The Background:
I graduated from college last Aug. (midwestern Big 12 school) w/ a degree with majors in finance and accounting and a minor in stat. Had an internship w/ a top 5 bank in NYC for a lady who manages high net worth clients ($1MM+, trades mainly commodities, indexes, and a bit of forex). Got a job out of school (worked my butt off getting it) as an analyst at a massive fund manager in midtown manhattan. Worked there for a little while and learned that I hated what I was doing. It was good money, good benefits, good career track . . . but I was so bored I wanted to shoot myself in the head. Looking at it in retrospect, I took the job mainly because of prestige, not because it's something I want to do.
After a while I quit and made up ways to make money. NYC living wasn't cheap. I sold unlocked iPhones, did all types of freelance programming (my second passion), and a few other ideas I came up with. Was able to match what I was making at my job so quitting wasn't too bad. But this time I was way out of my desire to have a career in finance.
Throughout college I have been learning to be a futures trader. I have traded the ES and YM off and on and have a pretty decent collection of books I've read through. Now-a-days I mainly trade options on equity in an account my dad lets me play with. I dont' have much capital because I pumped what I had into paying off a big chunk of my student loans. I still have some of that to pay off and it's and issue for me.
I recently moved to Chicago thinking it might be a better place to work w/ derivatives but I can move back to NYC (or elsewhere) w/o too much trouble if I find something that puts me on a better track.
The Situation:
I want to be a trader. I know because I pick up trading books in my free time and have always been drawn to it. I consider myself a novice w/ a fairly decent understanding of theory. I'm good with stat, programming (VBA included), macro economics, geo politics -- and have picked up a good working knowledge of tech analysis from independent reading. I've had a bunch of sales jobs in HS and college and enjoy it (so convincing people to let me trade their money is not out of the question). I am the kind of guy that will take big risks after calculating them for weeks. I like to think of myself as smart, quick on my feet, and able to work well under tons of pressure. I love challenges and like a good fight (figuratively speaking).
Anyway, I'm in the basic no-money, no-real-trading-experience, need-to-make-money crunch every other finishing college student or recent grad faces. So my question is this: What job should I get? I need to pay off my student loans, pay rent, and save capital to be a serious trader. I don't want to waste any more time doing un-related work. Maybe I should get a job as a broker-trainee for a company that deals in series-3 securities? or series 7 securities? Maybe I should get evening, weekend work and focus on learning to be a trader during market hours? I wouldn't mind being a runner for someone on an exchange but I have gotten negative feedback on that ("no such jobs anymore, only place to trade is prop firms"). Bottom line is I need to save money to be able to learn to trade, but if I can do it while having a job that helps me along, all the better.
I'm sorry about the length of the post but I wanted to cover everything. Any advice (criticism) is appreciated. I have searched the forum for similar topics but nothing went into what I might do. And thanks!
I graduated from college last Aug. (midwestern Big 12 school) w/ a degree with majors in finance and accounting and a minor in stat. Had an internship w/ a top 5 bank in NYC for a lady who manages high net worth clients ($1MM+, trades mainly commodities, indexes, and a bit of forex). Got a job out of school (worked my butt off getting it) as an analyst at a massive fund manager in midtown manhattan. Worked there for a little while and learned that I hated what I was doing. It was good money, good benefits, good career track . . . but I was so bored I wanted to shoot myself in the head. Looking at it in retrospect, I took the job mainly because of prestige, not because it's something I want to do.
After a while I quit and made up ways to make money. NYC living wasn't cheap. I sold unlocked iPhones, did all types of freelance programming (my second passion), and a few other ideas I came up with. Was able to match what I was making at my job so quitting wasn't too bad. But this time I was way out of my desire to have a career in finance.
Throughout college I have been learning to be a futures trader. I have traded the ES and YM off and on and have a pretty decent collection of books I've read through. Now-a-days I mainly trade options on equity in an account my dad lets me play with. I dont' have much capital because I pumped what I had into paying off a big chunk of my student loans. I still have some of that to pay off and it's and issue for me.
I recently moved to Chicago thinking it might be a better place to work w/ derivatives but I can move back to NYC (or elsewhere) w/o too much trouble if I find something that puts me on a better track.
The Situation:
I want to be a trader. I know because I pick up trading books in my free time and have always been drawn to it. I consider myself a novice w/ a fairly decent understanding of theory. I'm good with stat, programming (VBA included), macro economics, geo politics -- and have picked up a good working knowledge of tech analysis from independent reading. I've had a bunch of sales jobs in HS and college and enjoy it (so convincing people to let me trade their money is not out of the question). I am the kind of guy that will take big risks after calculating them for weeks. I like to think of myself as smart, quick on my feet, and able to work well under tons of pressure. I love challenges and like a good fight (figuratively speaking).
Anyway, I'm in the basic no-money, no-real-trading-experience, need-to-make-money crunch every other finishing college student or recent grad faces. So my question is this: What job should I get? I need to pay off my student loans, pay rent, and save capital to be a serious trader. I don't want to waste any more time doing un-related work. Maybe I should get a job as a broker-trainee for a company that deals in series-3 securities? or series 7 securities? Maybe I should get evening, weekend work and focus on learning to be a trader during market hours? I wouldn't mind being a runner for someone on an exchange but I have gotten negative feedback on that ("no such jobs anymore, only place to trade is prop firms"). Bottom line is I need to save money to be able to learn to trade, but if I can do it while having a job that helps me along, all the better.
I'm sorry about the length of the post but I wanted to cover everything. Any advice (criticism) is appreciated. I have searched the forum for similar topics but nothing went into what I might do. And thanks!
