgage-backed securities were shit hot until a year ago and if you had to choose your desk 5 years back it would have looked like a layup. It was new, it was innovative, there was lots of money to be made. Now, not so much.

Please tell me the above is a joke... If you hate cash equities this much i cant imagine what you say about the back office...

"Oh - the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion?"

Hey badam,

Clearly this cash equities thing is a personal issue for you.

Sure it may be a less intellectually demanding area, and people with less mathematical or analytical ability may be better suited to it. So what?

If they are so obviously "inferior" to you, why do you feel the need to put them down so vehemently on an internet forum?

It makes you sound pretty juvenile, to be honest. By the way, do you consider yourself to be fairly representative of the culture in the City or are you more of an outlier?

for whats its worth, at my bank (top BB) cash trading/sales were quite popular for the incoming analyst class last summer although i think it was due more to the people on the desk as opposed to the product (cool people who sold the desk well)

badam you suffer from an inferiority complex. Whats wrong, did all the school boys bully you relentlessly for years?

I challenge you to wall street boxing!

"Oh - the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion?"

When I made a comment about not wanting to have anything to do with my IB colleagues outside of working hours, people gave me shit for assuming most people working in the City are dicks. But then badam says his attitude is pretty representative of people working in IB, which would mean most people working in IB are dicks. Why would I (or any normal person) want to spend any unnecessary time around people like this?

gpa is poor, means I had more fun than you and still got a SA. The girls at this university are way better than wherever you went. And im looking forward to cash equity because it will allow the easiest transition to a HF. The firm is quite well known.

"Oh - the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion?"

Trade4size - what are you trying to prove? Justifying your career choices to an online forum sure doesn't help your cause.

Seems to me that desk popularity depends on profit and intellectual difficulty. So whichever desks/products generate the least revenue and/or have the least intellectual difficulty would probably be least desired in general. It seems to me that if you want to disprove badam's points about cash equities, you have to show that a) there are desks that are less intellectually difficult than cash equities, and b) there are desks that generate less revenue than cash equities

most of the prime brokerage groups are pretty unpopular bc they generally dont generate any revene (outside of securities lending) and are for the most part viewed as requiring less intellect than other desks