Best products to sell? Best products to trade?
Hello everyone,
I am a sales and trading intern at a large bank. For color, it is a huge but not typically top five name on the street. My program is rotational so I get the best of all worlds exploring products, sales, and trading respectively.
One concern I have for the future is that some products just seem so commoditized. As a potential trader, I feel a little mixed knowing that certain areas are mostly volume-driven rather than built on real edge or juicy spreads. I like the pace and thinking involved, but sometimes it feels more like trying to out-click someone than outsmart them.
On the sales side, relationships still matter, but at my bank, it seems like salespeople are less connected to their clients than they used to be. Most communication is over Bloomberg or email, and the floor can be dead quiet. It honestly feels more like IT support than high finance some days. Because of the competition, sales also seems a bit more administrative than advisory.
Obviously this is not true across the board. There is definitely a spectrum—some products are so niche that trades might happen once a day, while others move millions or billions just to squeeze out a fraction of a basis point. I want to find something in the middle. Ideally a product that is not commoditized, has decent volume, decent spreads, and real opportunities for PnL. Something futureproof and transferable to the buyside.
What do you think fits that description best, either on the sales or trading side? And am I thinking about this the right way, or is there something I’m missing?
As an aside, I unfortunately do not have the ability to try commodities products during my rotation, which I feel could very well be an answer to this discussion. For now, I’m trying to focus my thinking around FICC, FX, or Equities.
Surprisingly high quality post from the intern.
My answer is this: exotics
What falls under exotics? Can you give a few different products that fit the "exotic" characteristics?
Also, do you think sales or trading is best for these products? Any color is appreciated.
To trade exotics or other structured derivs, banks are generally looking for very strong quantitative backgrounds. So I would keep that in mind. Sales people on these desks tend to be less quant-y, but obviously still very very bright people.
I will add a vote for converts. The trading is still very manual/old-school (more on the side of outsmarting and not out clicking), spreads can be juicy depending on the name, get exposure to credit/equity/vol in one product, and relationships are very important for driving volume. Speaking more generally, vol desks (like equity derivs) or non-IG credit like HY and distressed would fit mostly what you are looking for too I think. But at the end of the day, you want to be in a product that your firm is good at.
This
Thank you. I will look into this when meeting with my firm's fixed-income credit teams.
Emerging Markets!
CMBS
As someone with 0 experience in sales and trading, how do you get experience and make yourself marketable enough that someone is willing to take a chance on you
Anything markets-related at all in terms of work experience, and do a weekly macro newsletter etc. always a good start
Best product to sell- Securitized and it’s not even close. Ton of new issue flow, that actually takes work to sell, decent amount of innovation of new products, tons of different investor types with a wide variety of goals and return metrics.
Best product to trade- Depends on your goals, the more liquid the product the more prop as you can take a view and get in and out of positions without customers (most things in macro) The less liquid the product the more you need to be a good customer guy, and market ideas to the sales force and understand how leverage your capital to generate carry while mixing in views on relative/directional value. A lot of things in the SPG space fall in into this. IG/HY credit sort of sit in between, portfolio trading has really changed the way things trade/improved liquidity a ton, but at the same time still room for relative value opportunities.
What do u think about trading agency MBS vs rates or rates vol
Curious about this as well
When you say securitized, are we talking ABS, CMBS, CLO, CMO, etc.? I see my firm has lots of new issuance in these spaces that keeps the flow strong on both the primary and secondary markets. Great answer, thank you.
You're thinking in the right direction. For a balance of liquidity, edge, and transferability, look into structured credit, exotic FX options, or equity vol trading. These areas offer real thinking room, aren’t overly commoditized, and set you up well for buyside roles. Keep asking questions and stay curious—it’ll pay off.
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