Why Sales & Trading?
I've heard a lot of people saying you shouldn't talk about starting out as a retail trader in the markets. Why is this and what would be the best response to 'Why this position (S&T/IB)
What does retail trading have to do with banking
You become interested in finance, although you may not relate to this because you've never experienced it.
I've done retail trading, which is exactly why I asked the question. Nothing about that experience for me was anything to do with finance and everything to do with trying to get rich quick as a teenager.
Talking about retail "trading" (using the word trading is already a bad start here) is only worth doing if you can reliably convince me you actually care about the finance aspect and less about the money involved. Otherwise I will discard this.
The fact you've used the word "trading" rather than say "investing" already implies to me that this was about short-term money. Not finance.
And even if you can convince me of that, if I was an ibanker (which I'm not) and if this was really your only motivation to get into finance, my next question would be "why should I not send you to get interviewed by our ER/S&T department instead?"
Thanks for your reply, I'm 16 and trying to break into WS. What should my reply to the question then? I'm still trying to learn.
The best way to reply to the question is genuinely and with intellectual honesty.
Saying you're interested in banking just because you tried retail trading would indicate to me one or two things:
Neither of these is ideal. And of course, to be clear, it's not like mentioning retail investing/trading is taboo, but rarely is it or should it be your entire answer to this question. Can certainly be a lead in, followed by more actual substance.
So to solve them, you need to actually understand why you want to go into banks and then form an interview-ready answer that touches on those things.
Probably to do the above you need to actually understand what banking is. I'm doubtful you do, because you're 16, which is fine but that should be your next step.
Tbh tho, it's kind of early for you to be digging into all this. Enjoy your childhood while you have one.
Enjoy high school, just get into the best college you can
Because unless one was doing it in a sophisticated manner, which one likely didn't, then it likely throws up a red flag.
For example, if someone put retail trading in their application and I am talking with them, I am going to ask them questions related to their trading. Some are basic, ie - what strategy did you use, but others are things basically every retail trader doesn't really think about (ie - risk management, trade execution strategies). It will become very clear very quickly if you were engaging in retail trading in a sophisticated way, or if you were basically just going to the casino.
Like it is better than nothing, but if you were not sophisticated about it, you will be telling your interviewer that you were not engaging in the type of analysis or thoughtfulness that is required for the job. Because yes, trading is not banking. They do require different skills and have different job tasks. But how you go about trading does inform how you'd go about banking.
While it could be explainable by one's youth (ie - I started retail trading in HS which was before I learned how to trade in a more sophisticated way), why choose to put yourself in a position where you have to explain away something when you don't have to make that choice?
I was actually very into trading and I know all the key concepts (fvg, ob, liquidity sweep, fibonacci etc). I also got a prop firm scholarship.
So I do have some experience but do you think it would be fine if I mention it in S&T?
I dont actually want to do banking cus everyone in IB is depressed and trading is really my passion & I love the markets.
Random technical analysis concepts are not they key points they would ask about. More likely, they will want to understand your risk management framework, sharpe ratio, asset allocation theory, etc.
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