Banking to a Hedge Fund or Trading? Help!

Hey guys,

I'm working at a BB after graduation doing banking but am not interested in banking for the long-run. I have two questions:

1) How should I go about deciding between trying to work for a hedge fund and working on a bank's trading desk?

2) If I want to get into trading at my bank, what groups would be best for this? (I would think lev fin, ecm, dcm, maybe restructuring for a distressed desk)

It seems like working at a hedge fund would require me to put in more hours doing more boring work but could be more interesting since you're coming up with an investment thesis and taking positions vs. making markets and mitigating risk.

Thanks for the help on this guys, Yodaddy

7 Comments
 

DCM will be a good one since it deals with lots of structuring of debt instruments, so it will be a good learning opportunity to know the intricacies behind these complex instruments.

 

DCM will be a good one since it deals with lots of structuring of debt instruments, so it will be a good learning opportunity to know the intricacies behind these complex instruments.

 
Best Response

I worked in DCM as an analyst for almost 3 years and totally disagree. If you are looking to do flow trading, which is basically matching buyers and sellers, then DCM could be an OK start. DCM is pitching, sending weekly pricings and executing transactions without much modelling or in depth financial analysis IMO. It is more of a S&T/IBD mixture that is marketing focused, but I also working in investment grade, so HY may be different. ECM exit ops are probably worse than DCM.

I would say restructuring or lev. fin. if you want to get into distressed, but I would take an IBD industry group over ECM or DCM if you are looking to get into a HF or trading as you could lateral over as a research associate/analyst after a couple years. That's just my opinion after working in DCM and getting out.

 

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