desks to learn from

what kind of products do you recommend looking for in a FT trading role?
This isn't a "best desk" question, and I'm not necessarily focused on high margin/high volume desks but I'm curious what products would require analysts to learn the most. for instance, even if the bank you were at were strong in equities, a structured credit desk would provide more to learn and master. Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

that is a very vague question, but I would say an EM desk in FICC requires you to learn a lot, just because most EM desks you trade a country/set of countries and so you need to trade the currency/rates/debt so you need a huge spectrum of product knowledge. On top of that, you need to know everything about the countries you are trading.

 

I was looking for derivstrading's answer. if there are any more desks along the lines of EM FICC, in the sense that you are forced to learn more skills and are exposed to more industries/markets.

my earlier example compared credit to equity, but say in the rates space, would anyone recommend exotic vs. on the run treasury trading? in the former the desk is more like an umbrella in which you are exposed to more quantitative material and encompass a wider variety of products, whereas in the latter you might become a specialist in one area... things like that...

 
Best Response
mahduuuuuude:
I was looking for derivstrading's answer. if there are any more desks along the lines of EM FICC, in the sense that you are forced to learn more skills and are exposed to more industries/markets.

my earlier example compared credit to equity, but say in the rates space, would anyone recommend exotic vs. on the run treasury trading? in the former the desk is more like an umbrella in which you are exposed to more quantitative material and encompass a wider variety of products, whereas in the latter you might become a specialist in one area... things like that...

THe nature of trading is that you will be forced to specialize fairly quickly, its just the nature of the job. Altho as a general rule starting in a more complex product leaves more doors open. It is easier to start trading derivatives on a product and moving to the cash version than the other way around, as trading a derivative means you need to have knowledge of the underlying. Id even argue that it would be easier for example to move from trading equity vol to trading FX vol than from spot FX to FX vol, but thats up for debate.

 

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