The 20 interview questions banks ask prospective salespeople and traders

Recent regulatory changes have narrowed the market for sales and trading positions, making an already competitive market even more so. Acing the interview, particularly for those fresh out of school without a proven record, is critical.

To help, we’ve collected a list of questions recently asked of business school students who have interviewed for sales and trading positions at large banks. Some are behavioral, but most are aimed to test your market knowledge. How would you do?

1.  Tell me what Glass-Steagall means to me as a capital markets participant.

2.  What particular markets or instruments are you interested in?

3.  What is going to make you make the calls you hate to make?

4.  Sell me your favorite stock.

5. How do you stay on top of the markets?

6. What is the price of gold?

7.  Where is the S&P 500?

8. What would you buy?

9. What would you short?

10. Tell me what an institutional investor is.

11.  What is unique about the US treasury market vs. the rest of the debt market?

12.  What is the difference between senior and junior bondholders?

13.  What does liquidity allow an investor?

14.  What is Junk? How many basis points over treasuries does it trade?

15.  Name me several stock exchanges in the US? In the world?

16.  What kinds of things make a stock extremely volatile in the short term?

17.  How does compounding work? Would I be better off with 10% annually, semi-annually, etc.?

18.  What is convexity?

19.  How does the yield curve work?

20.   What do you think will happen with interest rates over the next 6 months?