Finance Headhunters Nyc
Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:22:55 +0000
Well, once you have a certain reputation (which I'll admit I don't really have yet, so I may not be the best person to advise you), it's really a financial decision (as well as a decision for your family, too, if you have one). One thing you NEED to do in these situations is ask the potential employer how your bonus will be determined. If you're currently getting paid 30% of net trading rrevenue and they say, "Your bonus will be a percentage of your $XXX,000 salary," that might not be a competitive offer. If the BB can offer you a greater percentage of trading revenues or more capital to work with, then obviously it's a good choice.
Most BBs have better tools and data than a lot of prop shops (this may change with new regulatory requirements on IT). If you're running deep out-of-the-money equity options strategies and want to look at the market's perceived default risk of specific issuers from more than a decade ago, good luck trying to get information on that from vendors. At a firm that has a bond index, though, like Merrill or Barclays, they've probably got a lot more information and tools available internally. If you want to try really quirky strategies, it's probably harder to do that at a prop shop than a BB.
Also bear in mind that a number of the Commercial Banking- Capital Markets BBs could potentially get hit by the Volcker rule. In other words, there may be a lot less proprietary trading capital available at the large banks than there currently is.
Big firms have a lot more political battles than smaller firms (At least I think- I only interned at a smaller firm). Things aren't always dictated by pragmatism at the banks. You will have to learn to either become an expert politician or you will do a lot of teeth grinding as less wise ideas from the politically-connected affect your work. It's not as bad in trading as in research, sales, technology, or HR, but it still causes problems.
So there's probably more trading strategies available at a firm with a broad capital markets and research group, but your cut will probably be less. There may or may not be more capital available for you to trade with depending on how badly your firm gets hit by new regulations.
One STUPID way to make a decision on who to work for is prestige. (This is coming from someone who did that for his first job) Smart people? Maybe. Experienced people willing to teach you stuff about the markets that you don't already know? Absolutely. But if you already have a bit of a track record, there's no reason to go for Goldman Sachs if a no-name trading firm with experienced folks is offering you a better deal outside the name brand.
The clock is ticking towards Canada's April 30th tax filing deadline. Is your return in order?
If you're stumped over a tax credit or confused about what you can write off, bring your questions to our live blog Monday, March 8.
CIBC tax expert Jamie Golombek will take questions on how to trim your tax bill from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET.
You can send in your question early to taxquestions@financialpost.com and we will try to work it into the blog or you can visit financialpost.com/taxes on March 8 and submit your question during the live Q&A.
Mr. Golombek is the managing director of tax and estate planning, with CIBC Private Wealth Management.
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- Posted in Finance Computer
