Having been on the other end of the phone when institutional fixed income salespeople called, I'll add my two cents. This is directly from the fixed income salespeople's mouths....... Major houses for institutional fixed income sales positions tend to pay a base salary (and its not a bad number on a stand alone basis) plus commission. The reason is simple - fixed income is all about long term, repeat business. There is not a high turnover in the client base, because you can't afford to lose clients. You do not have the luxury of 300 million potential clients like a retail salesperson. There are only so many institutional accounts out there, and they are all ranked by the bd's by size of portfolio -the bigger the portfolio, the more insane the competition for coverage by the Street. And competition is EXTREMELY fierce in the institutional world to get on that "approved broker/dealer" list. So if you are FI sales, once you get in with a client and actually start doing business with them, you defend that business at all costs. It is all about repeat sales to the core client base. FI sales people may spend months and months (even years) talking to potential clients before getting in - but once they are in, as long as they do right by the client, they have an indefinite income stream. Nice work if you can get it. Now, as far as NON major firms, that is a completely different story. They may still live and die by commissions alone. Regional fixed income houses have slowly gone away - the majors dominate fixed income. ADDED BONUS - your friend could eventually switch to the buy side and become a portfolio manager for his firm or for a client. Not unheard of.