<p>I keep reading about IB... What about traders? How much do these guys make? What is there lifestyle like? (long hours...) What does it take to get in? Is it as hard to land a trading job like IB positions?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Pay can be the same or even better. It all depends on your performance. Hours are less than the other groups at the bank (like M&A, etc). I think landing a trader position might be harder than the avg i-banker job, but I'm not sure.</p>
<p>Yes its hard to land a trading postion. </p>
<p>Keep in mind most people trading at the ibanks are flow traders not prop. Your goal is to make money through commissions by providing liquidity to the clients moving big money in and out. Goal is not to make money off of absolute returns.
Interviews are analytical and for some positions like in FI and derivs they are quantitative.
Trading is a higher risk job but with more returns. This is why not many people go into S&T and rather head off to M&A. In the first few months your goal is basically to do grunt work aka get food, go through trading records to verify positions, P.L etc. Nothing big or responsible however if you screw up at this stage its gonna take you a long time before being allowed to actually do orders (usually for the less important clients).
Pay can be better than M&A if you are good.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply... I not to to familiar with all the Lyngo yet.. What do you mean by flow traders and not prop? u mentioned a position called "FI"? What does that stand for?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Flow=you provide liquidity and execute client orders paid through commissions
Prop=you trade with the firm's capital to get returns</p>
<p>FI=the fixed income division (aka bonds and their derivs) its not a position its an entire division</p>
<p>A day in the life of a flow trader is like what? hours? starting salary?
Are they on the trading floors or do they work at the investment bank behind the desk?</p>
<p>No idea about day in life. I have met a few flow traders but never asked them. I do know their hours (usually from 7.30-4.30) maybe an hour or two longer if you have to do a bit of grunt work. </p>
<p>You work at the desk. Nowadays most markets are electronic. However, the major banks have bought out the specialist firms that execute trades on the "human" exchanges like the NYSE, CBOE, CME etc. Floor trading is a very different experience than desk trading.</p>