Sales Trading interview prep.
Senior sales & trading coach for the markets floor. This is the markets seat, not M&A, the question is never 'walk me through an LBO' but 'make me a market, pitch me a trade, what's moving today and how would you trade it'. Comfortable across rates, FX, credit, and equities; fluent in two-way...
What interviewers look for
- Can the candidate make a two-way market AND manage the risk after being hit or lifted, not just hold a directional opinion?
- Do they pitch a trade properly: view -> expression -> carry -> catalyst -> sizing -> risk / stop, with the risk-reward asymmetry explicit?
- Are they genuinely plugged into markets, can they say what's moving today and why, and connect it to a trade?
- Do they manage risk: stops, position limits, Greeks / DV01, and the asymmetry of carry (the crash-skew tail)?
- Quick, structured thinking under pressure, mental math, brain teasers, composure when the market moves against them?
- Do they understand the seat: sales vs trading, flow vs prop, and the client franchise vs principal-risk distinction post-Volcker?
Behavioural questions to expect
Walk me through your CV.
What it tests: Story coherence + genuine markets interest. Desks want evidence of following markets (a PA, a tracked trade, a markets-facing role) and a fast, decisive, risk-aware temperament, not a slow, memo-writing one.
Tell me about a market call or trade idea you've followed, and how it played out.
What it tests: Whether the candidate thinks like a trader: a view WITH an expression, a catalyst, and a risk plan, not just 'I thought X would go up'. Tests markets engagement and the instinct to frame a view as a trade.
Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
What it tests: Self-awareness + risk discipline. Cross-role canonical. Fake weaknesses downgrade immediately. On a desk, the costly failure is not cutting a loser or doubling down on a bad trade, so honesty about risk discipline matters.
Why sales & trading, why not banking or research?
What it tests: Authentic fit for the markets floor: real-time decisions, markets immersion, risk appetite, short feedback loops, vs the project-based, memo-grade work of banking or the longer-horizon work of research.
Sales or trading, which seat do you want, and why?
What it tests: Whether the candidate understands the two roles and has a genuine, self-aware preference. Sales = client relationships, idea distribution, and franchise; trading = pricing, market-making, and risk.
Why this firm?
What it tests: Whether the candidate has done the homework. Bar: firm-specific evidence from the desk's franchise, products, and people, not generic 'great markets reputation'.
How would you describe this firm's markets franchise and edge in your own words?
What it tests: Whether the candidate has internalized HOW the desk makes money, its franchise, products, and client base, not just that the firm 'is big in markets'. Tests whether they read the desk's research / market share, not a brand.
How does a this firm trading desk actually make money, flow vs prop?
What it tests: Whether the candidate understands desk economics: capturing bid-offer and franchise flow vs taking principal risk, and how Volcker constrains prop risk at a bank.
Technical concepts to master
Yield curve + DV01 + curve trades
- DV01. Dollar Value of a 01
- The dollar P&L change on a position for a 1 basis-point (0.01%) parallel move in yield. DV01 ≈ position notional × modified duration × 0.0001.
- Yield-curve shapes
- Normal (upward-sloping, long yields > short yields), flat (similar across tenors), inverted (short yields > long), humped (mid-curve highest).
- Steepener vs flattener
- Steepener: profits if long yields rise MORE than short yields (curve gets steeper). Flattener: profits if long yields rise less than short (curve flattens).
- DV01-neutral construction
- Size the two legs of a curve trade so their DV01s match, long $X of one tenor, short $Y of another, where X × DV01_short_leg = Y × DV01_long_leg.
Carry + FX frameworks
- Carry definition
- The return on a position if nothing moves: yield differential (FX carry), bond yield (fixed income), roll yield (futures / curves), or coupon (credit).
- FX carry, the canonical trade
- Long high-yielding currency funded by shorting low-yielding currency. Earns the interest rate differential as carry.
- Covered interest parity (CIP)
- Forward FX = spot × (1 + r_quote) / (1 + r_base). The forward rate eliminates risk-free arbitrage between buying the foreign currency outright vs lending in the base currency.
- Carry-to-vol
- Sharpe-like ratio: annualized carry divided by annualized realized vol of the carry trade. Tells you how much you're being paid per unit of risk you're taking.
Market-making + bid-ask economics
- Two-way price + the spread
- Quote a bid (where you buy) and an offer (where you sell) around fair value; the spread compensates you for risk and the chance you're trading with someone better-informed.
- Inventory management
- After a trade, you hold a position you didn't choose; skew your next quote to attract the offsetting trade and reduce the inventory.
- Adverse selection
- The risk that whoever trades against your quote knows something you don't, so your fills are systematically on the wrong side.
- Franchise / flow value
- Client flow is valuable beyond the spread, it reveals positioning and gives the desk an information and inventory edge.
Trade construction
- View + expression
- The view is what you think happens; the expression is the cleanest instrument to capture it with the least unwanted risk.
- Catalyst
- The 1-3 specific events in the next 3-12 months that re-price the trade, and why the market hasn't priced them yet.
- Carry + risk-reward
- Carry is what you earn or pay to hold the trade; risk-reward weighs the upside if right against the loss to the stop if wrong.
- Sizing + stop
- Size the position to the risk (volatility, liquidity, and the distance to the stop), and define the level that proves the trade wrong.
Trading risk management
- The right risk metric per asset class
- Rates: DV01 / duration. Options / vol: the Greeks (delta, gamma, vega, theta). Credit: spread DV01 (CR01). Equities: beta / delta.
- VaR + stress
- Value-at-Risk estimates the loss not exceeded at a confidence level over a horizon; stress tests check the tail VaR misses.
- Limits + stops
- Position limits cap exposure; stop-losses cap the loss on a given trade; both enforce discipline against hope.
- Hedging + delta-hedging
- Neutralize the risks you don't want to keep the ones you do, e.g. delta-hedge an options position to isolate the vol view.
Practical drills
- Make me a market on a quantity (e.g. the number of coffees sold in this building per day, or the price of a given bond). I'll buy or sell at your quote. Quote two-way, I'll trade, you adjust, manage your position and P&L over several rounds.
- You want a 2s10s steepener (long the 2y, short the 10y, profits if the curve steepens) that's neutral to parallel shifts. Using rough DV01s of ~$190 per $1m for the 2y and ~$870 per $1m for the 10y, you're short $1m of the 10y. How much 2y do you buy to be DV01-neutral?
- Pitch me a trade in this desk's asset class. 2-3 min prep, 60-90 sec delivery. Be ready to be probed on the catalyst, the carry, the sizing, and where your stop is.
Smart-question anchors
- Seat + structure - sales vs trading, which products / desk the seat covers, and how juniors rotate
- Franchise + flow - the desk's client base, market share, and flow vs principal-risk mix
- Risk framework - VaR / position / stop limits, and how risk is monitored intraday
- E-trading + market structure - electronic vs voice, the platform, and how the product's microstructure is evolving
- Path to running risk - how a junior adds value early and the route from support / pricing to owning a book
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