As everyone debates whether sales & trading is “dying,” they often lose sight of sales & trading exit opportunities. But even if these rumors are exaggerated, you still probably want to know what happens if you join a sales or trading desk and decide to leave. And if the industry is dying, ironically, the exit […]

There’s a ton of information online about investment banking internships, but comparatively little on sales & trading internships. That’s partially because there are fewer S&T internships and full-time roles. But it’s also because it’s more difficult to generalize the experience since each desk is quite different. That said, we’ve published many articles and interviews about […]

Sales and trading interview questions are a bit of a paradox because they’re both easier and more difficult than investment banking interview questions. They’re easier because there’s less to memorize, but they’re harder because you cannot prepare or practice in quite the same way. Also, many questions do not necessarily have “correct answers”; interviewers ask […]

If there’s one career that attracts both hardcore math/finance people and 10-year-olds who play Fortnite at night and trade stocks during the day, it’s proprietary trading. Also known as “prop trading,” it offers higher earnings potential much earlier in your career than jobs like investment banking or private equity. It’s arguably the most merit-based industry […]

For many years, we’ve received questions about sales & trading vs investment banking. Many readers are interested in both fields or don’t yet have a strong preference. So, here’s a full comparison in one spot: Sales & Trading vs Investment Banking: The Work In both investment banking and sales & trading, you act as an […]

Ask the average person what “Fixed Income Trading” means, and you’ll probably get pointed to a pension statement or a stack of social security checks because you mentioned the phrase “Fixed Income”. Ask a banker, though, and you’ll probably hear, “Everything that isn’t Equities” – which is a more apt description at a bank. “Fixed […]

Ask the average person what someone does on “Wall Street,” and he/she will probably describe equity trading, AKA buying and selling stocks. If this person then discovers that you work on Wall Street, he/she will proceed to ask you for “hot stock tips” next. The irony is that most people at large banks have jobs […]

Is sales & trading still a good industry? If it is, what’s the best desk for you, and how should you recruit for it? It’s tough to give universal answers to these questions, so we like to present different groups and let you decide. We’ve published articles on equities and fixed income, but I’ve always […]

If you work in sales & trading, will you be replaced by a machine? Maybe, but there are ways to reduce the risk of that happening. One of the best is to learn to program and move into a quantitative role. No matter how much artificial intelligence advances, computers probably won’t be able to program […]

Sometimes, you just can’t decide. The public markets… or deal analysis? One solution is to join the capital markets team, but another is to join the distressed debt desk – not as an execution trader, but in research. You come up with the ideas, and the traders execute them. Not only is the work more […]

“The S&P was down 1% in early trading…” “Although the S&P was up 7% for the year, only about half the individual stocks were up…” “Sell, sell, sell!” You constantly hear the “S&P” or “S&P 500” used in stock-market discussions, whether it’s Jim Cramer screaming about something… or a trader at a bank also screaming […]

This is a guest post from “DerivsTrading,” an experienced options trader who has worked at both bulge-bracket banks and hedge funds in London. He defied the odds and broke into sales & trading coming from a non-target school. We’ve covered a few days and 48-hour periods in the lives of sales & trading interns before, but what […]

This is a guest post from a reader who broke into Sales & Trading (S&T) coming from a non-target school. In Part 3 of this series, you’ll learn all about how to write sales & trading resumes and how to use them to win interviews and offers. I still remember the beginning of my freshman […]

Assuming you’ve seen Wall Street (the awesome, original one, not the watered-down sequel) – it is a requirement to work in finance, after all – you know something about traders vs. brokers. The traders are like lone wolves who go in and make tons of money by making quick decisions… But supporting every successful trader is […]

It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of the back office. Much of the work is mundane, and it doesn’t give you many options: advancing is difficult and breaking into front-office roles is even harder. Or is it? While it might be difficult to get into investment banking front-office roles, it’s easier if you’re […]

This article was guest-written by Zeke Lee, a Stanford graduate, former management consultant with Booz & Company, and current derivatives trader on Wall Street (Oh yeah, he’s one of my friends from school as well). He founded the GMAT Pill based on his experience scoring in the 98th percentile on the GMAT in just 2 […]