Prime Broker

A typical week often involves client coverage, trade-flow oversight, balance-sheet conversations, and the steady cadence of market-driven activity — sitting with hedge-fund clients on financing needs, working with the financing desk on margin terms, coordinating securities-lending availability, prepping balance-sheet reviews. You're often carrying multiple client relationships at varying levels of activity. Revenue contribution and client retention tend to be the visible measures.

The harder part is often the balance-sheet economics — prime brokerage runs on capital intensity, and decisions about which clients get capacity at what price involve trade-offs with treasury, risk, and credit. Bank variance is real: bulge-bracket primes operate at scale with deep balance sheets; smaller primes compete on service and specialization with tighter capital constraints.

Folks who do well here often have capital-markets fluency, relationship instincts, and the structuring skill to negotiate complex financing. Series 7 and 79 licensing are typical; CFA helps. The trade-off is the always-on coverage — prime clients trade across time zones, and client service follows the market.