7 ms·
The stuff traders do with spreadsheets is actually insanely interesting and impressive, and the ones I have met are far from incurious. The hours and suffer cu
by antiterra 5y ago
The stuff traders do with spreadsheets is actually insanely interesting and impressive, and the ones I have met are far from incurious.
The hours and suffer culture are real, however. Even if you’re lucky enough to work in a space with short trading windows, you likely have to spend a significant amount of off-work time making social connections with your counterparts at other firms. That part of the job intersects with a drinking culture that is no doubt hazardous for many who participate.
- RobRivera 5y agotrading isnt banking
- antiterra 5y agobanking absolutely includes being the middleman on trades, selling futures, transacting in corporate papers. I’d argue a bank executing trades and hedges against those positions falls under banking as a mere tautology.
- RobRivera 5y agoBanking is shorthand for Invest Banking, a subset of product and service offerings of a Bulge Brackets I built trading platforms for a bank. I am not a banker nor was I in banking
- 71a54xd 5y ago"Traders" in my opinion are far different than deal makers and "consultants". Sure, they're maybe the top 10% of the people doing actual "thinking" and yes I also find it interesting. However, a majority of what's going on is just delegation. Which actively incentivizes against being curious or solving problems. The best example of this I've been given was a friend who asked an MD (someone making $1.5MM+ at BofA) whether they'd considered using outsourced tutors for their kids exam prep after spending days if not weeks complaining about quality of western exam prep / online instruction. The MD supposedly had never heard of it and brushed the idea off entirely.
- 908B64B197 5y agoThe nice thing about trading is that most of it happens during working hours. No such boundaries when doing M&A.