We asked 6 Wall Street recruiters about the hottest trends in hiring

“Relationships still matter in this business.” — David McCormack, DMC Partners

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“The biggest trend in 2017 is who can pick stocks and make money? From equity sales and trading on the sell side to investment professionals on the buy side, we are looking for alpha-generators for our clients.

“Much was made of quant in 2016, and it remains a hot theme for the buy and sell sides, but with multiple headlines surrounding big data and more opaque investment themes. We remain 100% focused on exceptional talent and exceptional stock-pickers to help drive returns for our clients.

“Automation is changing Wall Street in parts of fixed income and equities, but not as dramatically as people think. Relationships still matter in this business.

“Wall Street can be three to six months ahead of their clients (buy side), not three years. In equities, demand is in Delta-1, derivatives, electronic trading, and prime, but also key areas in cash, driven by client coverage. In FICC, rates trading is an area of investment. M&A is active, given the pipeline. Banks aren’t adding mass headcount, so a lot of hiring today is driven by upgrades.

“On the buy side, we are seeing lots of demand from our hedge fund clients across multiple strategies and sectors.”

David McCormack is the founder and CEO of DMC Partners.