F&PA - trade floor

marcellus_wallace:

pacman007:

GoodBread:

So you're saying you'd rather not become a trader?

I'm saying that I hadn't considered it before. I was always focused on eventually getting to the business development side of things. My question is: what type of exit opps would I have after this type of role?

I just have found out that our Commercial organization has its own business development side....where we decide whether or not to invest in pipelines, acquire plants, terminals, vessels etc...this seems very interesting now.

What type of financials firms look to hire people who acquire this type of background?

BD/Origination is a lot more complicated than that. It's the closest to investment banking at a VP/MD level you could get in this business.

None, BD is focused on physical assets and physical market strategies. You are of no value to a financial firm, unless they have a physical arm or business.

Based on your questions seems you are still bit to confused or "green" to the industry what exactly marketing firms do to make $$$, may want to give it 6months in this role then start asking these questions.

Oh yah, one last thing. Just to be clear you are not in "commercial" you are not doing work aligned with the risk appetite of commercial nor apart of the commercial bonus pool. So really the first "exit opp" you should look for is to clearly get into a commercial role. Think of it this way you are on the floor near the traders and working with them but nothing you do increases margin, you are simply there to make sure no one blows shit up and provide data when needed.

Thanks for the feedback. I do understand that I am not in commerical but I will work very closely with our traders. I will also understand how supply & trading activities impact the bottom line. Many traders on our floor have come from these same F&PA roles so I do know that it is very possible to move to commercial. I'm not dead-set on becoming a trader but I definitely want move into the market/research roles that we have and from what I know so far, this is very much possible.

I sit right next to a market analyst on the floor and my traders are a few desks over so I know I can start networking immediately and start soaking up knowledge. There is definitely a lot to learn so I just gotta role up my sleeves and get to it...