Trading Floor VS Cubicle
Hey guys, I've been wondering how this works for a while so I'll ask here. Also note: I'm not in finance so excuse my ignorance just interested in what it feels like to work on a busy trading floor since that looks pretty cool NGL.
As an outsider looking in, open desk/trading floors look really loud and chaotic when shown in the media and such, is this true to real life or is it a bit more dialed down? Do people generally prefer an open or cubicle arrangement?
Do investment bankers generally work on large trading floors or do they work in their own cubicles/offices like in law or accounting firms? Do certain groups work on the trading floor like the guys in capital markets? Do the upper guys of a bank also work in an open desk office or do they eventually get some privacy?
Aren't institutional traders these days glorified programmers? Open outcry is dead.
What about IB capital market groups like DCM/ECM? Don't they usually work on a trading floor?
Not exactly especially in the physical side. You should see the trading floor of some of the aggressive physical shops. Hardly much programming there along with a lot of noise.
In equities, fixed income, and even most commodities, open outcry is dead. Cboe closed their floor a couple years ago. NYMEX (where Trading Places was shot) many years before that. (Ok, it was shot in WTC, and their final floor was at 300 Vesey where Knight, now Virtu is) I've been on the dais, people just use 11 wall for cheap office space.
I don't think OP was referring to open outcry, to me it read more like the S&T floor within an office. To answer that question, it's pretty much what you imagine and how it's portrayed in media, but definitely dialed down a bit. People who would work on the floor would be sales, trading, some risk people, a few compliance people, some specific support functions, in some cases treasury and/or structuring.
What about ECM/DCM IB groups?
Sometimes, but often not. In my experience they are usually in a different area, but at the same time their area also still typically has the trading floor vibe.
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