Prospects of Municipals Trading?

Hi All -

I recently started a job as a 1st year analyst in municipals trading at a mid-tier BB (think one step above RBC). Our desk does pretty well, but not the best on the street. I primarily will be trading 10+ years and out in the Tax-Exempt space (sector focus tbd later).

I was wondering if anyone with knowledge of Munis could provide some information on where they see this market in 5-10 years. I know munis is still pretty much mainly voice, but BBs are trying to automate smaller sized trades. I understand that this isn’t a big threat right now, but my if you can automate small size, my view is that the size can creep higher and higher over time. Do you think that there is a good career (emphasis on career) to be made trading munis?

My other question is regarding compensation. I know public finance banking pays less, since it would look poorly on muni issuers to be paying massive fees to IBs, but on the S&T side, how does comp look? I know munis trade in much smaller size vs corporates, but bid ask is wider so there’s still money to be made I assume. How does compensation look as you move up the ladder vs other trading seats?

Trying to reconcile the path I should take/prepare myself for. I am going all in on my job right now, but I want to make sure that I position myself in case I figure out down the road there’s a different path I want to go down.