S&T in Moscow

I'm not directly acquainted with the industry, but I know a bit about the market in general.

1. The biggest S&T player is Troyka. It's also the biggest Russian i-bank, and along with Renaissance, is the only private locally-owned player worth mentioning. State banks tend to do a lot of trading, esp Gazprombank. I actually know several people who worked in S&T at Troyka, and they all seemed to enjoy their time. I don't know anything about their compensation.

2. Personally, I found it hard to break into Russian banks. The Russians are generally averse to taking people off the street, and there is little you can do aside from applying through the web form unless you know somebody. There is no structured process with deadlines, so it's basically about finding channels to score the interview, and then impressing the hell out of them there. It helps a lot if you go to a school that they know of - think top Ivys, Oxbridge, LSE.

3. Experience in transition -- honestly, I can't see how a stint in Russian S&T would work with the transition back to the States. There are several issues:

a. Russian market is very speculative and not very liquid -- there are several major players who make the weather for the rest (at least, that's what I've been told by people who know how RTS & MICEX).

b. To get an idea about the types of techniques traders use there, consider this: Russia has no insider-trading law. None. It's just not a crime, according to Russian authorities. I know a guy who runs a little fund in Moscow, and he told me once "Sometimes I get an impression that all brokers are the sons of Fradkov, Ivanov, Sechin, etc." I.e., think about what you may have to do to be a successful trader, and how that'll rub off on your reputation later.

c. MICEX and RTS are a small emerging market, dominated by a dozen or so blue chips. They basically have nothing in common with NASDAQ and the like.

d. The way Russian stocks are priced may be quirky. Here's a sample question: why did Rosneft's market cap shot above Lukoil's at the time of IPO, even though its oil production, refinement, corp governance, EBITDA, and debt structure were actually worse?

5. My advice: if you're a newbie and you want to start in S&T, go for London desks of BBs. They will do a lot of trading in Russian stocks, b/c Russian companies love LSE and AIM.

On the other hand, if you're not afraid of risk, and are willing to experiment, come to Moscow.