Career Advice

[DerivativesG]

Hi,
I am at the crossroads right now. I am 32 yr old female, living in Germany, have worked in investment banking and hedge funds in the operations/back office/middle office departments as an FX/Futures/Options operations/middle office execution clerk. From day one I always wanted to get into trading. This is actually why I started off in operations, I thought I can easily slip into a trading role. When I first started applying for trading positions, the feedback was that I did not have any experience in the field let alone trading. I had two great offers, one I turned down due to personal reasons (my dad was very sick and I had to be close to my parents) the second offer I turned down cause I heard through the grapevine company was going to close (it was Refco). Throughout I have traded here and there but did not file my broker statements. I did however have a trading plan and stuck religiously to my plan. There were times during the years when I could not trade for a while because of the compliance rules I had to adhere to due to my workplace. Anyway, after looking around for a trading job, and also being aware that many others are trying to get into such positions, I am thinking about going prop but this time around with a more disciplined approach i.e. doing appropiate archiving of all my documents and forming a track record. Any words from the wise on this board who have followed a similar path?
P.S. Do you guys think I should also still apply to local traders positions although I have no considerable experience and obviously I am not a 20 year old?

 

[Shehab]

I too made the same mistake here in Canada

My criminal offence: I am an immigrant and I did not go to the same elementary schools as some of the equity traders here. The relationships some traders have built since elementary and highschools are quite strong here.

I worked through Ops and even ended up working with Traders..Only they always refused to 'hire' me as one. I could not daytrade or short options due to Industry employee rules but still made 50% gains by stockpicking.

At times they 'dangled' opportunities only to rescind claiming budget issues while they fired junior traders and collected fat bonuses for themselves

Finally I left and did my MBA. I am 33 now

Coming out I have been more renergized and actively interviewing at smaller more proprietary shops. I have given up on job security (its a scam to get you to work longer hours in operations) and want to trade for love of it.

 

[nazzdack]

Make a sustained/dedicated/committed effort to get a trading job and have a deadline of either December 31, 2007 or March 27, 2008. If you haven't accepted an offer by then, forget about it. At that point, you must be willing to "go it alone" with your own money. Don't waste years of time chasing rabbits in the park.