Trading commissions?

I finished reading through Liars Poker awhile ago and I've been curious about this ever since.

Do people who just facilitate trades (I'm not sure exactly what they're referred to as) so their firm can grab a commission off of the trade make good money or is that time dead and gone.

As a bond trader Michael Lewis was pulling down good money for his firm and he was awarded a commission of what he brought in, I was under the impression that the only good money to come from trading was holding your own positions (hedge fund/prop desk)

Can someone who is a good salesmen and able to get a lot of trades done, even if their other peoples trades make good money?

 

Yes, they are called market makers. There are also sales-traders. The former literally takes both sides of the transaction, providing liquidity to markets and makes the bid-ask spread on each trade. The latter talks to clients on the buyside and uses mainly research to convince them that stock ABC is worth buying/selling. They generate commissions on this b/c each client is treated as an account and the they have to pay for the service (which is getting research, execution, support, etc).

The trend,particularly in equities, is that commissions are down, both on a per share basis (markets are more efficient) and on a gross basis, since the buyside is really scared of the volatility over the past quarter.

A good salesman get the clients' trades which helps the firm's revenues and his share of the commissions. So yeah, he/she can definitely make rain.

 

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