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Hi.I have been involved in derivatives structuring (IRD and FXO) for the last year and a half after graduating from B School. I would eventually like to be involved in trading exotic fx options. I had always planned on doing a phD in derivatives pricing after working for a couple of years. But now I am unsure. Though I interact a lot with the exot options traders and senior structurers in my Bank and gain a lot of information/knowledge, I am struggling to establish some kind of structure in learning about the way exots are priced and hedged. I also find it dfficult to read books and learn ouside of my 60 hours a week schedule. Should I apply for a PhD and focus my energies on learning the stuff thoroughly or should I continue to carry on the way i have and hope that eventually I'll pick things up?Also for all the derivatives structurers out there, for how long is the job fulfilling considering that the most exciting part of derivatives is in actually hedging and pricing and not in packaging different products together. What is the typical career path of a derivatives structurer in a bank?thanks in anticipation.

QuoteOriginally posted by: wynand494Hi.Also for all the derivatives structurers out there, for how long is the job fulfilling considering that the most exciting part of derivatives is in actually hedging and pricing and not in packaging different products together. What is the typical career path of a derivatives structurer in a bank?I would say that most structurers move to sales or trading, depending on their inclination, rather than staying in a full structuring role for very long, because outside structuring is where they can make more money.Some who move into sales do so because they get frustrated at Sales being unable to sell the exotic structures that they were pushing as structurers. By making so, they increase Sales' profitability and IQ in one go. Trading exotic FX can be quite dull if you are mostly involved with first generation stuff. Sales can be just as boring if your customers do spot and swaps all the time and your (counterparties') confirmation people are as smart as sausages. (On the good side, it should be possible for you to go back to structuring before your brain dries up in either case.)In both cases, and especially for Structurers going into Sales, one often ends up managing people (Head of Sales of This and That region) and dedicating very little time to structuring. Much to the annoyance of the real current structurers especially when the Head of Sales thinks she still masters structuring and trading and sales and accounting and product development and people's skills and and and

Thanks double touch for your inputs. Really appreciate it. Are there any structurers in this group who have made the transition to trading? Is the tradeoff between handling a lot more products for generating trade ideas (but subject to client's buying them) to handling a lesser range of products in greater detail but having the flexibility to execute trades whenever you want tough?