People Power: Building Lasting Trading Desks and Sustainable Finance Teams

Trading firms face a critical challenge: building teams that can perform under extreme pressure while maintaining long-term sustainability. The old approach involves hiring high-energy, aggressive young professionals and hoping they will last long enough to create value.

This strategy no longer works in today's complex markets.

During the 2025 Equities Leaders Summit, multiple sessions explored issues like team well-being, cultural changes, and continuous professional development. Here, we’ll explore how these elements combine to support sustainable finance teams.

Prioritizing Fresh Perspectives in Junior Traders

These days, junior traders are not necessarily those who have a degree in finance, economics, or business administration. According to one participant at the 2025 Summit, bringing in new perspectives can be beneficial to the trading desk, and people with different educational backgrounds are often in a better position to learn and grow.

"You can have somebody who has a biology or psychology background because you don't necessarily need that knowledge base down below,” said the participant. "It's much easier to get in with non-traditional backgrounds when you start at the bottom.”

Starting with Technical and Personal Fundamentals

Modern development programs start with solid foundations. New hires learn market mechanics, risk parameters, and trading systems before taking on complex decisions.

One speaker at the summit explained that success comes from "focusing on foundational skills and providing comprehensive training” rather than expecting newcomers to figure things out alone.

But technical knowledge isn't enough. Junior traders must also develop psychological strength to handle market volatility and personal setbacks. This means learning to bounce back from losses without becoming paralyzed by fear.

Delivering Early Learning Opportunities

The most effective programs give junior traders meaningful exposure early. They participate in morning market calls, shadow senior traders during volatile periods, and gradually take on more responsibility.

This hands-on learning accelerates their development far beyond traditional back-office rotations.

Successful firms also recognize that different people bring different strengths. Some excel at quantitative analysis, while others show superior client relationship skills. The best development programs identify these talents early and create tailored career paths.

Creating a Sustainable Culture in a High-Pressure Environment

Creating sustainable trading desk culture requires fundamental changes to how firms approach performance and retention. The data tells a troubling story: 37% of trading professionals report that long hours negatively impact their health and family life, according to a report by Global Trading.

"I think the determining factor to staying in the industry is if my health would let me keep up with the hours and early starts,” said one of the respondents to the study.

Psychological Safety Creates Room to Take Risks

Leading firms are rethinking what high-performance culture looks like. Instead of glorifying unsustainable practices, they focus on creating environments that support peak performance over extended periods.

This includes flexible work arrangements where possible and clear boundaries around after-hours communications.

The most successful cultures are built on the concept of "psychological safety.”

"Psychological safety means feeling safe to take interpersonal risks, to speak up, to disagree openly, to surface concerns without fear of negative repercussions or pressure to sugarcoat bad news,” says a report by McKinsey & Company. "Psychological safety nurtures an environment where people feel encouraged to share creative ideas without fear of personal judgment or stepping on toes.”

In this type of environment, team members can share thoughts and feedback—even negative feedback to leaders—without fear of losing their jobs or being punished.

"It’s OK to admit mistakes, to be vulnerable, and to speak truth to power,” McKinsey says. Establishing this type of culture is difficult and takes practice, but it can open the trading desk to innovative new approaches to doing things.

Continuous Learning Supports Internal Advancement

Sustainable culture also requires continuous learning throughout team members’ careers, not just during junior years. Markets evolve constantly, and traders who stop learning quickly become obsolete.

"We’ve had great success with people getting hired straight out of school, and then learning and getting promoted from within,” said one speaker at the summit. That said, firms need teachers, mentors, and champions present for learning to take place.

"You must have reliable and fairly senior teachers who can bring juniors up to their standards,” they said. "That has worked well for us on the trading desk.”

Importantly, sustainable culture doesn't mean lowering performance standards. It means creating systems and processes that enable consistently high performance without burning out talent.

Treating Well-Being as a Critical Lever of Alpha Generation

The connection between trader well-being and performance has become central to long-term strategy in the world of finance. Research consistently shows that financially and emotionally stable employees make better decisions and contribute more effectively to team performance.

Managing Employee Financial Stress

Financial stress particularly impacts trading performance. According to a study by PwC, employees who are stressed about their finances are less likely to feel the following:

• That they belong at their company
• Like their values align with those of their company
• Energized at work
• Like they’d recommend their company as a great place to work
• Like they are proud to work for their company

Furthermore, most employees who experience financial stress also say it harms their sleep (56%) and mental health (55%), while half say it impacts their self-esteem. All these factors contribute to challenges with workplace productivity and decision-making quality.

For traders managing significant risk exposures, this stress can be especially harmful.

Leading firms respond with comprehensive financial wellness programs that go beyond traditional benefits. Importantly, they also create initiatives that focus on other aspects of team well-being, such as physical wellness and mental health.

Supporting Physical and Mental Wellness

Physical wellness matters because trading is inherently sedentary and stressful work. Prolonged exposure to these conditions leads to serious health problems that impair performance.

Mental health support has also become particularly critical. This includes confidential counseling services, stress management workshops, and mindfulness training designed for high-pressure environments.

"A lot of people don’t realize this, but eighty percent of your thoughts are negative, and ninety percent are repetitive,” said one speaker with a background in psychology who participated in the 2025 Equities Leaders Summit.

"Think of your mind like a revolving door—the more you try to push those negative thoughts away, the more they come back and the harder the door swings at you. To counteract that, we must acknowledge those negative thoughts and accept them.”

The most sophisticated programs recognize the interconnected nature of financial, physical, and mental health. Rather than treating these as separate issues, they provide integrated support that addresses the whole person.

A trader struggling with personal finances will find it difficult to maintain emotional balance during volatile markets. Someone dealing with chronic sleep deprivation will struggle to make optimal decisions regardless of their technical expertise.

Measuring the Success of Well-Being Programs

Effective well-being programs require measurement and accountability. Leading firms track employee engagement scores, stress levels, and utilization of wellness resources. They also examine correlations between well-being indicators and trading performance.

This data-driven approach enables leaders to continuously refine programs. Ideally, doing so will maximize their impact on both individual wellness and organizational performance.

Creating a Long-Term Vision for Trading Desks

The firms that master this balance will thrive in the next generation of financial markets. They understand that true trading desk talent development encompasses the full spectrum of human performance.

They recognize that well-being in finance isn't a cost center but a strategic investment in the organization’s performance and capabilities. This means supporting people's growth from junior levels through senior leadership, maintaining psychological safety to give teams room to speak up, and supporting physical and mental wellness, as these are critical to maintaining consistent performance.

Taking care of people isn't just the right thing to do—it's the smartest business decision trading desks can make.