Guides / Career guides / Sales and trading
Sales and trading: where the markets are the job.
Sales and trading teams buy and sell shares, bonds, currencies and derivatives for big investors. Market hours, fast decisions and a very different interview from banking.
Sales
Build relationships with funds, insurers and pension schemes, and pitch them trade ideas and products.
Trading
Make prices for clients, manage the bank’s risk and react to markets in real time.
Banking or the trading floor?
| Compare | Investment banking | Sales and trading |
|---|---|---|
| Hours | Often 75 to 100 a week, unpredictable | Built around market hours, roughly 6:30am to 6pm |
| First-year US pay | About $110,000 base plus bonus | About $85,000 base plus $50,000–$75,000 bonus, so $135,000–$160,000 all-in |
| What interviews test | Accounting, valuation and deal knowledge | Market awareness, trade ideas, mental maths and probability |
| Daily rhythm | Projects that run for weeks or months | Decisions in seconds; the day resets at the close |
Figures from published guides; they vary by bank, desk and market cycle.
A typical day in sales and trading.
A realistic junior day on a normal week. Live deals, results seasons and market shocks make it longer.
- 6:00
Arrive, read overnight news from Asia and Europe, and check positions.
- 7:00
Morning meeting: the desk’s views, today’s data releases and big client orders.
- 8:00
Markets open. Salespeople call clients with ideas; traders quote prices and manage risk.
- 12:00
Lunch at the desk. Update trackers and answer client questions.
- 15:00
Close of the main session: execute closing orders, check positions and profit and loss.
- 17:00
Write the end-of-day note and prepare tomorrow’s ideas. Most people leave by early evening.
The career ladder and pay.
| Level | Typical years | What you do | All-in pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Analyst | 0 to 3 years | Supports traders and salespeople, builds tools, starts covering smaller clients or products | $150k to $250k |
| Associate | 3 to 6 years | Covers clients or runs a small book of risk | $250k to $450k |
| Vice president | 6 to 10 years | Owns key client relationships or a meaningful trading book | $400k to $900k |
| Director and managing director | 10+ years | Runs a desk or the most important client accounts | $800k to several million |
Approximate all-in pay (base plus bonus) in US dollars at large firms in New York in recent years. London is usually 20 to 30% lower; smaller firms and other cities pay less. Bonuses swing with the market.
How recruiting works.
Banks hire through summer internships where you rotate across desks, then match with one at the end. Your rotation preferences and how you network during the summer decide where you land.
Interviews test mental maths, markets knowledge and how you think under pressure. Expect brainteasers, probability questions and “pitch me a trade”. Quantitative trading roles also test programming and statistics.
Who hires.
| Type | Examples | What it’s like |
|---|---|---|
| Global banks | Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank | The largest client franchises in shares, bonds, currencies and commodities. |
| Proprietary and electronic trading firms | Jane Street, Citadel Securities, Optiver, IMC, Susquehanna, Flow Traders | Trade their own money; heavy on maths, probability and programming. |
| Commodity traders | Trafigura, Vitol, Glencore, Gunvor | Physical and financial commodity trading, with strong presences in Geneva, London and Singapore. |
Firm names are examples, not a ranking or an endorsement.
Are you ready to apply?
Tick what you can honestly do today.
Your plan, step by step.
- 9 months before
Learn the markets
Read daily, follow one asset class closely, and learn the basics of options and bonds.
- 6 months before
Train your mental maths
Ten minutes a day of timed arithmetic and probability problems.
- 3 months before
Build two trade pitches
One long, one short or relative value. Know the catalyst, the risk and when you’d exit.
- Interviews
Stay calm under pressure
Interviewers interrupt and push back on purpose. Think out loud and stay polite.
Where it leads.
Hedge funds
Macro, credit and relative value funds hire traders with a strong record.
Asset management
Portfolio management and dealing roles.
Fintech and market-structure firms
Exchanges, electronic trading platforms and data providers.
Myths and reality.
“Trading is mostly shouting on a busy floor.”
Most trading is electronic now. The job is analysis, risk management and client service.
“You need a maths PhD.”
Quant roles do, but many sales and trading roles want fast, accurate thinking and good communication.
What to read.
- Bloomberg and Reuters markets coverage. Read what moved markets each day.
- Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives by John Hull. The standard derivatives textbook.
- Heard on the Street by Timothy Crack. Practice brainteasers and quant interview questions.
What they ask on the trading floor.
Expect market questions, mental maths and a trade idea, not just accounting. Try each before you open it.
Mental maths What is 7% of 1,350?
94.5. Take 1% (13.5) and multiply by 7. Interviewers want speed and a method, not a calculator.
Probability You win the face value of one roll of a fair die. What would you pay to play?
Less than 3.5, the expected value (the average of 1 to 6). Paying 3.5 breaks even; a trader wants an edge, so they bid below it.
Markets Central bank rates rise unexpectedly. What happens to bond prices?
They fall. Existing bonds pay less than new ones, so their prices drop until their yields match the market. Longer bonds fall more.
Markets What is the VIX?
An index of the market’s expected volatility over the next 30 days, implied from S&P 500 option prices. It usually rises when stocks fall.
Trade idea Pitch me a trade.
Give the trade, the reason, the catalyst and the risk, in under two minutes. For example: what you buy or sell, why the market has it wrong, what event will prove you right, and where you would cut it.
Fit Why sales and trading, not banking?
Point to something real: you follow markets every day, you like fast feedback, or you enjoyed a trading game or club. Show you know what the job is actually like.
Test yourself: sales and trading
Questions from the Mandate app. Try each before you open it.
How do sales and trading roles differ?
Sales covers clients; trading prices and manages risk. Both serve institutional clients in secondary markets.
A market maker earns money mainly from…
The bid-ask spread on client trades. It buys at the bid and sells at the ask, managing the risk in between.
FICC stands for…
Fixed income, currencies and commodities. Banks usually split markets into equities and FICC.
EUR/USD is quoted at 1.10. This means…
One euro buys 1.10 US dollars. The first currency is the base; the quote is in the second.
The sales and trading track is live in the app.
Markets, products, mental maths, trade pitches and trading-floor interviews, on top of the Mandate core. Join the waitlist and we’ll tell you first.