Sales at Investment Banks???
I have always wanted to become a trader and eventually work for one of the bigger IB's. I have recently learned about the sales end of the trading business and developed an interest in that particulat sector. I had a few questions:
What exactly does the job consist of?
Would a dual degree in finance and marketing look better then finance and accounting?
How much do these guys make? Are the top guys bringing home 7 figures?
Thanks in advance.
the degree doesn't matter, as long as you are good with people and good with numbers. I suggest reading the vault guide on sales + trading to learn more.
you would definitely be bringing in 7 figures and possibly 8 as a top sales guy
I read this post's headline to mean are any investment banks having sales (i.e. 20% advisory services from now until Saturday at 9am ). That would be a better question and/or I am retarded.
haha buy one get one free restructuring
Yea, income potential could be considered unlimited. The Sales end of the business is extremely client oriented, the Sales side is constantly on the phone talking with institutional clients/pension funds etc and they are informing the "clients" basically on how the market is performing/ what is going on/ making recommendations/ and trying to sell products. You should try to get some experience at smaller banks doing anything related to the sales side. Or any type of sales driven experience would be beneficial. You have to be great with numbers/follow the market/ and someone who could communicate/talk over the phone without sounding like a idiot. The Sales force deals directly with the traders, the sales people take an order from their clients and then send it on to the traders, then the traders try to find the best price "trade" they can possible. This is how most of the BB banks "Sales and Trading" divisions work. If someone knows better than I do, please correct me if I'm wrong.
Note: You do not cold call clients trying to pitch stock ideas. The Clients call you! So you make it happen
So that means that neither the sales guy nor the trader(whom he sends the order) has any discretion as to what trades to put on.Are they just executing trades for their clients at the best price..like a broker ?
Not exactly true. Let's focus on the trading side first. To begin, you need to understand how the flow works at most desks. Yes, you get orders from clients, which means that you are on the opposite side of their trade. This does not, however, mean that you automatically trade out of it. As a trader, you decide what to do with your risk (what you are opposite the clients) which essentially makes up your book. Obviously a little more complicated, because depending on the product you might not be able to actually trade out of it, so then hedging strategies come into play. This is really why when most people say that trading is "managing risk." Beyond this, most desks also put on prop bets, either from their own ideas or as a reaction to what they see their clients doing. Brokers are not allowed to take risk, they are simply matching buyers and sellers.
Salespeople are also not taking any risk, but they pitch ideas to clients and try to get business for the firm. (In general) when clients want to make a move, they will talk to the salespeople who then ask the traders to make a price, the client then decides to execute or not (depending on whether he gets a better price elsewhere or likes a certain firm better etc) and if they execute that's when the desk is on the opposite side of the client.
also most entry level analysts for s&t won't get the chance to talk to anybody until you get your series 7 and other series tests over with. be sure to study and pass those tests.
Any bank that hires a newbie out of school is going to make passing the series tests a pre-requisite of graduating from the training program. You won't even get to a desk, let alone talk with clients, until you pass those.
except for prop. traders, as they trade with their own institution's money and more choice on what types of investments to make. as you generate higher returns, ur institution would usu. allocate more funds at your disposal. if u want know more, read something like fooled by randomness...
I don't think there are many salesmen making 8 figures. Commissions have fallen 90% in the past 15 years in this business. You can still make some solid money but the name of the game is volume.
How common is it to go into sales from an MBA? I have 3 years experience in Consulting and would like to work in Sales.
It can be done. Are you already getting your MBA? A lot of sales positions are open to guys with two-four years industry experience (banking and possibly consulting) so you may not even need that. How common? I can't speak from personal experience.
Not sure why no one uses the search function on here anymore, this has been discussed in depth. There is a whole thread about an FX sales guy.
Anyways if you have worked in a BB or on a trading floor. You notice that alot of the higher ups in management come from sales, a lot of the head of capital markets were former sales guys. Inside a sell-side bank the higher you get the lines between sales/trading get blurry. Oh yah yes they make 7 figures and more.
so instead of being a prick, how about you post the link?
...........no wonder people in this forum yell at each other so often.
I wrote the thread regarding FX sales, feel free to ask me any questions, but first read my previous thread, i have no desire to repeat what has already been written
Read "Liar's Poker"... will give you some background of being in sales/trading and it's a great book.
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