Year 3 · Applied Finance · Markets & Trading
Sales & Trading
Understand how institutional markets operate in practice: client flow, market making, liquidity, bid-ask spreads, execution, risk, hedging, macro catalysts, P&L, and the roles of salespeople and traders across equities and FICC.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
What you should be able to explain after this lesson
01
Explain the difference between sales, trading, market making and research.
02
Understand bid, ask, spread, liquidity, order flow and price discovery.
03
Understand how desks operate across equities and FICC.
04
Connect client trades to inventory risk, hedging and desk P&L.
05
Interpret how macro data, central banks and positioning move markets.
06
Answer common Sales & Trading interview questions with clear market logic.
CONCEPT MAPFrom client need to executed and hedged risk
Sales & Trading connects institutional clients to markets and risk-taking capacity
CORE FACTS · SAME IN EVERY MODE
Salespeople understand client objectives, communicate market information and help source liquidity or trade ideas.
Traders price risk, execute transactions, manage inventory and hedge exposures.
Equities desks cover stocks, equity derivatives and related products; FICC covers fixed income, currencies and commodities.
Research, structuring, quant and electronic-trading teams often support the broader markets business.
BeginnerTeaching style changes, knowledge does not.
Sales talks to clients and understands what they want to buy, sell or hedge. Trading decides what price the bank can offer and then manages the risk created by the trade.
COMPARISON
Sales vs trading
| Role | Primary focus | Core skill |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Client relationships and ideas | Communication + market judgment |
| Trading | Pricing and risk management | Fast decisions + risk control |
PROFESSIONAL VOCABULARYFICC / FICC Flow / flow Inventory / inventory
Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities.
Client trading activity moving through a desk.
Positions held by a dealer as a result of market making or risk taking.