Had an interesting conversation with one of my friends (an investment banker) yesterday about the Wall Street hierarchy. I was expressing how much more I enjoyed the trading side of our industry as opposed to the brokerage side (I used to be a stockbroker), when my friend passively stated “everyone knows it’s the bankers, then the traders, then the brokers.” I almost took it as a fact without thinking, and then really thought about it. Obviously stock brokers are at the bottom of the barrel (I know personally,) but between bankers and traders who wins? To me, hands down it’s the traders. Bottom line at the end of the day if you’re a good trader you can move anywhere you want set up a trading room (with at least 6 screens of course) and trade in your pajama’s the first couple of hours of the day. As a banker you simply do not have that type of freedom, you’re certainly not going to pick up and move to Brazil and have the same deal flow. There are a million other reasons, but the most important is I work on a trading desk, so traders win hands down.
-Kevin
