Sales & Trading Professional
Sales & Trading Professionals are involved in investment banking activities on behalf of institutional investors.
What does a Sales & Trading Professional do?
People who work within sales and trading departments oversee buying and selling of financial products to provide liquidity (the ability to quickly buy or sell assets without causing a big change in price) to their investors.
The most commonly traded securities in capital markets are equities or stocks, which represent shares of ownership in a company.
Other types of securities include debt instruments such as corporate bonds, government bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and derivatives (contracts between two parties where one party agrees to pay another often based on changes in the value or performance of the underlying reference such as an index or commodity).
Sales and Trading is a fast-paced and dynamic area of finance. Sales professionals engage with clients on a daily basis and collaborate closely with traders. In a trading role, your skill and speed can mean the difference between billions in profit or loss.
Key skills
- Analytical & mathematical
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Able to work in a fast-paced environment
Sales vs. Trading
Both salespeople and traders work together, negotiating prices and assets to create the best portfolio positioning for their potential clients to do business.
Sales role
- Markets products to clients and persuades them to place trades within the salesperson’s bank or investment firm
- Conducts research to build a portfolio to pitch to clients that will be attractive to their business model
Trading role and trading markets
- Aims to create markets for buyers and sellers and advise clients on financial positions
- Represents institutional investors when buying and selling securities and often trades with traders from other firms, depending on the volume of stock at the time
- Specializes in certain trading services in order to develop expertise
Becoming a Sales & Trading Professional
Qualifications
Most sales and trading positions require a bachelor’s degree in finance or a related field such as economics. Starting a career in sales and trading may be difficult since there is high income potential attached to this career path.
Once you have decided what position within a sales and trading group you are interested in, securing an internship during your undergraduate career or after is a great way to enter this job market. Many firms may prefer to hire new analysts within their intern class.
Who hires Sales & Trading Professionals?
Sales and trading professionals are hired by a variety of financial firms that help buy and sell investments like stocks and bonds. These include:
- Large investment banks
- Brokerage firms
- Asset management companies
- Hedge funds
- Proprietary trading firms that trade with their own money
- Commercial banks
- Fintech companies that use technology to facilitate trading
Check out a typical job description
Responsibilities for a sales professional include:
- Build and maintain relationships with institutional clients (e.g., asset managers, hedge funds, pension funds), understand their investment objectives, risk appetite, and trading strategies.
- Provide clients with timely market insights, trade ideas, and product recommendations. Stay up to date with investment news and current market conditions, quarterly earnings reports.
- Maintain communication with traders, equity research departments, and portfolio managers for insights, ensuring you understand which investments will be enticing for trade clients.
- Help clients navigate complex instruments and tailor solutions to their needs.
- If working at a large investment bank, be skilled in selling stocks to clients to maximize capital raising for an initial public offering (IPO).
Responsibilities for a trade professional include:
- Buy and sell securities on behalf of clients or the firm, often in real-time.
- Provide liquidity in various asset classes and monitor and manage market risk associated with trading positions.
- Develop and implement trading strategies based on market trends, economic indicators, and client flows.
- Work closely with sales professionals to understand client needs and provide market insights.
Now let’s talk career progression
Where this role could take you
Along with salespeople who manage portfolio building and client relationships, and traders who serve as trade executors and advisors, there are a number of roles that support sales and trading groups. There are also different areas of trading you could specialize in.
Structurers help salespeople when the portfolio that they are building is operating around complex products. Salespeople may lack the knowledge needed to successfully market to clients, so structurers research within their area of expertise and design products to pitch to clients on behalf of salespeople.
Researchers provide insights and trading ideas to salespeople, traders, and their clients. Most commonly, researchers perform equity research and credit research. Equity research focuses on public companies to help build investment recommendations for buying, selling, and holding. Credit research focuses on fixed income research, which is debt-related information such as bonds.
Proprietary Traders (sometimes abbreviated as “prop trading”) invest in financial instruments using the firm’s (e.g., investment bank’s) capital with the aim of maximizing profit for the firm.
Agency Traders invest on behalf of their clients on an exchange such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or Euronext. They focus on best execution without taking risk using the firm’s capital.
Flow trading is where the bank acts as principal in the transaction. Instead of trading through an exchange, the firm sets the price and takes the other side of the client’s trade, charging a bid-offer spread on the transaction.
Your future
The promotional track in sales and trading has structured internal opportunities. After entering into a firm as an intern or analyst, you may have the opportunity to move up the sales and trading hierarchy to Associate, Vice President, Executive Manager, and even Managing Director.
The right role for you?
To be a successful salesperson or trader for a financial firm, you must have the confidence, drive, and persistence to thrive in a highly competitive market environment.
Salespeople must have thorough knowledge of the financial products they are selling to persuade external clients into investing. They must also have a high-level of interpersonal skills to win over their clients and maintain relationships for future sales.
Traders need to be analytical, have excellent mathematical skills, and be willing to work a wide variety of trading hours. To succeed in a trading career path, you must be able to retain information quickly, analyze deals, and execute trades according to plan.
Find your fit in finance
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