Careers in Fixed income research and exit options

Hello Experience folks, I am a newbie. I would like to get your help in weighing my career options. I have recently got a job in Fixed income research in a big bank.

I would like to get information pertinent to following areas :

  1 What is the career growth in the fixed income research ( financial / job satisfaction. well right now the work excites me)

  2 What are the exit options ? For example can I move into <a href="/finance-dictionary/trading-overview">trading</a> ?

  3 Is there anything else I should be considering before hitting the job?

Thank you in advance for the information.

8 Comments
 

Fixed income is perhaps the most interesting part of all capital markets and one of the most complex. career growth depends on where you start off. but its a great pace to start

 

Quantyoungling, do you know anything about compensation or exit ops for fixed income research? I'm a math & finance major interested in fixed income, but I'm worried it might not have the same compensation & exit ops as equity research.

 
Best Response
KeepYourDistanceQuantyoungling, do you know anything about compensation or exit ops for fixed income research? I'm a math & finance major interested in fixed income, but I'm worried it might not have the same compensation & exit ops as equity research.

Are you joking???Almost all the trading and investments have to do with Fixed Income..Equities are just a small portion.Check some compensation data on WSO.Equities guys are also the worst paid (of course if you are good,you can make a fortune in any field). You can do exactly the same stuff as in equities:trading,research,sales,Debt Capital Markets...

 

Awesome well that makes me feel a lot better then! SalGr, where did you find the compensation data for fixed income vs equities? (All I could find on WSO Compensation was IB vs PE vs S&T)

 

Im also looking at research positions in fixed income/equities.... Just feel as if it is much less prestigious and lower pay than other positions in the bank But definitely feel as if your research ideas are money making ideas, its easy to leverage those ideas to exit ops on the buy side Can anyone else comment on the role (comp, exit ops, day in the life etc)

 

Not less prestigious, but Research guys have to "sell" their research to their salesforce and traders, and if those guys don´t agree they will tell their clients their view instead of yours (although this varies by bank). You make money by selling your ideas to YOUR clients, and then getting them to trade through the bank. So yes, you should be able to meet a lot of people in the buyside, and if you´re good you could leverage that into an offer.

 

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