I've done reading to try to figure out what S&T actually is, but then someone I know just said its not sales people talking to the client and then sending that info to the trader? Traders make money off of spreads from trades, and sales makes money off of volume traded? Trying to get some clarification.
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In short, people in S&T are market markers. Their job is to provide liquidity and price info to clients.
S&T is 2 totally separate jobs
Sales Trading
Sales people talk to customers...send them research ideas...ask them what their positions are (some customers lie...no way to ever really know...but its just a friendly conversation)...ask what they are thinking about...asking about any concerns they might have...entertaining them....connecting them with othe resources if appropriate...all in the hope that the customer will call the salesperson someday and say "i have a trade i want to do....where will your firm bid (or offer) xyz of ABC security"
Traders field that last inquiry from the salesforce [where will your firm bid (or offer) xyz of ABC security]...ideally all day long...the trader makes the market...the salesperson relays that market info to the client and acts as a conduit.
Traders also prop trade in the market (depending on the product)...partially to make $$...partially so they know where the right price is for the securities they are designated "market maker"
Some traders never deal with the sales force and customers...they just trade with the anonymous inter-broker-market screens...tho this is less frequent at banks these days...these are "proprietary traders"
you might be able to guess...but certain outgoing personalities do better at sales than others....while traders need to be more analytical. The salesperson never has economic risk...they never have positions of their own...they just relay info...but the trader does have positions..hence the name...the trader's job, is to trade..
also, the word "sales" is misleading...because S&T sales people don't really sell anything...they are "coverage" people...they cover clients...and act as a kind of service provider. It could be argued that they sell the services of their bank....but that language is not the most accurate way to describe what they do. Sale (Coverage) people manage the relationship between the bank and the client.
I was a BB trader....I'm now a client...coverage/sales people send me emails all day long about what their bank is thinking, various research stuff, positions their traders are looking to offload or put on (called an Axe sheet...ecause th etrader is "axed" to buy or sell certain securities), news updates they think are relevant...they will take clients out for dinner/drinks/sporting events/ arrange cocktail parties from time to time...all in the hopes that the client goto their bank, instead of another, when we want to do a trade.
From my experience, the avg client trade of medium size might make the bank 5-10k of bid/ask spread, on avg. Big trades can make the bank 100-300k of bid/ask spread...but these are not very common...maybe a few a day...depending on the day and the bank. Banks with larger client franchises (like JPM, GS) see more flow, and hence, more of these big trades "Make" is also not the right word...because sometimes the BB trader loses money on these client trades...the bid/ask spread is theoretical money...the trader needs to get out of the position at good prices to realize that $$.
I think this is a good explanation and also touches a bit on the differences between a flow trader at a BB versus a prop trader at a shop. To expand on it a bit ..
A BB trader, having a sales desk, will have an advantage of seeing order flow ahead of time (whether they win the order or not) as well as the advantage of the sales team earning commission on the trade. So in a sense, they get paid to see flow.
That being said, if a decent sized order comes in from a customer, that customer is going to call every single bank on the street for the best pricing. This can become a disadvantage for a BB trader because it will force them to commit the full size of the customer order at a very competitve price. Of course, if they really hate the trade, they can pass - but this could be short sighted as their sales team will get less calls from the customer if their traders are not in the mix with pricing. So sometimes they'll take a scratch or loss on a trade to keep the business coming - in the hope that another one down the line will pay off.
On the other side of things, a prop trader not affliated with a Bank or Sales desk - will see flow largely through an interdealer broker (or on an exchange floor where that still exists). The advanatage is that they can make their markets rather independently and trade only the ones they like. For example, a lot of options prop traders only like to trade the front 2-3 months.. and won't even make you a market further out.. Whereas a BB trader will not have that luxury. The disadvantage for a prop trader is that you are paying to see this flow in the form of IDB commissions .. and you may even raise your own rate for certain brokers to be their "first call" .. You also do not have as much information as BB traders when it comes to order flow, so are you are much more likely to get run over.
Here's a good game/simulator of what a bank sell-side trader does day to day: http://demo.oxyor.com/TSDemo/
I trade muni’s, a very illiquid product, at a BB so I can give you a pretty decent idea of what we do on the sell-side. Our whole purpose is to make a market in as much product as physically possible. That means running a book of risk, and generating revenue off of sales to customers or PnL off outright positions. So I dictate everything that our bank will sell for a given coverage area every single day. I also make markets for issuers, so I pitch timing and pricing ideas to banking for new issues. In any committing role you basically pitch positioning ideas to the buy-side or you prop trade. Most of my time is spent prop trading, because the market is a fucking grinder right now. Institutional sales is a much simpler job, you exist solely to sell bank inventory. That means you’re pitching your traders ideas to the buy-side and earning sales credit on product. Like wise it’s a salesman’s job to give trading insight into what the buy-side likes pricing wise and doesn’t. Hope this gives you a little insight into the day to day of things.
Tuna
I only speak for the EMEA region and Equity products, I don't know how MiFID II affects other regions and assets.
Meanwhile big tech is influencing elections, undermining democracies, creating new world orders, managing monopolies. But hey, as long as you punish the big bad banks you'll be popular as a politician