Treasury team trading
I just got an offer for a role as a trader at a BB in the treasury team. I know there's many functions within teams like this but everyone in interviews was explicit in stating that this role is a portfolio management role (i.e. they manage the banks balance sheet and make investment decisions in various asset classes). Does this sound like a good role in terms of buyside exits (assets traded are everything but equities). From the sound of it seems very relevant for buy side but just want to know if I'm mistaken.
You're probably mistaken if you think it will be relevant to the buy side. Everyone in the interviews is literally telling you it's portfolio management i.e. a mid/back office function. That will do the exact opposite of helping you try to recruit to a HF if that's you're goal (assuming based on your posting in this forum) unless you're shooting for similarly mid/back office roles.
Portfolio management is back/mid office? Correct me if I'm mistaken but Isn't it literally what an asset manager/HF does except in this case you're trading a banks excess cash instead of some external clients money? Unless of course this is sarcasm but can't be too sure lol.
It's a fair question and perhaps I'm mistaken (I haven't personally worked at a bank but have done some financial services/fintech investments), but if they're part of the Treasury team then my impression is that's not going to be a trader like you would think in the same way as someone working in S&T. Portfolio mgmt for a HF is not the same as portfolio mgmt for a bank, the former is trying to make money through active mgmt while the latter is more worried about not losing money and perhaps getting some sort of low yield to compensate for time/nominal risk via "safer" securities like treasury bonds, money markets, etc. Think about it like if you're working under the CFO and it's your job to figure out what savings account will give you the best yield for where you park your money and is the least likely to lose it by blowing themselves up. It sounds like it's part of the finance/accounting functional area so you're not doing investment analysis like a someone at an AM/HF but making cash management decisions for the balance sheet of the bank.
This IMO would also explain why "everyone in interviews was explicit in stating that this role is a portfolio management role" - they're doing their best to make sure you understand that this role isn't a front office trading role and don't want you to get the wrong impression, show up to work, and be pissed off/feel like you were lied to.
I see, I'll try and do more research. One aspect that gave me some more confidence in this role was that a bunch of traditional S&T summer interns moved laterally into this team/adjacent teams. Thanks for your thoughts.
Totally do more research. Try and find out what part of S&T those folks were in because I have seen (not infrequently) middle and back office S&T interns at BBs just list themselves as having worked in S&T on LinkedIn. Best of luck!
Hi there, ignore the other fools on this forum.
Your role most likely falls under 1 of 3 categories two of which are front office and the third is actually incredibly interesting and stimulating as well.
1. You’d be working on a Funding Trading Desk that trades securities such ABCP, BDN, BAs, and other fixed income securities to fund the banks balance sheet. Global Markets front office sales and trading, if your interested in fixed income or money markets it’s a great place to be
2. Deposits Portfolio Management, depending the bank, deposits portfolio management functions as Funding/money market desk housed in the Transaction Banking unit of the Corporate & Investment Bank. Front office role that originates and helps treasury sales sell bespoke fixed income products. Basically fixed income products with no CUSIP. You’d be involved in building the rates curves, intrinsic valuation, and pricing of these products as well. (This is a role that I work in). Again Front Office role and pay just lesser well known on WSO
3. Treasury and Balance Sheet Management. You could be allocating bank funding to various fixed income and money market products to beat FTP hurdle rates and ultimately generate revenue for the bank. Technically middle office but you are effectively in house fixed income trader for the bank to optimize risk adjusted return
Awesome. Could I PM you to get to know more?
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