I absolutely agree with you.
Breaking in with a decent firm
- Thread starter pyetti
- Start date
You'd be surprised how many investment banks hire candidates that have no education in finance whatsoever. Hedge funds are even more so.
These guys get trading positions in the prop departments by having a Masters in disciplines such as math, physics or whatever is sophisticated and related to playing with numbers and computer programming.
I would think Wall Street is smart enough to realize that there does not exist a perfect formula to continually take money from the changing markets.
again, i agree. if anyone can figure out how to make money, it's wall street. my only beef is that up until this point they haven't figured out they don't need the ivy league to do it. they'd be smarter to leave the theorists to their textbooks and papers and now, blogs.
i used to go the gym right on broad and something, the old trump building, the nysc, and the dressing room was filled with these brooks brothers morons.
i'd be wearing ripped jeans and my hat backwards with oakleys, like i'd just skated off the escalator.
they may have been making $500K including their bonuses, but compared to what they're making now, versus what i am running my own fund, i think we know who the smarter of the two fashionistas is.
i don't need a canal street knockoff rolex to know what time it is.
Quote from pyetti:
So do you have to be an Ivy-leaguer to get into decent prop firm? I've applied to some of the better ones that I know of, FSNY and the like, but have not had a bite. My undergrad transcript is very good, but there is no ivy on the buildings at my school. Do I have a shot, or am I wasting my time sending my resume?
Apply for a trading assistant position at a hedgefund. Work for a knowledgeable experienced trader or group or as long as it takes to kiss ass yourself into trading. It will work if you work hard enough.
Getting a trading assistant gig is not easy, especially not at a hedge fund... trust me. I applied from March to May to many of them. My educational background is also fairly strong and I have almost one year experience of trading a $350,000 account.
Trading assistants salaries start around $50,000 and can run up to six figures. Many hedge funds want as much as 5 years experience for these positions. It's not a entry level position, at least w/o a MBA.
Visit glocap.com and they usually have some openings.
I was advised to seek clerical work in the trading departments of hedge funds. This is a more realistic means of getting a foot into the door w/o a MBA.
Well that is very true. But one must aim for a small hedge fund where the
senior trader is so overwhelmed, needs help with research. Ask for 2 k per month then
you are sold.. There are folks out there like theseâ¦have been trading for 30 years
â¦does not want to come to work at 7 AM, rather 830.. Summer time
takes off at noon and you will monitor his positionsâ¦.
Keep lookingâ¦
Having your parents bankrolling is detrimental to trading because it will not make you as hungry as those guys that actually have to get part-time night jobs.
I can speak from experience. The first five months I traded prop, my parents paid for everything. I ate out at restaurants all the time and spent money on random things. I thought I would just eventually get profitable.]
Then my parents got feed up and cut me off... that's when I started to take it much more seriously. It didn't necessarily made me trade well, but I was much more selective, disciplined and focused.
Now I am totally on the ropes. I'll be joining a new prop desk by July and will be moving from NY to Atlanta, GA. I have to leave behind my stress-free life, the ocean, gorgeous girlfriend won't be able to visit much, and just the comfort of home. I'm also taking down the family's piece of shit car to Atlanta. From upper-middle class to going to Atlanta where people will think I'm poor as hell. Not a bad sacrifice for trading in my opinion though.
my father matched my tuition money i'd saved from framing houses all summer after my first blowout year in university. i worked my ass off to save that cash because i was watching my dad make a killing trading oil stocks and that was during a bear market.
i learned the markets from watching his positions, in the newspaper, and traded day over day, with no idea what or why stocks did this or that other than what the newspaper told me the day after.
so for him to have recognised my interest and had the faith to back me in a game that is infinitely more difficult than gambling, that's faith.
i still manage his portfolio because he still doesn't see the markets the way i do, and i'm right more times than he is, and i have a vision he lacks to see the bigger picture, or to anticipate what moves and when and why.
having your parents back you to become a trader is smarter than paying tuition for a college degree that's worthless after graduation if you're unemployed.
at least, and least is the wrong word to use, you're learning what really makes this world turn.
no one forget this:
traders run this world.
they always have, and they always will.
i learned the markets from watching his positions, in the newspaper, and traded day over day, with no idea what or why stocks did this or that other than what the newspaper told me the day after.
so for him to have recognised my interest and had the faith to back me in a game that is infinitely more difficult than gambling, that's faith.
i still manage his portfolio because he still doesn't see the markets the way i do, and i'm right more times than he is, and i have a vision he lacks to see the bigger picture, or to anticipate what moves and when and why.
having your parents back you to become a trader is smarter than paying tuition for a college degree that's worthless after graduation if you're unemployed.
at least, and least is the wrong word to use, you're learning what really makes this world turn.
no one forget this:
traders run this world.
they always have, and they always will.