Agreed, it's a no brainer. You can go from Goldman to a prop shop, but prop to Goldman is much much more difficult.
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join Group One / DRW Trading Group or Goldman as i-banking analyst?
- Thread starter carl1111
- Start date
Agreed, it's a no brainer. You can go from Goldman to a prop shop, but prop to Goldman is much much more difficult.
Quote from carl1111:
Yeah I have an offer from goldman sachs for i-banking. I probably could have gotten an offer from a top-tier bank in their sales&trading division, but I did not try. The trading firm is actually a market-taking firm that specializes in options and trades based on volatility. I think it is comparable though to DRW Trading, Peak6, Group One in that it is a solid company, just like a prop shop that does not really train you. They pay a competitive salary to train you and then you will hopefully become a full-time trader.
You should realize a very important fact that most here don't know: the real money in trading doesn't exist in stocks, vanilla options, or equity futures. The real money is in debt, swaps, commodities and exotic derivatives. And you can really only learn about these contracts at the investment bank trading desks or at top hedge funds.
All the straight equity desks on wall street are downsizing, getting replaced by computers and vwap algorithms. At the same time, goldman FICC division is making billions hand-over fist.
If you are truly talented, get yourself onto one of these desks, prove yourself and you'll be managing your own book in a year or two, with the potential to be a managing director by your late twenties.
Personally, I turned down a trading desk offer from a top ibank, to start trading equities on my own after college. I had been daytrading for several years already so I knew what I was doing. I've made tons of money, but still I sometimes wonder if I made the right choice. The top trading superstars at goldman can make 20-30mil in compensation, and I doubt I could ever reach that on my own.
I just want to remind everyone that they are different career paths. At Goldman, I would be doing investment banking, not trading. While I am interested in trading, I do not know if I would be good at it. I have a top undergrad degree (or will when I graduate in may) and I have a top gpa there. I did a summer internship at goldman sachs, and thus have never done trading before.
Quote from carl1111:
The offer is from a firm comparable to DRW or Group One trading. It is a market-taking firm, however.
Market making is a dying industry. If you have no trading experience at all, its much safer to take the goldman offer, since it'll open so many doors.
Yeah, the 100+ hr/week will suck, but after you do the analyst program you'll have so many options available to you.
i have no idea why you would lie. i dont know why people say half the things they do on this site. its hard to give good advice when you only divulge one of the choices. you might think this company is a real heavyweight but your equating of group one to DRW proves you dont really have a firm grasp of who the players are.