Anyone out there a sales trader or in research sales for a major international bank? Not what I am looking for, but it is the only bites I have had in a few months? If you can give me a quick summary of a day in the life, CFA usefulness, minimum starting salary, job security level, etc. …it would be much appreciated…sales are not my area so I am sort of clueless…thanks in advance for input…
By “sales trader”, do you mean someone in either sales or trading? I work in trading, if you would like my opinion.
Positions are “sales trader” for emerging markets equity desk…also another position is for emerging market research sales.
Ok, I Googled “Sales Trader”. Looks like it’s some sort of broker/registered representative position. I found a nice average salary chart, assuming I’m looking at the right thing: http://www.salaryexpert.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=browse.Securities-Sales-Trader-salary-data-details&PositionId=1288&CityId=300
Thanks…I found some salary info also out there via Google, just been having a hard time finding a “day in the life” type info…
Are they really hiring people with no experience in sales trading? I don’t know anything about these positions but I believe I heard in the past that they usually want people with an existing book/contacts, particularly in this job market.
Some of those salaries look a little low (which might make sense since some of the sales traders we use are idiots). A sales trader is just another trader who works for institutions. So like we have a sales trader at UBS and in order to pay for soft dollar stuff and/or research access- we can’t just cut them a check, so we pay through trading. Then we call up their desk and talk to our sales trader over there and give them an order to buy 50k shares of xyz. They either pass it along to a floor trader or use their own algos to do the order. I would just want to use only algos on my end, but these guys need to get paid unfortunately. It’s an okay job, but is trading where you want to go or are you just looking for a job? The recent trend that I’m seeing is the letting go of all the older more experienced (and highly paid) sales traders and bringing in young traders who are cheaper, but screw things up more often. I’m not sure how it is at other firms, but we give our sales traders fairly strict order limitations.
I work for a sell-side brokerage firm. A sales trader is basically a broker for institutional clients. Maybe 1-2 of our guys have the CFA, you don’t need it to be successful as a sales trader. All you need to do is bring in business. I am guessing that having the CFA helps, since you can attend conferences and meet a ton of potential clients. Of course they are hiring people in sales trading…in order to get a book, you have to start somewhere, no? Johnnymarr, please email me at inkjetkings@gmail.com if you want to know more. There are some things about this I’m not comfortable discussing in public. Thanks.
Sales trading could involve both pitching ideas to clients (long-only/hedge fund), as well as participating in alpha-capture systems monitoring your portfolio. You may also have your own book to trade. Your performance is determined by your book, as well as your positions in different alpha-capture programs.
yeah…these positions are entry level/junior, but I heard advancement can be quick if you are productive, which I feel I can be, especially in the LATAM financial area where I have experience. The positions have been presented to me by a friend of friend who is trying to help me get back on my feet. I have been looking for something junior in portfolio analytics/risk management…but after 10 months out there, I am getting tired of pounding the pavement, especially when competing against a ton of other more experienced laid off people.
If you can find the Vault Career Guide to Sales & Trading, there are 1-2 pages in it where they interviewed someone from Lehman about a day in the life. I’d day it’s pretty accurate, hours are 6:30 - 4PM, and then afterwards you entertain clients.
I used to work on a large trading desk – sales traders are just salesmen who pass orders onto the traders or sometimes conduct trades themselves if a) it’s a cross between two clients or b) the trade is small enough that they don’t need a trader to work it. Most of the salesmen were tall, large-bre@sted, 20-something Italian women, while most of the traders were middle-aged, large-bellied, Italian men.
iheartiheartmath Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I used to work on a large trading desk – sales > traders are just salesmen who pass orders onto the > traders or sometimes conduct trades themselves if > a) it’s a cross between two clients or b) the > trade is small enough that they don’t need a > trader to work it. Most of the salesmen were tall, > large-bre@sted, 20-something Italian women, while > most of the traders were middle-aged, > large-bellied, Italian men. If the trade is small enough, why wouldn’t it go through an algo? Cheaper commissions.
Why would the salesman want to offer cheaper commissions to her clients? If a client called up and wanted to buy say 1,000 or even 10,000 shares of CSCO, all the salesman would do is put the order into the execution system (REDI+ when I was working there), select “market order” and push the execute button. Done in 5 seconds. The amount of commissions earned during those 5 seconds annualize to something like $150 million a year for doing next to nothing.
So basically the large breasted 20 something Italian women go out and drum up future trades entertaining male institutinal clients over drinks/dinner/sports games/concerts? I assumeyou are saying a physical appearance/personality in sales trading/research sales is more marketable than a CFA and knowledge of the markets?
Yes that is 100% correct. Women with blonde hair and blue eyes would do well in this profession.
Unfortunately yes, if you are female. If you are a male salesman, you should have some semblance of intelligence. That being said, I have a friend who works on the sales side and knew next to nothing about the markets going in, but he was an insane schmoozer so he did a lot of business.
iheartiheartmath Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Why would the salesman want to offer cheaper > commissions to her clients? If a client called up > and wanted to buy say 1,000 or even 10,000 shares > of CSCO, all the salesman would do is put the > order into the execution system (REDI+ when I was > working there), select “market order” and push the > execute button. Done in 5 seconds. The amount of > commissions earned during those 5 seconds > annualize to something like $150 million a year > for doing next to nothing. If it’s a small enough order, why would I send it to a sales trader, and not work it myself over an algo?
No idea, we used to get working orders for as small as 400-500 shares, especially in illiquid OTC stocks.
Most of the sales trader we deal with through our trading desk are men. Some are CFA charterholders. We algo most of the small orders, but some PMs direct their small orders to certain brokers.