if you are interested in equities, look at desks that deal with international stocks. hedge funds and mutual funds are only going to get more involved in foreign markets. international sales people can make quite a bit of money, and its a great lifestyle.

 

i'm going to take an idea from Marcus Buckingham's book: Go Put Your Strengths to Work. if you are strong in sales and people skills, go with sales. you'll be happier and the money will take care of itself.

 
Best Response

vdubs1503--What do you want to know about commodities? I am way biased, but I believe that from a "longevity" point of view commodities is one of the top desks. Good split between corporate hedging and working with investors, more growth opportunity than any other desk (both because only a few banks have established desks, and also overall growth in the sector, etc.).

As far as sales vs. trading, it can be desk dependent), but in general, solid quant skills are a necessity across the board these days, even in sales. That said, when I was making this decision a number of people on the floor told me it really comes down to is risk appetite. Do you intentionally seek out risk? Or does the idea of going home at night knowing you could lose millions before getting back into the office the next day worry you? I personally have no problem with risk so I never really focused on this aspect, but a lot of people do talk about it.

Also, do you want to be a generalist or a specialist? The sales people on desks have the most-broad based knowledge and are more macro, whereas the traders and structurers (to a lesser degree) are more specialized. In addition, the sales people usually "own" the deal, esp. for structured products, so you will have much more interaction with the rest of the bank. I work in sales so I'm constantly working with PE, IBD, lev fin, etc. as well as lawyers, accountants, credit risk, etc.

 

Honestly it doesn't matter THAT much. Even if you get assigned Sales rotations (really you should have both sales and trading) you can still explain that you're more interested in trading. You're not really doing anything as an intern either way so the important thing is making a good impression on people whether they're sales or trading.

 

Hey casualgamer, I'm here because nobody responded to this thread after a few days...maybe one of these resources will help you:

More suggestions...

I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 

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