Inter-Dealer Brokers - General outlook

What is the general outlook on IDB's these days? Couldn't find much recent info when doing a search on the site and it seems like this area goes unnoticed by a large number of people in finance.

Does anyone here work for one the big players in IDB (ICAP, Tullett Prebon, Tradition, BGC, GFI), or a smaller firm out there that specializes in this? I'd love to hear some perspectives on what the future holds in this business. Seems extremely interesting to me and I'd really appreciate any insight.

Feel free to PM me if you'd rather not post here. Thanks all.

11 Comments
 
Best Response
Right up my alley! Many of my friends/family friends are IDB's, and I was considering heading down that path --- until they stopped me. Voice brokering is dying off due to regulations and now products are headed to electronic brokering platforms which equals less compensation... significantly less compensation.

IDB was great in it's heyday, I know people that never went to college and banked away over $6,4,7,10, million a year, but now the run is done - since the financial crisis they are losing 3/4 - 1/2 of their compensation every year and now even with some rebounding in the markets, the "new volume" is on electronic platforms so it isn't benefiting them. They have acknowledged their position will be gone in 3-5 years. It is a shame too, I grew up being on an IDB floor once every 2-3 weeks since I was 7, watching everyone yell, shoot the shit, and make some great money, but I don't even want to head onto the floor now because it is dead. I still wish I could have been an IDB, I am sad thinking about it now, my entire financial knowledge revolved around IDB, but it is done, finito, finished. Not to mention IDB's have/"had" a great work culture. - for comparison purposes - VB's collected commissions of about 2K on a trade matched, now they collect around 1,200 with barely any volume. EB's on the other hand collect only around 1-200 for every trade matched and there are a lot of EB's to go around because it is based around a platform, not a person. VB's as crude as they are, are amazing at their job, it required a special personality. I am not kidding. I saw HYPS that attempted to become IDB's (when I would visit), the brokers would give them the phone, but they just couldn't do it correctly - VB'ing IDB is/ "was" about brute confidence.

-pardon the grammatical mistakes

-

-All youhave to do is google "ICAP news" ( i picked icap because it is the largest) - to see where the business model is heading:

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&authuser=0&q=tullet+p…

 
ogofnyc

We need more king of the road's instead of pompous idiots like the one above

I figured the more threads the better. I remember ways back doing research I would want more than just one thread about a topic I was performing research on.

 

Quo corporis minima molestiae. Aut aut labore animi quasi minima perspiciatis omnis. Rerum repellat voluptatem distinctio totam explicabo.

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