On what desks can you still be a 'superstar'?
Interning in S&T at a BB this summer. I overheard interns call some salespeople 'rising stars'. Given that revenue generated in S&T has stagnated this year, I was just wondering on what desks can you still be considered a superstar. I'm guessing somewhere in Fixed Income, Rates, or Credit. How about Equity Derivatives?
Superstars can be on any desk,
Have met some of the greatest traders and sales traders in Equity sales / trading, commodities, portfolio trading, high yield credit… there can be outliers and killers from any seat. Just float to wherever your bank’s “best” desks are
I guess my question is more related to what desk do trader's bonuses outperform bankers'. I'm guessing you could be a superstar and still get lower compensation than your peers in banking for the same seniority level.
the fuck? if you're a superstar (and this is incl. the "rising stars" aka superstars in the making) in trading, you will almost certainly make more than your peers in banking - high variance/low median vs low variance/high median
but at the analyst/jnr level - fat chance lol
Interested
interested
Bump
Also interested. I think (according to rv_trader) it's usually a function of how much prop risk you can take
Also saw his thread, so on what desks can you take the most amount of prop risk?
Crypto-desk buildouts at traditional firms, or some of the crypto-native firms. New market kind of levels the playing field for ambitious new graduates and juniors since the market really took off on an institutional side of things in 2017. That means anyone who was trading professionally on an institutional level in 2017 has ~5 YoE and is an industry thought leader compared to traditional products where you need 10+ YoE to truly understand all the esoteric tail risks and market structure. 5 YoE in TradFi on a structured desk would be Assoc 2-3 and maybe VP 1 but 5 YoE in crypto and you're a desk head, PM, etc. Obviously the more popular this becomes the more the talent will shift and candidate knowledge will start to become more specified for crypto products/desks, but right now they're just poaching tradfi talent or crypto-natives and offering typically better pay, WLB, culture, and a faster paced product to trade - both on the S&T and prop side of things.
Jump Crypto Head - 25
Majority of Trading Heads at Crypto Natives - 27-35ish
Given the rate at which the industry is growing, do I think if you enter the crypto space right now and gain 5 YoE will you be ahead of your peers in Traditional Finance? Yes I do. Do I think you'll have the same opportunities as those who took the plunge in 2017? Maybe not, but I still believe the opportunities are far greater than TradFi right now where it's a bit too structured. It's also really easy to hop for title and responsibility change in crypto right now from any of the crypto-natives like GSR, Genesis, Galaxy, Wintermute, Jump, etc. They understand the talent is incredibly niche and all of these are players in the space so they have no issue taking someone with 1-1.5 YoE of crypto native at Galaxy and bringing them on as an Assoc. at GSR or things like that - especially if they have personal/dev experience as well.
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From my experience on the credit floor, the star traders that got poached by HFs, one ran the macro credit desk, the other ran the single name CDS desk. This makes sense since derivative side is less capital intensive and could therefore take more risks. From the macro floor I’m sure it’s similar, stars probably run a flow derivatives book in either rates or EM
Can someone elaborate on what makes a salesperson in S&T a “superstar”?
High sales credits
Agree, illiquid products are better for sales.
you can consistently move paper - i.e. clients show you good flows, traders show you good size/prices (and pay you fat sales credits)
you can cross flows i.e. "find the other side" - in meaningful size consistently
you can keep clients happy (WAY easier said than done - some can be very plucky and pedantic) - in terms of entertainment (shocker: clients like to be shown a good time) and engagement (axes, ideas, color, etc. - again WAY easier said than done as some clients can be very predatory with the info u share with them)
Seeing it in action is an absolute work of art.
this is your answer folks. but OP’s question is really bad - which is hard to understand why until you’re in the business but you can’t just plan to be a rockstar in S&T. it’s not a guided path like banking at all. it’s very personality, aptitude, temperament, speed, wit/EQ, team, politics driven. more-so than any “normal” job.
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