2026 MM S&T Rankings
Hey all,
Got a late start to the game after switching my career goals from REPE to S&T. Since all the BB have recruited already, can anyone weigh in on which MM banks / brokerage firms are the best for each desk. Some firms I had in mind were Baird, Piper Sandler, Stifel, Jones Trading, Raymond James, StoneX, Oppenheimer, Seaport, Cantor Fitzgerald, Marex, BGC etc. Also if anyone can speak on the pros & cons of FI Sales vs. Prime Brokerage that would be helpful.
Thank you and I hope this helps others!
MacQ #1
Bump
Are some of these names even S&T desks? Thought some of these were like agency brokers or electronic liquidity aggregators. Working on an agency broker desk is not the same as S&T.
Jefferies crushes it
Will cut those up into 3 groups based on what I know about various places
Piper Sandler/Stifel/Raymond James: All have pretty big public finance operations and do a lot in munis, a big focus there is with smaller banks and credit unions they do a good job of selling S&T/IB as kinda one big package and they can do some interesting stuff. Don't have a ton of balance sheet.
Baird- Also big in munis, and they have a couple of areas of the SPG space that they are very active in. They have a good effort in MBS and put some interesting ideas out.
Cantor/StoneX- These guys have more balance sheet than a piper sandler type but not as much as a BB. I'm told the people that run StoneX are very smart and have a very good feel for what they are good at and what they are not good at. FWIW I know a lot of people who have started their career at StoneX and who have moved on to BBs later. Cantor is historically known as a very cutthroat culture but they have a decent amount of balance sheet that they will pick their spots with.
Can you chime in with what you know about Jefferies?
I’d put Jefferies somewhere between a cantor and a BB. They have a good muni and SPG business, and do a lot more new issue than a cantor. Tend to be focused on more esoteric stuff relative to a BB.
Jefferies is not really comparable to the cohort above. They have tons of b/s, and operate in select sectors like any other wholesale BB. Not easy for non-targets/juniors to recruit into either, they usually hire experienced salesmen/traders so not really much of a pipeline for a kid straight out of undergrad. Good spot to hop over too when you have an established book if in FICC, otherwise not ideal, very eat what you kill
I spoke to somebody at Jefferies recently who told me they are no longer commission for salespeople, not sure how the traders are set up. I’m sure they still lean more experienced but I think maybe more junior friendly than in the past.
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