Any Desk Analysts or Credit Traders here ??
Hello everyone, I am extremely interested in a career as a HY Desk analyst / strategist as I love financial modelling and credit markets. I will have soon a gap year with two internships in 2025. Knowing that I have done this year an internship in a debt advisory boutique, what type of experience is the most appreciated to get recruited as a desk analyst: RX, Levfin, DCM or just normal IB to build modelling skills ? (I find it harder to just get a summer in markets at a BB since rotations are random so no guarantee I will be on a credit trading desk) Thank you very much for your help. It's so hard to get info on this position as there are not a lot of positions available in each desk/bank. Cheers
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here are some insights and recommendations for pursuing a career as a High Yield (HY) Desk Analyst or Credit Trader:
Relevant Experience:
Restructuring (RX):
Leveraged Finance (LevFin):
Debt Capital Markets (DCM):
Investment Banking (IB):
Additional Tips:
Conclusion:
For a career as a HY Desk Analyst or Credit Trader, gaining experience in RX or LevFin would be highly beneficial due to the direct relevance of the skills developed. DCM and general IB experience can also be valuable, but may require additional focus on modeling and credit analysis.
Good luck with your career aspirations! If you have any more questions or need further guidance, feel free to ask.
Sources: S&T Summer Analyst Lateral to IB FT?, Hours: LevFin v DCM London, ECM/DCM for Career Banking, Can GCM analyst recruit for PE?, Analyst at DCM, now what?
easily RX for the skillset/legal/credit doc/process experience. but you need to be able to switch gears from an advisory mentality/lifestyle/work approach - to the pace of a trading desk / focus on clients / managing risk and generating PnL. it’s not a natural transition for most people in my opinion. i personally don’t think a lot of people who excel or enjoy RX “naturally” will do well on a trading desk
i also think levfin is a better segway into private credit/equity so don't really recommend it at all unless you want to do banking long term or deals
you’d be better off being an RX analyst -> distressed fund for comp/lifestyle/interest in credit markets in my opinion. the best desk analyst is a great trader / markets professional / risk manager / enjoyer of game theory. not the best process/RX/credit doc nerd if that makes sense
if you want to be a desk analyst just do everything you can to start there
I will make a distinction between performing high yield desk analyst seats and distressed/special sits desk analyst seats. For a performing high yield desk seat, your best path is to get a junior/entry level job in a publishing sell-side credit team. Most of the big US banks still have publishing credit teams and, although you are on the other side of the wall, you will still get direct access to your banks credit trading desk (both traders and sales people). So, for example, if you work in publishing credit for BAML, you will get a lot of interaction with BAML's credit trading desk team. It's fairly straightforward to move internally from a publishing sell-side seat to a trading desk role.
For distressed/special sits desk seats, you really need a restructuring background and so ideally you would do 2-years at a place like Houlihan.
I will echo what has been said above. Desk analyst roles are more "trading" than investing and most desk analysts would kill to move to the buy-side to work in an actual capital deployment seat. The real "value add" of a desk analyst is connectivity to accounts and not your view on a credit. What I mean by this is that the buy-side wants to know what other buy-siders are thinking on a name. You effectively become the go-between guy and your ability to tell the guy at Apollo what the guy at Diameter is thinking becomes your real value-add. No one actually cares what your view on recoveries/outcomes is (the buy side thinks they are smarter than you anyway!).
Finally, comp is heavily weighted towards traders and salespeople far more than analysts. As an analyst, you get viewed as a fixed cost and don't have the same kind of upside you might have in a fund.
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