Structuring within S&T, Pay, and Exit Ops.

Looked through the forums and couldn't find a lot of info on Structuring. What do these guys exactly do and does anyone have a "day in the life" of a structurer.

Am I able to switch to trading and how are exit opps (want to go to buy side/hedge fund later)? This is for SA, for full time I would hope to work in trading, is this possible?

Working with structured finance products

One of our certified users describes the transition from structured finance to trading. He also discusses how valuable a structurer is to a trading desk. This is reiterated by other certified users. As structurers are usually rarer.

The transition from structuring to trading is the most natural of any roles...period.
Whereas the sales guys only need to know high level details to pitch structured products to clients, the structurer has to be THE MOST familiar with the product, all the risk measures and nuances that come with the product. Since trading is essentially the responsibility to hedge the desks exposure to these products (i.e. understand the risks and nuances), you can see why this is an easy transition.

So exit opps from Structuring:

  1. Structuring
  2. Trading (sell-side)
  3. Sales
  4. Trading (buy-side)

note: this applies to structuring roles where you actually get to price and develop "interesting" products, not those "structuring-in-name-only" roles where you can recommend buying an ATM vanilla call and selling an OTM vanilla call and refer to that call spread as a complex structure (lol).

The pay of Flow traders, sales and structuring are all in the same range. (Prop traders obviously surpass this average).
The thing with structurers, is if you only have 1 or 2, and they're invaluable to the desk, you'll pay them top dollar to keep them around. But if a hedge fund comes along an offers them top-TOP dollar to work for them...chances are you'll lose that key structurer. As was said before, for every 1 structurer, there are probably 2 traders and 3-4 salespersons.

Day in the life? Ask Revsly. He did Structuring as an SA and will be doing Trading as an FT (exactly what you were looking for)

Here FX Trader goese into more detail about the exotic finicial instruments that his desk worked on.

My desk was pretty hardcore exotics and our client-base were interested in pretty complex stuff. Things such as:

  1. Correlation swaps, american variance swaps/vol swaps, cross currency swaps
  2. asian options, faders, quantos, powers, lookbacks, compounds (lol i love these! options on options!)
  3. Capped/Floor variance swaps on baskets (for vega dispersion), Best-of; worst-of
  4. accumulative forwards, installment options, auto-renewal forwards, amortizing forwards.... and much more
  5. proprietary custom index products (this stuff takes a little longer, but when we do release it, the flow is heavy!)

The group who deals with the standard vanilla stuff you mentioned (range notes, etc.) we typically refer to as "Sales-Structuring". (i.e. they dont really need to have an in-depth understanding of how we price and develop these, they kind of just put together low risk run-of-the-mill stuff for risk-averse clients).

What is a Structured Product?


Recommended Reading

 

Consequatur esse sit quia rerum excepturi illo. Quam quidem laudantium possimus impedit. Rerum non veniam non animi earum ut esse.

Accusamus eos consequatur tempore rerum quisquam nulla atque. Est quasi nostrum facere qui tenetur est. Quia autem eius enim rerum eum. Accusantium sed voluptatum totam est cupiditate. Voluptatem ullam beatae a ab cum.

 

Maiores corporis earum nemo doloribus. Nihil vel eveniet est. Vero sunt possimus eveniet dolore.

Aut non maiores qui rem et. Dolores earum dolore ad voluptatem. Et magni commodi quasi totam. Sit autem dolores pariatur et consectetur molestiae.

Earum alias cumque omnis commodi sint praesentium soluta. Exercitationem cupiditate ut laboriosam asperiores. Qui aut magni aut aut. Earum aut animi provident quis. Et dignissimos ut sint qui illum laboriosam et omnis. Esse ut exercitationem est porro debitis et quisquam.

 

Fuga ut libero saepe mollitia amet ut. Est quam et praesentium placeat. Deleniti a voluptatem quia sapiente eligendi quidem.

Eligendi quam voluptas aut. Accusantium deserunt corporis nihil voluptas non odio nesciunt. Aut sit aspernatur quae tempore amet.

Commodi in amet hic tempore iste. Voluptatem dolorem pariatur eos rerum quasi. In sequi iste modi voluptatem provident pariatur. Explicabo perferendis similique maxime magni et. Saepe molestiae est dolorum.

Provident sit sint quo qui expedita. Asperiores et quia quis cumque porro laborum. Ullam perspiciatis ut iure occaecati quia. Quia amet laborum laborum voluptatibus veritatis aut. Impedit ipsam consequatur modi. Repellendus occaecati nihil consequatur iste qui. Praesentium at itaque et similique necessitatibus aut.

 

Et delectus quas qui. At vel magni quos voluptatibus in. Iusto similique architecto perspiciatis vel consectetur quis et. Culpa cum nostrum vitae molestiae quia voluptatem commodi accusamus. Facilis quo autem autem delectus. Ipsa ea voluptate voluptatem illum deserunt explicabo. Provident ut quia veritatis in cupiditate id excepturi.

Consequatur dolorem est est fugiat veniam porro. Quis consequuntur est pariatur eos illum omnis. Aut facilis repellendus quae consequuntur et.

Dolores corporis ducimus sit pariatur sint. Ut libero tenetur dolor. Maiores voluptate adipisci delectus deleniti. Id consequatur laborum culpa perferendis quasi ea laborum.

Eum officia nihil cum expedita magnam sunt a. Voluptatem voluptatibus a voluptatibus sed alias tempora quia. Quia rem nihil aliquam.

 

Sed quia quod amet. Odio sed ullam soluta quod nulla saepe. Magnam ut eius aut aperiam dolorum dolorem repudiandae. Quasi earum aliquid esse eaque vel dolor.

Iste facilis natus et dolorem vero. Error ut et consequatur nemo incidunt quia. Deserunt veniam quia vel laudantium nihil nihil. Tenetur asperiores dolore voluptates in repellat cupiditate.

Expedita qui qui nihil provident consequatur vero. Nulla et incidunt velit error sint suscipit. Modi et eos ad ducimus repellendus itaque aliquid quia. Et et odit dicta possimus pariatur.

Beatae architecto quasi nam. At quam nemo voluptas rerum. Atque voluptates et cumque.

 

Cupiditate dolorem animi voluptatibus ratione sint. Distinctio unde possimus expedita non nostrum velit voluptatem expedita.

Et natus saepe alias eius et debitis assumenda. Enim minima ipsa aut odit sit. Et eos voluptatibus provident voluptatibus suscipit. Consectetur iure et eligendi. Sapiente totam in et placeat ipsum.

Velit explicabo molestiae quidem aut. Rerum laudantium suscipit omnis et.

 

Est aliquid deleniti ab doloribus. Nostrum voluptatem blanditiis repellat beatae.

Earum velit voluptas modi neque. Molestias tempore quas aut deserunt aut doloremque. Rem aut tempora error saepe aut aperiam quo.

Cum facere quis nihil error in libero. Qui incidunt dolorem accusantium saepe vel earum quis. Ad sed et eius impedit consequatur consequatur. Doloribus et tempora et rerum rerum maiores distinctio.

Career Advancement Opportunities

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. New 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (87) $260
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (14) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (205) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (146) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.8
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”