Starting as a Trader

Evening all,

I'm starting this summer as a S&T SA on a rotational scheme. I'm more interested in the Trading side and I'll be looking to work on two different Trading desks.

One of the desks I'm very keen to work on is European Equities, so it only leaves one other desk to work on and I'm interested to know which desks you guys think are the hottest (as in most action/trades/capital) right now.

So if you were starting your career in S&T again, which desk(s) would you choose in this current climate?

For what it's worth I was leaning towards High yield bonds for my second choice, but obviously I lack a lot of the experience you guys have.

4 Comments
 

Asset classes come in and out of favor over time - everything is cyclical. The hottest ones generally qualify for the "Most Likely in a Bubble" award.

Is there an electronic trading platform rotation? If so, I would get some exposure to that group. It's amazing how much trading is moving away from high touch toward the machines. I fully expect that trend to continue as were are still in the early innings.

 
Best Response
jqbuysideAsset classes come in and out of favor over time - everything is cyclical. The hottest ones generally qualify for the "Most Likely in a Bubble" award.

Is there an electronic trading platform rotation? If so, I would get some exposure to that group. It's amazing how much trading is moving away from high touch toward the machines. I fully expect that trend to continue as were are still in the early innings.

Thanks for the replies so far guys.

I suppose then a better question to ask would be, is it more advantageous to cut your teeth on a certain desk and then that makes it "easier" if you decided to go into another asset class?

If not, I think I'll just stick to my initial interests which were Equities and High Yield Bonds.

Funnily enough, I interviewed with two guys who were algorithmic traders, so I'll see if I can get in touch with them.

 

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