How To Go From Retail To Institutional Trader

[Jakobsberg]

I plan on continuing to trade my account but as I said but it seems like a pipe dream to go from 8000$ (my original sum) to 8/9figures (personal monetary goal) in this day and age without taking absurd risk with a high chance of blowing up and losing it all.

Well yes going from 8000 to 100,000,000 USD does seem just a little bit unrealistic.
So how about trying something else? Get a well paid job doing something you like, take some personal loans. Save/invest (not just in stocks) and soon you will have 100,000 USD. Now with that 1 M USD isnt too unrealistic and your family and friends may start giving you some cash as well.

If you really wanted to go for 100 M USD then follow some of the advice in the other replies.

 

[Fundlord]

Hmmm.. I see.... 8/9 figures is a huge sum. Once again, just my gut reaction, but if you think you are worth that much money, if you think a firm will pay you this much money, then I assume you have to make multiples more of this for the firm. So this comes back to if you can trade or not.

Now I do think that there is a huge difference between trading for yourself, versus for a firm. Whereas you can easily get out of a position that is 10 or 20 contracts, doing this at an institution level would require a much different strategy. In fact, the fact that a retail trader can choose to stay out of the market if conditions aren't favorable, this is a bigger advantage over a fund that needs to always be invested in something in the market.

But since your goal is a huge paycheck, and trading is actually secondary importance, then I can see how getting in with a lucrative firm is more important.

My ultimate goal it to raise money and run my own fund and charge fees.

I dont expect a firm to ever pay me an 8 figure salary like Lloyd Blankfein

 

[Fundlord]

Your trading experience is the least valuable thing to a potential employer, if you can believe that.

Yes I understand that, but it is relevant in relation to my prime goal in life to run my own fund.

 

[Ghost_of_Blotto]

I plan on continuing to trade my account but as I said but it seems like a pipe dream to go from 8000$ (my original sum) to 8/9figures (personal monetary goal) in this day and age without taking absurd risk with a high chance of blowing up and losing it all.

There are several private futures traders who have taken low 5 figures to 8 without OPM. There is a lot you are certain of, seem to know what is possible and not possible, yet in reality you know very little.

To tell the truth I think you come over as arrogant, preoccupied with money, and a bit of a know-all. Perhaps some of that is down to the exuberance of youth. Consider if you are humble, curious, hard working, and have a pleasant enough personality that somebody who is already successful would want to take you under their wing.

You might have picked up class/wealth consciousness more than most due to your parents' background. If your identity has been given to you by others and you are striving for their goals rather than your own, without even knowing it, you have a difficult road ahead. From your writing it is clear you've bought into a lot of labels / concepts without really understanding. Learning to think for yourself is difficult but worthwhile: I don't think you've done enough of this yet that you'd be interesting to anyone successful.

Living your own life and being good at what you have chosen to do is its own reward. And when you make it you'll probably want to stay fairly low profile if you made it in trading. Much more to life than money (once you have enough of it).

What interests you except for money and status? What have you done? What are you good at?

 

[k p]

My ultimate goal it to raise money and run my own fund and charge fees.

I dont expect a firm to ever pay me an 8 figure salary like Lloyd Blankfein

So if your first goal is to make money, are you saying that you think you will make more money from charging fees versus making money from actually trading? Yes, if you trade 1 billion AUM and charge 1%, then there is your 10 million dollar pay cheque, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

Of course I only say this because my goals are different from yours, but as an investor in you, I would like to think your goal should be to make money from kick ass trading, not making money that is guaranteed from managing the money I give you to trade. Every dollar you spend on a fancy office and fancy clothes and fancy parties to run the fund is less money for me as an investor.

 

[xandman]

Yes I understand that, but it is relevant in relation to my prime goal in life to run my own fund.

Rgr. Your thinking way in advance. So, you see becoming an institutional trader as a path to that goal. Makes a lot of sense.

But, this also gets you back to issue one: Making yourself a top candidate for these institutions in the best way possible.

You have to put your (real) aspirations in check for the privilege of playing the game. This lesson is lost to many young undergrads. As they say in the Army, " (Sometimes), you gotta fake the funk."

Please don't turn this into: " How do I start my own Hedge Fund" thread for another 50 posts. We can start that when the markets calm down and things are boring.

 

[xandman]

To tell the truth I think you come over as arrogant, preoccupied with money, and a bit of a know-all. Perhaps some of that is down to the exuberance of youth. Consider if you are humble, curious, hard working, and have a pleasant enough personality that somebody who is already successful would want to take you under their wing.

Easy guys. He is just young and naive. It's called SPUNK. He doesn't even have enough spunk to be classified as CHUTZPAH which is once required for this testosterone filled industry. The Geeks have taken over.

He is openly asking for assistance and advise which doesn't classify as a know-it-all. Just dense like any 20 year old. You were there once, too.

 

[newwurldmn]

Yes I understand that, but it is relevant in relation to my prime goal in life to run my own fund.

When you run your own fund, instead of convincing one guy to hire you as a maverick trader, you have to convince MANY guys. Every allocator of capital has a boss whether it be a board of directors, accountant, shareholders, or their spouse. What are they going to say about their decision to hire you if you don't perform? Make it easy to for them to answer that and you will get more capital than you can handle.

 

[Fundlord]

There are several private futures traders who have taken low 5 figures to 8 without OPM. There is a lot you are certain of, seem to know what is possible and not possible, yet in reality you know very little.

To tell the truth I think you come over as arrogant, preoccupied with money, and a bit of a know-all. Perhaps some of that is down to the exuberance of youth. Consider if you are humble, curious, hard working, and have a pleasant enough personality that somebody who is already successful would want to take you under their wing.

You might have picked up class/wealth consciousness more than most due to your parents' background. If your identity has been given to you by others and you are striving for their goals rather than your own, without even knowing it, you have a difficult road ahead. From your writing it is clear you've bought into a lot of labels / concepts without really understanding. Learning to think for yourself is difficult but worthwhile: I don't think you've done enough of this yet that you'd be interesting to anyone successful.

Living your own life and being good at what you have chosen to do is its own reward. And when you make it you'll probably want to stay fairly low profile if you made it in trading. Much more to life than money (once you have enough of it).

What interests you except for money and status? What have you done? What are you good at?

I agree with the wealth conscious statement but not in the sense of status, more for the freedom wealth provides.

But this is a path I decided for myself since I was a little kid with no outside influence or involvement. I have one failed business venture under my belt from when I was 17-19 and I realised how hard it is to make real $ until I found trading. Which IMO is far more exciting, challenging & more thrilling than running a business would be.

 

[Ghost_of_Blotto]

You were there once, too.

I sure was. In fact if I hadn't been fortunate enough to have the help of experienced and generous successful gents in this industry I would have been out of business years ago. One of the most important and earliest things I learned is that a little humility goes a long way.

I'm telling him what I believe to be the truth, from my own frame of reference and from my own experience, and perfectly mindful that many people will avoid telling him what he might need to hear in order to avoid being "harsh". There are plenty of people to give advice here and it is for him to choose who to listen to.