HF quant vs BB sales trader
Hello Wall Street Oasis,
Recently, me and my friend had a discussion on who has the better and more prestigious profile. It is between the Ivy league quant trader at a 0.5b boutique hedge fund vs the state school sales trader at a mid-tier BB (not GS, JPM, MS) They are both about 3 years into their respective roles. Salaries differ by about 10%.
Slightly more details.
The quant has strats running on 10mil allocation. Strats are the non-TA sort and more mathematical. Ie, cross market, volatility overlay, momentum strategies. In at 9am, tweaks models, doesn't meet clients, out by 6pm. Very poor broad finance knowledge. (Regression isn't exactly respected by bankers)
The sales trader execute deals and raises assets. Gets to deal with large volume and push new products to their institutional clients. Very good looking and very good talker. Putting in about 11 hours a day.
Motivation for this otherwise non-career related tier comparison study - they just want the public community to decide who treats the other dinner. Simply put: who would you rather be?
Thanks for the answers.
I hope you realize that this is rather silly. I don't wanna say anything crude, so will leave it at that.
Objection your honor, leading the witness...
Who would I rather be? Neither.
You two must have the fucking coolest conversations! :D
I would rather be the person who didn't bring this conversation up...if I had to be one of you at all.
I am not going to pile on but you and your friend need to get a life.
I kindda knew I'll draw this kindda of responses from WSO.
For those who got nothing else better to do than to partake in this pointless conversation, I need two letters from you - HF or BB where the acronyms refer to the aforementioned profiles.
Whichever one means you have to pay for dinner...
Haha,yo'ure obviously the sales trader. C'mon dude
Seriously. The moment you mentioned looks is when this "analysis" fell apart. I choose neither.
HF Quant vs. BB Trading (Originally Posted: 11/09/2010)
Looking for some advice and thoughts on exit opps. Have a fulltime offer out of undergrad for a quant role beginning summer 2011 at a well established hedge fund (think deshaw/aqr/Citadel) in US and an eq. derivatives trading position at a large BB in Asia. Wanted to hear your thoughts on learning opportunities, mobility and exit opportunities, whether or not the quant space is a good one to be in given the market climate, and/or any other considerations that may be important to the decision. Feel free to chime in with thoughts on the brand images of the various HFs mentioned above and/or the possibility of becoming a trader having undergone a 2-3 year experience with the quant side of things. Do recruiters view the sets of skills as transferrable?I was originally interested in trading but concepts like portfolio construction and optimization are also appealing and I'm really just looking to create a body of knowledge and hopefully decision-making experience that would keep my options open going forward. thanks so much and please do let me know if there's anything i can clarify further.
i mean, if its one of those 3 firms you said there is not a BB job you could take (including goldman NY) that would be better imo in terms of money prestige and opportunity down the road
If it's one of those three, then you gotta take it, you talented fuck! Congratulations on that offer and good luck on your career
I'll leave it to the traders on the forum to comment on the trading gig.
To answer your questions about the Quant job: 1.) While the image of quants took a hit during the Quant meltdown, I can't see it having affected job prospects in the field. If anything, there's a greater demand for mathematically sound quants who also have a good understanding for the markets. 2.) It's a lot more relaxed than trading.You get a chance to learn about the markets at your own pace, while continuing to exercise certain core skills that are transferable across various industries (aka programming, mathematical modeling e.t.c.). A decent chunk of the skills are transferable to trading - having a solid quantitative understanding of what contribute to asset prices and their risk exposures is very helpful. If you complement this with self study (reading research reports, news e.t.c.), you should be well positioned to make the switch.
congrats man on landing such lucrative offers. i think the dilemma here is working in Asia or U.S. in light of future prospects.Anybody who has worked in both places care to throw some light? Also we need to hear the traders side of the story.Difficult choice between large bb and reputed hedgefund, isn't it? Brilliant guys like you certainly deserve the fast track. So the question is, which choice will make that happen???????????
I really appreciate all of your thoughts on my situation and with respect to the above post, i'm definitely hoping for some insight on the US vs. Asia issue and flexibility with future moves, and some thoughts if possible from the traders on the forum. thank you so much.
potato, just curious what background you have that enabled you to land HF quant offers....I'm sorta interested in those roles, so if you don't feel like disclosing it on a public forum, you can PM me....were you an undergrad quant major or do u have a graduate degree?
Good job. I would take the hedge fund quant position.
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