Trading jobs and other financial job openings. Browse Trading jobs in Chicago, USA

There are several different kinds of careers in trading:

Flow traders - These are people who buy and sell financial products for a bank's clients.

Proprietary (or "prop") traders - These are a carefully chosen group of higher level traders who trade the bank's own money.

Execution traders - These traders mainly place trades for analysts and fund managers.

Sales traders - These are a mix between salespeople and traders, recommending products to clients and executing any trades which have come about from their recommendations.

Trading roles have been significantly changed by the advance of technology over the last 10 years, but investment banks also hire people for separate electronic trading divisions.

Electronic trading has sped trades dramatically, dropped the cost of transactions and greatly increased transparency in the markets. Using algorithms - computer systems which make decisions on price, timing and size of an order - also shrank average trade sizes.

Automation has completely transformed the market from one where much human activity was required into one where the computers do most of the work in executing and processing trades. Due to this change, many traditional trading roles were eliminated. To balance this, electronic trading has created many new positions and careers in trading.

These new opportunities for finance jobs in trading include:

Quantitative analysts - Quants are brilliant at math, which is very important for gaining an edge in trading electronically. Quant jobs involve designing, developing and deploying execution algorithms with a mathematical approach to find investment opportunities and strategies in the market.

Consultants - It's the consultant's job to keep clients happy with services. Consultants create a number of statistical reports, such as transaction cost analysis and trade reports, to make sure clients are taking advantage of trading tools effectively. Consultants are also able to provide tips on improving performance.

Sales traders - It's the sales trader's job to perform the execution of trades for clients, while also offering a choice of the bank's e-trading products and helping a customer decide which one suits their needs. This position requires a mix of marketing and client relationship management. Banks also hire pure salespeople.

Market structure jobs - This position is defined by research; market structure professionals analyze reported regulatory changes and macro trends and create reports describing their possible effect on the trading environment.