Trading Assistant or Desk Analyst qualifications

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psucfa

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I am wondering if anyone has any insight on what kind of experience/skills are required to get a Trading Assistant or Desk Analyst type position at a Hedge Fund, Equity Structured Products Business, or Prop. Trading Desk? Also, what range of compensation one could expect to receive for something like this.

I currently have about 2 years experience and am supporting a Prop Trading business at a second tier bank in NYC.

Any advice or information would be great as I am having a tough time find anything specific.

Thanks.
 
At my firm, there is a clear distinction between a desk analyst and a trading assistant. I don't have experience elsewhere, so this may not be the case at all places though.

Desk analysts are trading strategists/research analysts who do no have official publishing capabilities, whereas a trading assistant books trades, writes tickets, etc...

Again, maybe the lingo is different at different shops and hedge funds.

Now, I don't really remember what my point was..but on my job descriptions, it woudl appear that a TA role would be within reach; a desk analyst role would likely be a stretch without some sort of other experience under your belt.
 
*double post*



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Friday, August 3, 2007 at 10:22AM by FIAnalyst.
 
I interviewed for a Training Assistant position a couple of months ago in Toronto. The starting salary offered (and it was at high end of the range quoted earlier to me) was $39K a year + bonus. This was for the desk of a main/top Canadian bank.
 
And I would say the qualifications they are looking for would very greatly depending on the market. It isn't necessarily a job that requires at lot of background knowledge, at the very least I would think an undergraduate degree in something, preferably business or math would suffice. In Toronto things get a little crazy so I wouldn't be surprised if the person who got that Trading Asst. job for $39K a year had a masters and at least two or more levels of the CFA under their belt.
 
according to vault guide, trading assistant jobs are targeted at fresh young virgin undergrads.
 
to me desk analyst seems like a pretty sweet gig. I don't know if I could deal with the compliance aspect of sell side research (publishing), along with the constant pressure to make everything pretty and come up with witty titles. But at the same time, I�m on the buy side now and I often think some sell side experience would be extremely helpful career-wise, as understanding how things work on that side of the phone is clearly a huge advantage. Desk analyst seems like it might be a good fit.

For the original poster, for desk analyst I would imagine the requirements are the same as for most analyst jobs, several years of your own coverage with industry contacts and a deep understanding of your space. So in other words not an entry-level job. Trading assistant is much more accessible I�d say.
 
Frank,

Trading Assistants run the whole range -- Most of ours are actually pretty experienced middle office people. (Most probably in late 20's).

For undergraduates, we hire into the Global Markets analyst program. Those guys might perform TA duties for a few months, but they will get to actually be the ones taking some risk in relatively short order.



and BN,

You think are titles are clever? I'm flattered! :-P
If you ever get the itch to move to move...
 
I interviewed for a TA position on the fi and structured products desk at a cdn bank and they were looking for strong math, VBA and C++ skills along with 1-2 years experience in the industry. Something like 300 people applied for the position so I bet the person that got it had pretty nice qualifications/experience...
 
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