Why Do "Actual" Trading Desks Seem Scarce?
Interned at a top BB in S&T this summer on a trading specific track. There were 28 trading specific interns originally; however, only 11 of the 28 got return offers for a traditional trading desk. Others either didn't get offers, were pushed into sales/structuring, or were placed on desks like clearing. Is this normal? Are there just less spots on actual trading desks nowadays?
Same thing happened at JPM. And all the ones on those desks were math/cs majors
Because market making via traditional traders is becoming less profitable for a bank over time (tighter spreads, new competitors like quant market making firms), and many of the growing revenue streams by banks do not necessarily need to have traditional traders (e.g. stock financing desks, electronic FX trading platform sales)
The traditional trading desks were definitely the more sought after at my bank, but I’m wondering if we should’ve been going for the new revenue drivers. I ended up in a macro vol seat, but would it have been a better career choice to go with a stronger growing desk like some of the financing ones?
Depends on your career aspiration - a macro vol seat gives you 100x chance to land a macro hedge fund job several years down the road. And things are not predictable. Let's say few years from now your bank want to set up a crypto vol desk, the FX vol trader in the bank might be tasked to run it. If you like your role and your desk at least can feed 1-2 MDs, you should be in a decent place at least for the next few years.
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