Lehman Brothers- Cash Equity Trading vs Credit Trading

I am quite torn between these two desks and was wondering if anyone with experience and knowledge could help provide some clarity. I like the people on both desks fairly equally (with a slight edge to equities) and have the following pros/cons for each desk in my head. On the credit side I am considering distressed debt and high yield.

Equities- Pros: -get more responsibility quicker -get to trade quicker -growing product at lehman -good mentorship program

Cons: -earnings potential not on par with credit? -reputation and market share of lehman equities does not match credit -potential for market making role to become increasingly automated -it seems like you would develop less of a transferable skill set and be stuck in equities...correct me if i am wrong

Credit Pros: -cant beat credit at lehman...best on the street -interesting product with big prop element -good mentorship program...proven excellence -high earnings potential

Cons: -have to enter research for 1-2 yrs (in high yield only)...not necessarily a huge negative but research doesn't seem that fun -takes longer to get responsibility and a pad due to strong establishment at lehman

if anyone can care to clarify or correct any of these pros and cons or weigh in on one side of the other i would greatly appreciate it.

21 Comments
 

Equities, imo, are a dead end. Starting out in research will allow you to learn more of the why first; which will get you a lot further than just knowing the how.

 

honestly bro, I'm not as much of a bear on the equities desk as some people around here, but really?? This is your choice.

I will say, equities could be more 'fun.'

 

ehh, unless you really, really like the equities guys, go credit.

and lehman is not the best, but they are a good bank.

 

gs and db are at the top for credit jpm is good with exotics too (they developed a lot of the new credit derivatives tech.), ml is behind all three, and i'd only join ms for commodities.

in terms of FI S&T revenues, i think its something like 1. GS 2. DB 3. JPM

 

Global Principal Strategies is essentially lehmans in house hedge fund,.....prop desk that trades everything

big reservation is that it is a research role which i have heard takes 6-8 yrs to convert into a PM or execution trader role

do people have big takes on HY vs HG trading?

 
vikings11Global Principal Strategies is essentially lehmans in house hedge fund,.....prop desk that trades everything

big reservation is that it is a research role which i have heard takes 6-8 yrs to convert into a PM or execution trader role

do people have big takes on HY vs HG trading?

that sounds cool to me, i'd go for that desk.

the two markets are different. i'd go for high yield. dont think market making corporates is all that interesting. but that's me.

 
Best Response

When I was interviewing with Lehman, one SVP seemed very proud of the fact that they were heavily cash based and essentially made all their money making markets. Additionally, I have never really seen any of their traders in any rankings from Trader Monthly (Yeah, I know this is like the Star Magazine of Wall Street.), which leads me to believe that unlike GS, JPM, and DB they do not have any prop traders doing insanely well there. Maybe Leh's non-superstar culture eliminates this, but Goldman's mantra of teamwork does not seem to restrain their individual traders much. Maybe someone with more experience on the street knows more about this.

 

... lehman is trying to increase risk taking (maybe a bit late to the game?) but yeah, they still have a huge focus on the clients and flow.

 

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