[Posting on behalf of the trader due to a technical issue!]
Hello all. I’m an equity sales trader with over 20+years of experience working in UK & European markets. I’ve worked for bulge-bracket US and European banks and am here to answer your questions from 27th November to 4th December. I’ll be intermittently looking at everyday, so please be patient if I don’t answer immediately. Look forward to hearing from you!
Hello. Thank you very much for doing this. Do you think equity sales is a good area to be in now? I thought that a lot of these jobs have disappeared in the past 10 years?
Hey man, thanks for doing this. Two questions if you don’t mind:
How screwed is the UK IPO market?
Where - as in, which city - would you move to if you were 21y/o today and starting your career fresh?
You’re right, a lot has changed, can be no surprise to that! Over the past decade, a big chunk of generalist equity sales roles have disappeared. In many places, that job has effectively been reduced to an administrative function: coordinating meetings, passing along research, and acting as a conduit. There’s very little value added there, and clients don’t pay for that anymore. But specialist sales is a different story. When you genuinely understand a sector, a theme, or a product set and can translate it into actionable insight for clients , that’s where the role still has relevance. Clients will always make time for someone who: 1) knows their coverage deeply, 2) can challenge their thinking, and 3) can spot dislocations or opportunities early. So is equity sales still a good area to be in Generalist sales: shrinking, commoditised, limited future. Specialist / higher-value sales: very much alive if you’re any good, but the bar is higher than ever.
Pretty screwed and not just cyclically. Structurally, I feel that the UK has become uninvestible for many global allocators. The policy environment is backward when it comes to business growth, risk capital, and scaling companies domestically. Until the government stops penalising investment and starts rewarding innovation, it’s hard to see a meaningful revival. Most high-quality companies will continue choosing the US or (HK?) over London for listings.
Dubai. Without hesitation. That’s where the capital, ambition, and velocity are right now. I’d go straight to the buyside, hedge fund, PE, or VC. That’s where the real learning curve and upside are. I wouldn’t go into sell-side today. It’s become commoditised, heavily process-driven, and often filled with the kind of internal politics that drain energy instead of building skill. If you’re young and hungry, you want to be where capital is flowing and decision-making is fast and that’s Dubai, not the traditional European hubs.
Hey @HTST123 ,
Just wanted to ask - probably something you’ve been asked a million times before, but what careers/roles do you think AI is mostly likely to suffocate? And what do you think is safest from it?
Thank you. Would you recommend any particular sectors?
Many Independent Asset Managers we work with are facing growing demands from clients. They want deeper transparency, clearer reporting, and a more structured way to compare their portfolios with high quality peers.
We support IAMs with an analytical framework that enhances client trust and reduces operational burden. Our independent portfolio reviews help to demonstrate value in a measurable way. They also give you access to a broad universe of managers from banks and boutique firms so you can expand your offering without adding internal infrastructure.
IAMs often tell us that our benchmarking and cost analysis has become a powerful element of their client conversations. It helps highlight strengths, identify potential improvements, and reinforce the independence that sets their practice apart.
IAMs remain the core advisor. We provide the data driven insight and manager discovery process that strengthens your position and supports your growth.
Given your experience in equity sales how do you view partnerships for business development and what would be the best way to approach and address pain points?
Kind regards, Zerrin
Great question and you’re right, I’ve been asked this many times. In the context of equities roles at an investment bank: AI is going to suffocate a big chunk of what happens on a trading floor. Honestly, half the roles currently done by humans don’t need humans — not anymore. A lot of the day-to-day “work” is:
admin,
report compiling,
data pulls,
collation of news,
writing summaries…
None of that requires someone being paid $500k+ to do it. An LLM could handle 80% of this instantly. So why hasn’t it happened yet?
Because banks are scared of AI, genuinely! They’ve built excellent AI/quant/ML teams, and they’ve got strong specialist traders and spec salespeople… but they don’t cross the two worlds over.
You see pockets of internal LLMs, but they’re limited, heavily constrained, and nowhere near what ChatGPT can do. Most banks don’t even let their staff use public models because they’re terrified of data leakage or compliance breaches.
And there’s another factor: legacy politics. A lot of senior people — and the messy, fragmented systems they’ve been running for years — would be completely wiped out by genuine AI integration. AI would expose inefficiencies, flatten hierarchies, and automate functions that have been “protected” for decades. That’s a threat to people’s jobs, so the old guard resist it.
What roles are safest?
The ones where judgement, relationship capital, and pattern recognition matter:
true specialist sales (not generalist),
complex execution traders,
risk-taking roles,
people who can translate macro/micro information into real client decisions.
AI can augment these, but not fully replace them yet. The roles most at risk?
Anything that’s process-heavy, repetitive, or reliant on turning raw information into a neat output. In short: AI won’t kill the trading floor but it will kill the parts that shouldn’t still exist.
Good question. If you’re going into specialist sales, your edge comes from being in a sector where:
information flow is dense,
product complexity is high, and
clients actually need a specialist to translate it.
Activity (order flow) volume elevated = increased commission opportunities to monetise your spec-sales knowledge.
The areas I’d rate most highly today:
Tech / AI & semis: Fast-moving, structurally important, and clients genuinely rely on specialists to separate noise from signal. Massive depth, massive demand.
Healthcare / biotech: Huge innovation cycles, regulatory complexity, and asymmetric outcomes. Hard for generalists to keep up, which is exactly why specialists are valued.
Energy transition / industrial tech: Decarbonisation, electrification, storage, infrastructure, it’s a multi-decade theme. Lots of policy risk, valuation dispersion, and winners/losers. Great for someone who can think structurally.
Financials: Not “cool”, but extremely nuanced: capital, regulation, funding, risk. When you know your stuff, you become indispensable.
What I wouldn’t pick: Any sector where everything is slow, commoditised, and newsflow is predictable. Those are the first to get steamrolled by AI.
Bottom line: Pick a sector where you can become a genuine domain expert, not just a messenger of research.
Thank you very much
Hello and thank you. I am a student with a deep interest in financial markets. I have been investing since I was at high school and have had a lot of success. I am studying finance at a Russell Group university in the UK and I applied for banks’ internships this season but I didn’t even get an interview. I have no idea what to do next. It feels like my dream is slipping out of my fingers. What would you say to someone like me?
You’re welcome.
Partnerships can work extremely well in this industry, if they solve a real pain point and don’t add noise. Most IAMs and buy-side teams are stretched: too much data, too many reports, too many “solutions” that don’t actually improve client conversations.
I’m in sales-trading, which is different from sales. As I understand, from an equity sales-role perspective, the partnerships that succeed tend to do three things well:
explain performance clearly,
justify fees,
benchmark against peers,
or demonstrate genuine value add,
then you’re solving a core commercial problem. Anything that enhances client trust is immediately interesting.
Most advisors hate anything that creates extra admin, onboarding complexity, or maintenance work.
If your service reduces operational burden, not increases it, you’re already ahead of 90% of vendors.
Market intelligence, manager universe comparisons, cost transparency, this is the kind of capability that’s expensive to replicate.
If you give them institutional-grade insight without requiring institutional-grade headcount, that’s compelling.
How to approach pain points effectively:
Start with their client conversations. What are they struggling to explain? Where do clients push back?
Show how your data or benchmarking tangibly improves those moments.
Keep the pitch simple: IAMs respond far better to a clean use-case than a sprawling “platform.”
And finally, prove independence. IAMs value it massively, because it’s what differentiates them from banks.
If you keep the focus on strengthening their client relationship (not selling them a tool), you’ll get traction much faster.
First thing I’d say: don’t panic. Everyone thinks the door is closed if they don’t get interviews the first time around, it isn’t. The process is chaotic, inconsistent, and often unfair. Plenty of great people get overlooked.
What does matter is persistence.
Keep trying. Re-apply. Most people apply once, get rejected, and disappear. The ones who break in are the ones who keep coming back every cycle with more experience, more internships, and a clearer story.
And don’t just rely on online portals.
Pick up the phone. Call the banks.
Walk into offices. Ask HR for five minutes. Email desks directly. Be the person who refuses to be ignored.
If someone told me, “I’ll work for free for a week, just let me show you what I can do,” I’d remember them. You won’t always get a yes… but you’ll get a chance, which is more than most people get.
Also: broaden your entry points. Smaller shops, wealth managers, boutiques, trading firms, funds, research houses, they all lead back into the big banks if you perform.
The hard truth is: persistence is everything in this industry. You get knocked down a lot before anyone lets you in. But if you genuinely love markets and you keep pushing, you will find an opening. Your dream isn’t slipping away, you’re just at the part where most people give up. Don’t be one of them.
Hi,
Thank you for doing this. I am a Desk Strats at a top BB and I’m interested in moving to Trading or Sales. I want to pivot my career to deal more with markets/clients on a daily basis.Ideally I would go for Trading over Sales but I have interest in both. I might want to wait but at the same time I don’t want to be pigeonhole as I have been a Quant for 1/2 years now. I love connecting with people and love discussing markets. My team note this several times, one colleague even joke with me that I should move on something more market centric.
Now I have some questions about Sales career and progression. I have a bit of anxiety as I heard all the stories about clients just liking you and doing the trade base in that. Is this true ? I would like to understand, what’s truly make someone a good sales ? When you recruit an analyst/associate on your desk, what do you expect from them ? And how do you see them evolving ? What makes a junior sales a top performer ? Is that an indication of their success as a top senior sales ?
Thanks again for your answers.
First, you’re absolutely not stuck. One or two years in Strats is a great foundation, not a life sentence. You understand the plumbing of the desk far better than most juniors in Sales or Trading, and that’s a real advantage.
On the “do clients just trade because they like you?” question:
100% relationships matter, in fact, they’re the only thing that matters.
Your real business card isn’t the logo on your business card, it’s whether clients will actually trade with you. If they don’t like you, trust you, or find you useful, you’re dead. It’s that simple.
So yes, you need to be good at markets, but you also need to build real relationships. No trades = no value = no job. That’s the brutal version of reality.
And internally, the same principles apply. Being “good” isn’t enough anymore. You also have to understand internal politics, influence, and power dynamics. The people who rise today are the ones who can navigate the organisation, not just the ones who can price a trade perfectly. If you want to understand this side of the game, there’s a brilliant short book I always recommend:
7 Rules of Power — Jeffrey Pfeffer: it explains exactly how influence, perception, and organisational behaviour drive careers far more than raw performance. It’s an eye-opener for anyone in banking. LINK: 7 Rules of Power - Jeffrey Pfeffer
What makes someone a good Sales?
Curiosity about markets
Pattern recognition
Client empathy
Commercial instinct
Reliability
And above all: relationship capital
What I expect from an analyst/associate: Energy, curiosity, proactivity, and the ability to digest information into something useful fast. You don’t need hero trades, you need to show you’re switched on and want responsibility AND THAT YOU’RE RIGHT FOR THE ROLE - not just a glossed up CV!
How juniors become top performers:
Own tasks, show independent thought, make clients and seniors remember you for the right reasons, and apply pressure on yourself to grow quicker than your peer group.
Is early success a predictor of senior success? Often yes, but the real differentiator later on is resilience and political awareness. Given your background, you can absolutely make the move. If you genuinely enjoy markets and people, you’re already halfway there. Move sooner rather than later, momentum matters. GOOD LUCK!
Sure, heed the tip from chatGPT a top equity sales trader who’s worked for top US banks!
Renounce the last crumbles of dignity you might have retained (if you ever had a dignity to begin with) up to now, and totally sell out your soul instead!
Be a crass, rapacious, self-serving, amoral, nihilistic opportunist who follows the “7 rules of power”. Become a top performer!
100% everyone is going to be absolutely thrilled to be around you if you do that. Also the markets, they will absolutely love you
