Sales Trading interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Tell me about a market call or trade idea you've followed — and how it played out.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
4. Why sales & trading — why not banking or research?
5. Sales or trading — which seat do you want, and why?
6. Why the firm?
7. How would you describe the firm's markets franchise and edge in your own words?
8. How does a the firm trading desk actually make money — flow vs prop?

Technical concepts to master

• Yield curve + DV01 + curve trades

  DV01 — Dollar Value of a 01 · Yield-curve shapes · Steepener vs flattener · DV01-neutral construction · Butterfly trades

• Carry + FX frameworks

  Carry definition · FX carry — the canonical trade · Covered interest parity (CIP) · Carry-to-vol · Crash skew — 'up the stairs, down the elevator'

• Market-making + bid-ask economics

  Two-way price + the spread · Inventory management · Adverse selection · Franchise / flow value

• Trade construction

  View + expression · Catalyst · Carry + risk-reward · Sizing + stop

• Trading risk management

  The right risk metric per asset class · VaR + stress · Limits + stops · Hedging + delta-hedging

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

Sourced from

Mergers & Inquisitions — Sales & Trading Interview Questions · Trading Interview — Market Making Games · Wall Street Oasis — Trading / prop-shop interviews · Wall Street Playbook — Sales & Trading Interview Questions · The Options Playbook — Option Greeks