New MBA wants to transition to trading
- Thread starter Ebbert
- Start date
I am always amused by this logic. Of course you don't need an MBA to do the job, but you often times do need the pedigree to get the job.
Same thing goes for Ivy League schools. Why do Wall Street firms hire Art History majors from Princeton over Finance undergrads from state school? Wall Street is basically a caste system, and they like pedigreed people. Has nothing to do with the actual work.
If you can make money trading your own $, you don't need an MBA, college degree, HS degree, or grammar school certificate, but as witnessed here, this is a tough road.
Same thing goes for Ivy League schools. Why do Wall Street firms hire Art History majors from Princeton over Finance undergrads from state school? Wall Street is basically a caste system, and they like pedigreed people. Has nothing to do with the actual work.
If you can make money trading your own $, you don't need an MBA, college degree, HS degree, or grammar school certificate, but as witnessed here, this is a tough road.
how many hours do you work a week to make 1.5 mil?
dudes in my prop office make over a mil a year and they are under 30 yrs old. They only work market hours and read news stories a few minutes before the open and a few minutes after the close. Not an MBA in the room, just calm and focused traders. Of course the road to get there is long and tough, but you dont have to deal with bullshit I-bank politics. The road to success as a trader is probably much shorter with this route but much less secure. These guys arent high volume gimmick traders either, they trade their personal accounts like small institutions.
Only if you want to get into one of them fuckin outfits.
BTW, if you are a 'new' MBA, 'transition' sounds a bit funny.
nononsense
i know a few of those myself also, but dac8555 mentioned he works for an IDB, so i guess he must be on the phone a lot, not to mention constant travelling and schmoozing with clients, thats why i wonder how much time he's putting in weekly.
Wall Street is not a meaningless "caste system". It is a money making machine. They get an edge wherever they can, and they don't leave money on the table. Just like trading the markets.
I have hired traders to trade for me. You get 70 good resumes for every traders' position. I can tell you the people from the top finance schools come better prepared for the interview. While a candidate from a state school may turn into a very good trader, you need the candidate that looks best at the point of the interview. I got a University of Chicago MBA who was profitable all the way through his time with me, and once made over 200k in one day - we split everything 50/50. I believe I chose correctly.
I'm interested to know where you heard that Wall Street (largely a performance-based system) hires people on a basis that has "nothing to do with the actual work".
its not me! but if you are asking in general (cant tell if you are joking or not)...i think he does about 7 to 6 monday to friday. It is not the hours it is his aptitude. He has been with the same company for 7 years, and according to his team, he has never made a mistake on a customer order, and never had to bust a trade. that is almost unheard of.
That kind of money is pretty far out there for a guy that doesnt take a position. He is the largest single EM bond guy in the world..simply beacuse he runs the desk of the largest IDB in the world. all the big clients, lehman, merrill, goldman...the works.
The big point is...He got his foot in the door with out an MBA...and you can do it with an MBA...tenacity often is the key!
I didn't hear it anywhere, I lived it. My perspective is from Investment Banking, and not the Sales and Trading side. That being said, what I've observed is that Banks hire based on school and/or connections, not those who have the most passion for the markets or most knowledge of the markets. Maybe S&T is a pure meritocracy, but I doubt it.
And let's face it, 95% of the trading jobs on Wall Street are not discretionary/proprietary trading, but purely market making. A trained ape can do these jobs. This is why they will hire someone who looks like them/talks like them/makes them feel comfortable (a lacrosse player from Princeton) vs. someone who has a lot more passion for the markets without the pedigree. The Princeton art history major can pick up what he needs to know pretty quickly (buy at the bid, sell at the ask) so finance knowledge is pretty moot.