<p>Was at two bulge bracket networking presentations this past week. The numbers of idiots who claim they are so devoted to pursuing a career in sales and trading and have absolutely no idea what actually happens on an investment bank trading floor is beyond me and downright embarrassing for everyone in the room. So here are a few pointers:</p>
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<li><p>Not all traders trade stocks. They are not your mom and pop trying to make a few bucks. In fact >95% of the traders dont trade vanilla stocks. Traders trade products ranging from cash equity to equity derivative to fixed income to credit/rates derivatives to commodities etc.. So don't ask a bond trader what he thinks about the stock market (true story)</p></li>
<li><p>99% of the traders at investment banks are sellside traders. They dont give a **** about investing. So don't say you want a career in investing in the exciting market place and that's why you want to get a job at morgan stanley as a trader. It makes you look like an idiot and more importantly you embarrass your school </p></li>
<li><p>Despite what you read, bulge brackets barely do algorithmic trading. It mostly work at prop shops where computers automatically put on a position to take exposure in the market when certain quantitative conditions are met. As mentioned just now, 99% of the traders are sellside traders and don't actively seek exposure in the market. So don't ask a trader what he thinks about computer replacing him in 10 years. Banks do have a very small portion of market making being done electronically through algorithm, but those are for very vanilla products and very small size transactions (<10mio).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>please do yourself a favor and do some research before showing up</p>