Sales and trading

Sales and trading is one of the key functions of an investment bank. The term refers to the various activities relating to the buying and selling of securities or other financial instruments. Typically an investment bank will perform these tasks on behalf of itself and its clients.

In market making, traders will buy and sell financial products primarily to facilitate the investment and trading activities of its clients with the goal of making an incremental amount of money on each trade.

Sales

The Sales component refers to the investment bank's sales force, whose primary job is to call on institutional and high-net-worth investors to suggest trading ideas and take orders. Sales desks then communicate their clients' orders to the appropriate trading desks, who can price and execute trades, or structure new products that fit a specific need.

The sales and trading function will also typically employ financial analysts that provide trading strategy advice to external as well as internal clients to support sales and trading. This strategy often affects the way the firm will operate in the market, the direction it would like to take in terms of its proprietary and flow positions, the suggestions salespersons give to clients, as well as the way structurers create new products.

Trading

Banks also undertake risk through proprietary trading (*though this is subject to regulation within the US and certain European markets*), done by a special set of traders who do not interface with clients and through "principal risk", risk undertaken by a trader after he buys or sells a product to a client and does not hedge his total exposure. Banks seek to maximize profitability for a given amount of risk on their balance sheet. The necessity for numerical ability in sales and trading has created jobs for physics, math and engineering Ph.D.s who act as quantitative analysts.

See also

• Investment banking
• Stock trader
• Trader (finance)
• Proprietary trading

References

Corporate finance and investment banking Capital structure Convertible debt Exchangeable debt Mezzanine debt Pari passu Preferred equity Second lien debt Senior debt Senior secured debt Shareholder loan Stock Subordinated debt Warrant Transactions (terms / conditions) Equity offerings At-the-market offering Book building Bookrunner Corporate spin-off Equity carve-out Follow-on offering Greenshoe Reverse Initial public offering Private placement Public offering Rights issue Seasoned equity offering Secondary market offering Underwriting Mergers and acquisitions Buy side Control premium Demerger Divestment Drag-along right Management due diligence Managerial entrenchment Minority discount Pitch book Pre-emption right Proxy fight Post-merger integration Sell side Shareholder rights plan Special situation Squeeze out Staggered board of directors Stock swap Super-majority amendment Tag-along right Takeover Reverse Tender offer Leverage Debt restructuring Debtor-in-possession financing Financial sponsor Leveraged buyout Leveraged recapitalization High-yield debt Private equity Project finance Valuation Accretion/dilution analysis Adjusted present value Associate company Business valuation Conglomerate discount Cost of capital Weighted average Discounted cash flow Economic Value Added Enterprise value Fairness opinion Financial modeling Free cash flow Free cash flow to equity Market value added Minority interest Modigliani–Miller theorem Net present value Pure play Real options Residual income Stock valuation Sum-of-the-parts analysis Tax shield Terminal value Valuation using multiples List of investment banks Outline of finance