Distressed Debt in S&T
Hi, what are the exit opps for a distressed debt trading role at a BB? I've heard PE or HF are options as the skillset is similar to IB, but curious to know how likely they are. Thanks
Jun 17, 2020
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If you’re at a BB, you have desk analysts who are doing the modeling/following company news etc because traders’ liquidity is so thin, that they’re spending a lot of time talking to hedge funds trying to figure out an overall strategy. The best exit opp would probably be PE-related but more in a senior role, because an analyst on a distressed desk is going to be booking more trades than modeling companies.
Thanks for the reply. I'm a little lost unfortunately - at my BB, there are both traders and desk analysts. The traders, like you said, book the trades and the desk analysts do more modelling. Can you clarify your last sentence? It seems like you're saying that trading and modelling from your experience is done by one person
Ah yeah I see where that can be confusing - the “desk analyst” is a term for someone covering/modeling specific names traded by the desk, and they are generally higher-up - sort of like a credit research analyst, who just sits with the distressed desk. In my last sentence I was more referring to your specific position as a first-year “analyst” as part of the analyst program, i.e. just the term as lowest rung on the ladder. So in your first two years, you’ll be doing more trading/market related tasks, rather than modeling tasks (which are handled by the desk analysts), so you won’t be getting exactly the skills PE recruiters are looking for. That said it could give you a good perspective that a lot of other applicants wouldn’t have.
Is this a safe place to be longterm?
I’d definitely feel safer on a distressed debt desk than on a cash equity desk in terms of job security/fear of automation
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