Trade shop politics...being a team player, vs fighting for yourself?
In a bit of a pickle at a trade shop. I'm basically moving from ops/risk into commercial, and there are several other "senior" traders, who already have established books (or networks at least). These people face way different expectations than me, better or worse.
I'm a team player, focus on the desk/area I was given, and legitimately help the senior traders make more money with random support stuff. I'd argue this is a very important role, and I have specific skills that are hard to replace.
The region I am being given to start will be really tough to make money, and I'm not convinced it will make me look good.
Meanwhile, there's a pretty new "senior trader" here who is largely just going to handle very similar business to what we already had. And this person is stepping on toes (including mine, and senior traders too), and seemingly getting rewarded for it.
So...am I screwing myself over by sticking to the directions of my current role? My ultimate fear is that I won't really have a lot of PnL, or even deal flow, and I'll get shoved back into a scheduling role.
Trading shops tend to be a bit of a free for all, and the shy person will just get left behind. At the same time, I don't know if it will go over well if I just start trying to insert myself into random things, or demand to be more included in handling brownfield business.
Just to not leave you hanging, I will say that it's impossible to answer this in generalities. Every shop is different but the big question is how are bonuses calculated? The more individual the calculation, the more important it is to fight for yourself and step on toes if you have to. What you should do is keep a record of everything you assisted with and any direct P&L impacts that occurred as a result of your work. If that ends up not helping internally, it's good to have to assist you in making a strong resume.
If you want to DM me more details, I'd be happy to try to help, but as an outsider to the shop I am not sure how useful my input would be.
First off, I would start taking a baseball bat to work and sit it by work so others see you mean business. Joking aside do not let anyone think you are just young guy who will be pushed aside.
Now real advice, the main thing is who do you report to and who does the other person report to. If your desk head has a lot of political clout what this other trader is doing will piss them off at some point and they will start to insert themselves. Which at that point the trader's desk head will start to insert themselves. Sadly this how stupid these organizations are setup and main reason people created/work-for merchant shops. Now if you think your desk head does not have that much political clout you need to go to them and explain the situation and just see their reaction, basically if your desk head is going to "take one for the team" they should be willing to protect you somewhat to follow that direction. If the latter is the case you should try to become more friendly with this senior trader because they may become your new desk head in the future and yah finding new friends may be the only option. Lesson of the day, in these organizations those with more political power always win out, political power/P&L untouchable.
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