Sales, Trading, Structuring, Research

I realize that under the Sales & Trading umbrella there are many positions such as structuring, research, etc... excluding the salesmen and traders

I know that structuring consists of sophisticated teams that create the products that the sales/trading teams needs/wants, and the research teams can do research sales and publish their info (please correct me if i'm wrong)

Are these also front office positions that can make the big bucks relative to traders? (do they also get the big bonuses?)

Also, would it be better to start your career in research and structuring rather than sales/trading (especially sales though) because you will gain a better understanding of the market and products that will be transferrable and leverageable to the buyside or as a PM? I feel like research/structurers can easily maneuver into those fields (sales/trading/pm) with some experience in their fields first, especially since you'll be working right next to the sales and trading teams

Would love to hear some input...

 
Best Response

One of my roommates was in structured products sales at another firm and invented a product that was later licensed to another firm for $7 million.

Most managers in sales and trading are pretty pragmatic folks. If you are able to demonstrate that $7 million of the firm's income is attributable solely to you, they're gonna take good care of you. After my roommate got his year-end numbers, his preferences in apartments got a little richer and he moved out and paid cash for his own place.

In general, good traders make more than good sales guys or structurers, but as always, there are usually more exceptions to the rule than there are cases that follow it.

 

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