Stocks, bonds, and traditional products, as well as alternative investment products such as interest rates, foreign exchange, commodities, and derivatives related to spot trading, generate commissions based on performance resulting from sales to customers or trading on behalf of customers. In domestic securities firms, when they refer to IB and Research, it often means S&T rather than the entire investment banking.

Depending on the role, it is divided into three professions: broker, trader, and analyst. Broker: Corresponds to Sales in Sales and Trading. They receive orders from customers and instruct traders to execute contracts. Teams where brokers gather are mainly corporate sales teams, comprehensive product teams, etc. Trader: Corresponds to Trading in Sales and Trading. They execute transactions such as actual buying/selling contracts through computer programs. Analyst: Provides information on which stocks brokers should persuade customers to buy/sell. If they belong to the research department, the focus is on increasing sales through Sales.

By product, it is broadly divided into Equity (stocks and stock derivatives) and FICC: Fixed Income instruments (bonds), Currencies (currency), and Commodities (commodities). Brokers and traders also differentiate between detailed duties, such as stock/stock derivatives brokers/traders, and bond/currency/derivative brokers/traders.

Due to its narrow field and intense performance pressure, the lifespan is short, and even if it goes well, it can easily collapse at once. Those in charge of overseas markets may experience changes in day and night. Of course, generally speaking, the real busy time is during market hours, and after the market closes, there is leisure time. Unlike asset managers and full-time investors, whose valuation of invested assets increases, in S&T, the higher the turnover of customer funds, the better. In other words, even in a bear market, a high turnover of customer funds is advantageous.

In S&T, the Bloomberg Terminal is essential regardless of the department.

They come up with good investment ideas, create products based on them, and raise investments from customers, which traders then use for trading. Salespeople receive bonuses based on the products they sell. While trading has the disadvantage of star players being cut due to click errors or judgment errors, sales are more stable as long as they gain customer trust.

Sales that advise others to invest are tricky, so it’s important to bring good investment ideas, starting from eloquence like IBD, writing skills, perfect English, adaptability to customers, and business skills. The most basic sales in this industry start from internships, sending market status materials to customers. Once officially employed, they also have to make presentations in front of customers. Although academic background is less important than IBD, a degree from a top 30 university in the United States is still required.

The working hours are longer than trading. In the Global Equity Sales department at the London office in the UK, most people are already at work by 6:30 in the morning.

They fulfill orders received by the sales department or trade according to customer requests, and they directly trade customers’ stocks from a short-term perspective. In the movie “Margin Call,” Kevin Spacey belongs to the trading department. If it’s “Wall Street,” it’s common to imagine trading floors where people make urgent stock trades while looking at computer charts and making phone calls, and that’s exactly what happens in trading floors.

It’s a strict performance-based system, so even an unknown trader can receive a lot of bonuses and succeed as long as their skills are excellent. In Wall Street, if your trading skills are excellent, an individual analyst can receive up to $50 million in performance bonuses. Conversely, they are cut if they incur losses.

Native-level English proficiency and sociability are not necessary. Since mental arithmetic, quick judgment, and market experience are preferred, the likelihood of non-native foreigners entering is higher than in IBD. They are asked to do things like mental arithmetic of five-digit numbers times three-digit numbers with a stopwatch on, and everyone naturally gets the answer, and the speed determines the outcome. Unlike IBD, they pay less attention to academic background but more to grades.

They can only operate when the stock/bond market is open. So, they usually arrive around 7-8 a.m. and are active during market hours. After the market closes, they settle profits and losses for about 1-2 hours and leave work around 6 p.m. It’s hard to go to the restroom or eat during market hours. New employees in such departments often bring fast food or delivery food like McDonald’s or Shake Shack to their senior colleagues’ desks. They may be chewing food with their mouths, but their eyes, hands, and minds must be focused on the market.

After work, they keep up with global economic news. Since they experience extreme stress, the ability to manage stress is an important skill. Even if they leave work early, many suffer from insomnia, anxiety, etc. There are cases where they drink until they are drunk on days when stress is too severe.

Goldman Sachs Korea in Seoul offered a starting salary of approximately $67,600 for college graduates, $84,500 for third-year RAs, and for more experienced writing analysts, salaries ranged from $101,400 to $126,800. (In the US, college graduates receive a starting salary of around $161,000. Third-year employees are reported to receive about $271,000.)