what is a trading desk 
a trading desk is a physical location where transactions for buying and selling securities occur depending on the type of financial institution the trading desk may be filled by traders trading for their own proprietary account brokers who act as agents matching buyers and sellers or some mixture of both trading desks are found in most financial firms that are involved in facilitating trade executions in markets such as equities fixed income securities futures commodities and currencies these facilities are crucial to providing market liquidity a trading desk may also be known as a dealing desk understanding trading deskstraders operating in the financial markets usually converge in a room known as the trading floor or trading room the trading floor is made up of desks that share a large open space each desk formally called a trading desk specializes in a security type or market segment trading desks are where buying and selling of securities occur within a financial institution before the 1970s many banks split their capital markets business into many different departments across several regions these institutions began consolidating these departments in the 1970s following the launch of the nasdaq which required all investment firms to have equity trading desks today many asset managers outsource their trading desks to these larger institutions trading desks are manned by licensed traders who specialize in a given investment type such as equities or commodities these traders primarily use electronic trading systems and market makers to identify the best prices for their clients the personnel on trading desks receive clients orders from the sales desk which is in charge of suggesting trading ideas to institutional and high net worth investors in addition to trading activities trading desks also help clients with structuring financial products watching for opportunities or supporting agreements between companies and investors 