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Finance Master wanting to get into pro trading
- Thread starter swetrader
- Start date
Quote from swetrader:
So basically, my grade has no effect whatsoever on whether a company would hire me to train as a trader or not?
Also, is this the usual way of going about in this business, putting up your own money and proving yourself before getting hired I mean?
He means at certain prop firms.... where you basically put $5,000 and get $50,000 in leverage. They are like your broker... Your commission dollars go to them. It's more like they are providing you a service. Once you loss your 5,000 deposit based on losing trades, they "fire" you. They don't risk their own capital.
There are other, more respectful prop firms too though. You have to be selective.
Quote from TraderZones:
the large financial institutions are letting people go left and right. Look at UBS - their 3rd major layoff??? The old rules of getting in are out the window.
There is a hiring freeze in almost all of the big name investment banks. The few jobs that exist are just replacement positions and rarely some training programs.
Hedge funds on the other hand are hiring. Unfortunately most of their jobs have to do with computer programming or IT related stuff.
Not true at all. Pretty much every investment banks is hiring new grads, just a lot less than before.
To the OP: Stay away from some trading arcades/prop shops/ if you want to get into an institutional seat. Its a lot toughter this year so it all depends on what you really want, how you present yourself. Your degree, your university name, your grades ONLY matter to get your foot into the door. From there its all how you bond with the guys who interview you, how you master their "puzzles" and what questions you ask and how smart you really are=how smart you come across (they figure out very easily whether you pretend to be smart or actually are). Also, not sure what master you have, but personally I feel the times of MBAs dominace over some M.S. is over. For trading, come in with programming and quant skills and you already have a huge advantage over some harvard or yale wanna bees.
Just my take from having worked on the sell side for many years...
To the OP: Stay away from some trading arcades/prop shops/ if you want to get into an institutional seat. Its a lot toughter this year so it all depends on what you really want, how you present yourself. Your degree, your university name, your grades ONLY matter to get your foot into the door. From there its all how you bond with the guys who interview you, how you master their "puzzles" and what questions you ask and how smart you really are=how smart you come across (they figure out very easily whether you pretend to be smart or actually are). Also, not sure what master you have, but personally I feel the times of MBAs dominace over some M.S. is over. For trading, come in with programming and quant skills and you already have a huge advantage over some harvard or yale wanna bees.
Just my take from having worked on the sell side for many years...
Quote from monty21:
There is a hiring freeze in almost all of the big name investment banks. The few jobs that exist are just replacement positions and rarely some training programs.
Hedge funds on the other hand are hiring. Unfortunately most of their jobs have to do with computer programming or IT related stuff.
Quote from asiaprop:
Not true at all. Pretty much every investment banks is hiring new grads, just a lot less than before.
Not sure about that. I-Banks run campus recruiting programs for promotion also. They may not actually hire anyone. I remember they did this right post tech bubble crash, quite a few I-banks went out and did recruiting while there are actual hiring freezes and noone, except last year's interns, got offers.
Quote from monty21:
There is a hiring freeze in almost all of the big name investment banks. The few jobs that exist are just replacement positions and rarely some training programs.
Hedge funds on the other hand are hiring. Unfortunately most of their jobs have to do with computer programming or IT related stuff.
many hedge funds are expected to go out of business, so...
+1Quote from TraderZones:
Pretty much every IB is NOT hiring new grads. They are spitting out, and expecting to spit out a lot more, thousands of workers.
That's a fact, they can't downsize quickly enough and are constantly reassing their needs downwards ... now, we all know this is going to lead to a huge demand for workers at some point in the future ... but that's probably more like two years out, and certainly is not right now (UBS is still downsizing ... :eek: )
Quote from asiaprop:
Not true at all. Pretty much every investment banks is hiring new grads, just a lot less than before.
To the OP: Stay away from some trading arcades/prop shops/ if you want to get into an institutional seat. Its a lot toughter this year so it all depends on what you really want, how you present yourself. Your degree, your university name, your grades ONLY matter to get your foot into the door. From there its all how you bond with the guys who interview you, how you master their "puzzles" and what questions you ask and how smart you really are=how smart you come across (they figure out very easily whether you pretend to be smart or actually are). Also, not sure what master you have, but personally I feel the times of MBAs dominace over some M.S. is over. For trading, come in with programming and quant skills and you already have a huge advantage over some harvard or yale wanna bees.
Just my take from having worked on the sell side for many years...
I'm looking for a trading sector related job. I have good contacts in Barclays and they said that most investment banks are hardly hiring. Sure they are somewhat, but it is exceptional. They also obviously favor MBAs... I just received my B.A. last year, so for candidates like me its tough to impossible.
I should've said that positions for B.A.s (entry level training) are exceptionally scarce. MBAs may have it better, but 2009 is still a disaster employment wise.
Look at the unemployment rate:
http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3024-ecocharts.html?mod=mdc_h_econhl
The financial sector was hit the hardest, particularly investment banks obviously. It would defy logic if they were hiring for more than just several positions.
Quote from TraderZones:
many hedge funds are expected to go out of business, so...
The reason I said hedge funds are hiring is that a see tons of positions at them. From recruiters, professional job-search sites and even from the dumb ones like monster.com Unfortunately, not many entry-level positions are offered. The lower-tiered ones required about 3 years of experience.
I'm aware that a large percentage of firms are going out of business... 2008 was a disaster, but you need to realize that there are so many "hedge funds" that just manage 50,000,000+. In order for these to compete and receive more capital, they need to achieve extraordinary results. They cannot survive by simply beating the mkt and returning 5%... They take more risks and in 2008 they either made it big or closed shop.
The bigger funds are the ones that hire. Their benchmark, respective to their strategy/risk, is generally to outperform the major indexes. I cannot recall a huge fund that went under even in 2008, unless they had accounting fraud.