Paid to Trade
- Thread starter smoothsmooth
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With MBA and CFA3, you will have no problem getting an entry level job at any one of the big 5 banks here in Toronto.
The experience you have at the prop firm is probably the "worst" thing that happened to you - as the smell of money is so much different from a regular salary paying job.
So, in a more spritual level, you have to decide what you really want in your life, and more importantly, you have to look more deeply into yourself to see if you are cut to be an independent trader (self motivated, with an edge in the mkt), a firm trader (responsible to not losing a lot of money with the excitement of trading), or a salary person (seek for exictement elsewhere).
If you can really spend sometime to think it over, you will get the proper answer you need.
Good luck!
The experience you have at the prop firm is probably the "worst" thing that happened to you - as the smell of money is so much different from a regular salary paying job.
So, in a more spritual level, you have to decide what you really want in your life, and more importantly, you have to look more deeply into yourself to see if you are cut to be an independent trader (self motivated, with an edge in the mkt), a firm trader (responsible to not losing a lot of money with the excitement of trading), or a salary person (seek for exictement elsewhere).
If you can really spend sometime to think it over, you will get the proper answer you need.
Good luck!
Yeah, I am sure that is what the college catalog said: "Financial Statement Analysis Type Stuff 301 - Upon completion of this course, students will possess the ability to look at a financial statement and analyze the data therein. Special emphasis on the use of parentheses and how to trim a balance sheet - SEC style. Futhermore, the successful student will gain a comprehensive working knowledge of the basic analysis of the goings on, haberdashery, and general bolshoi that is needed to dicatate, generate, obstrate, pontificate, and defenestrate the needed stuff that every M.B.A needs to be successful in the business community".
Seriously, you're a good B.S.'er - You should check out Long-Term Capital Management - They are desperately looking for new traders!
People tend to forget that LTCM had 7 years of tremendous profitability (lowest year was 42%, with very little volatility) before the liquidity trap took it down. The only thing LTCM did not account for was that by dominating the FI market, it was creating a liquidity risk for itself, that and over-leverage. LTCM was brilliant and arrogant (but at least they have 2 Nobel prize winners to be arrogant about). Give me an opportunity to work for LTCM (and I being around finance, large ibanks, large hedge funds, prop firms, etc), I would do it in a heartbeat. It is all about the opportunity to learn from some of the best minds in the business.
I don't understand why people are snippy about LTCM, it is easy to say they were wrong *after* they went down. From my perspective, it is not about BS, these guys are real, and real good in what they do, they took a shot (based on well established financial theories at the time), and failed, so what?
I don't understand why people think finance theory is BS. That's like a couple of kids who graduated from Lincoln Tech / DeVry in bicycle mechanic school being snippy about Boeing building airplanes. "Yeah, look at that Boeing 777 planes crashed, but my little tricycle didn't. So they *must* be all BS artists". It is true that the Boeing airplane engineers may have missed one or two critical considerations (in hindsight, 20/20), but they took a calculated risk.
Look, I hate the slimmy relationship aspect of Wall street as much as anybody else, but that's the *nature of the business*. I didn't like it, so I dropped out and is now trading for myself. But the reality is that while there are plenty of BS artists in any business (wall street, prop trading, market making, etc), there are plenty of good and real people in any business. I admire Steve Galbraith's guts as much as any of the traders I have seen, he predicted the 2000 doom well ahead of it, when all of us are singing in the "New Economy" choir. That takes guts and good belief in his analysis, that gets my respect by my book.
Try to give respect when respect is due, it helps sometimes. Always be suspicious is probably a good rule of thumb, but don't be snippy.
I don't understand why people are snippy about LTCM, it is easy to say they were wrong *after* they went down. From my perspective, it is not about BS, these guys are real, and real good in what they do, they took a shot (based on well established financial theories at the time), and failed, so what?
I don't understand why people think finance theory is BS. That's like a couple of kids who graduated from Lincoln Tech / DeVry in bicycle mechanic school being snippy about Boeing building airplanes. "Yeah, look at that Boeing 777 planes crashed, but my little tricycle didn't. So they *must* be all BS artists". It is true that the Boeing airplane engineers may have missed one or two critical considerations (in hindsight, 20/20), but they took a calculated risk.
Look, I hate the slimmy relationship aspect of Wall street as much as anybody else, but that's the *nature of the business*. I didn't like it, so I dropped out and is now trading for myself. But the reality is that while there are plenty of BS artists in any business (wall street, prop trading, market making, etc), there are plenty of good and real people in any business. I admire Steve Galbraith's guts as much as any of the traders I have seen, he predicted the 2000 doom well ahead of it, when all of us are singing in the "New Economy" choir. That takes guts and good belief in his analysis, that gets my respect by my book.
Try to give respect when respect is due, it helps sometimes. Always be suspicious is probably a good rule of thumb, but don't be snippy.
1) return to college
2) learn to teach, at any level
3) participate in alumnis job search activities at the college
4) learn to teach, at any level
5) don't expect that your trading competition (posters on these boards) will really have a solution
6) learn to teach, at any level
7) aim lower on the job scale at the firms you approach
8) oh, did I mention? Learn to Teach?
The comments by the other trader were absolutely correct, namely your trading experience might just be the worse thing you could ever admit to because no salaried corporate idealog ever want to know that you can make it or attempt to make it outside of the machine, hence you represent heresy.
keep trying, just more intensely
2) learn to teach, at any level
3) participate in alumnis job search activities at the college
4) learn to teach, at any level
5) don't expect that your trading competition (posters on these boards) will really have a solution
6) learn to teach, at any level
7) aim lower on the job scale at the firms you approach
8) oh, did I mention? Learn to Teach?
The comments by the other trader were absolutely correct, namely your trading experience might just be the worse thing you could ever admit to because no salaried corporate idealog ever want to know that you can make it or attempt to make it outside of the machine, hence you represent heresy.
keep trying, just more intensely
I understand your situation completely. I was in a similar situation not too long ago. My remedy was to find a job which allows me to trade for the majority of the month and get paid a good salary and provides excellent benefits.
I searched long and hard... didn't want to settle just so I can trade. I have a good college degree but not as advanced as your MBA and CFA, so I felt I had value and didn't want to short change myself.
The job I found was being a real-time power trader for an energy company. Not only did I get to learn a new trading discipline but with a real-time schedule, I was able to trade a full session about 10 days out of the month and out of the other 10 trading days, I was able to trade about 2-3 hours.
Real-time trader schedules are on a monthly cycle where they work 10 days shifts, 10 night shifts and 10 days off a month. If you work out the schedule right, you will be able to be in the market in some way about 15 out of 22 trading days every month. After starting this job, I have not only improved my trading because I'm not pressured by money issues (salary 60K, with ~30% bonus), health insurance etc... Now my monthly take from trading is actually larger than my salary(almost twice as big). I use my salary to pay the bills and save all my trading profits and I will continue this until I accrue a 250,000 trading stake... then I will consider quitting and doing it full-time again.
I'm not killing the markets or anything but I have no pressure, I'm saving money and I know soon(1-2 yrs) I will be doing what I love full-time again.
=)
James
PS the job is not bad either but it's just not something I love
I searched long and hard... didn't want to settle just so I can trade. I have a good college degree but not as advanced as your MBA and CFA, so I felt I had value and didn't want to short change myself.
The job I found was being a real-time power trader for an energy company. Not only did I get to learn a new trading discipline but with a real-time schedule, I was able to trade a full session about 10 days out of the month and out of the other 10 trading days, I was able to trade about 2-3 hours.
Real-time trader schedules are on a monthly cycle where they work 10 days shifts, 10 night shifts and 10 days off a month. If you work out the schedule right, you will be able to be in the market in some way about 15 out of 22 trading days every month. After starting this job, I have not only improved my trading because I'm not pressured by money issues (salary 60K, with ~30% bonus), health insurance etc... Now my monthly take from trading is actually larger than my salary(almost twice as big). I use my salary to pay the bills and save all my trading profits and I will continue this until I accrue a 250,000 trading stake... then I will consider quitting and doing it full-time again.
I'm not killing the markets or anything but I have no pressure, I'm saving money and I know soon(1-2 yrs) I will be doing what I love full-time again.
=)
James
PS the job is not bad either but it's just not something I love
