Recent Graduate looking for Prop Trading Opportunities in NYC area

Quote from bwolinsky:

You'd be amazed what $50,000 of data in the hands of quantitative analysts can produce, frontier and all.

The OP's attitude is not productive. If you want to make money you've got to prove you can before you'll ever get a good career trading prop.

Pay them in data, then trade with backdata forever!
 
Quote from SteveNYC:

wow, an engineer from an Ivy League.

you are a cut above the rest. I know from experience.

creme de la creme. (my keyboard can't do accents)

Ha. Certified Genius. My mom told me so. :)

Just saying that it's very competitive and at least on paper, he's behind already.
 
Quote from babutime:

Wow and I always thought a 3.3 was good enough...

But depends how you got your GPA too.


Also, where you got the 3.3 matters a lot.

3.3 at an Ivy is like 4.3/5.3 at other schools. I noticed that this fact is often overlooked by human resources at financial firms. Only an Ivy guy/gal knows this fact comme moi.

Ivy is creme de la creme. Competition is ferocious.
 
Quote from SteveNYC:

* * *

creme de la creme. (my keyboard can't do accents)

crème de la crème

You are definitely NOT Ivy League material. Go back to community college! :D
 
It's also dependent on competition in your local area (NYC is FIERCE I can imagine) but where I come from, I got into Interviews with CIBC World Markets, TD and Goldman up to second round.

I couldn't make it past second because I didn't know much finance itself (they were mostly I banking interviews).

As for trading itself, I've never heard of anyone making it directly into a trader. I'm still applying, none of the big firms in Canada have hiring right now so my summer will be pretty quiet in terms of interviews.
 
Quote from babutime:

It's also dependent on competition in your local area (NYC is FIERCE I can imagine) but where I come from, I got into Interviews with CIBC World Markets, TD and Goldman up to second round.

I couldn't make it past second because I didn't know much finance itself (they were mostly I banking interviews).

As for trading itself, I've never heard of anyone making it directly into a trader. I'm still applying, none of the big firms in Canada have hiring right now so my summer will be pretty quiet in terms of interviews.

you can look at some of these videos and the price is right, you in Toronto
Babu, you could hit 100 bankers up there swinging a dead cat. Times are tough but I would think you could get something going, Lawrence Chan who posts on the ET thread every now and again is from up there. You should look him up, he probably knows everybody up there.

http://www.youtube.com/user/bionicturtledotcom?feature=watch
 
Quote from kinggyppo:

you can look at some of these videos and the price is right, you in Toronto
Babu, you could hit 100 bankers up there swinging a dead cat. Times are tough but I would think you could get something going, Lawrence Chan who posts on the ET thread every now and again is from up there. You should look him up, he probably knows everybody up there.

http://www.youtube.com/user/bionicturtledotcom?feature=watch

Kingyppo- I'm West. Oil. Stampede city...

I tried the CFA. After having done some pretty nasty abstract math, I tried for a CFA. My classmate in my math finance class who was pretty much a friggin genius walked out after the first half on Level 1. It was hilarious. All the biz school students were just staring at him as he walked out from that giant hall... I prodded on for the sake of it till second half was over.

$1000 wasted. Dad wasn't happy.

As hard as we tried, we couldn't get ourselves to go through it. Coffee didn't help. Neither did redbull. I've given up on CFA.

Lawrence Chan... hmm... is that his website?

You from Canada too?
 
Quote from babutime:

Kingyppo- I'm West. Oil. Stampede city...

I tried the CFA. After having done some pretty nasty abstract math, I tried for a CFA. My classmate in my math finance class who was pretty much a friggin genius walked out after the first half on Level 1. It was hilarious. All the biz school students were just staring at him as he walked out from that giant hall... I prodded on for the sake of it till second half was over.

$1000 wasted. Dad wasn't happy.

As hard as we tried, we couldn't get ourselves to go through it. Coffee didn't help. Neither did redbull. I've given up on CFA.

Lawrence Chan... hmm... is that his website?

You from Canada too?

The thing is when you are younger you are inexperienced so this is how people disqualify you. I think alot of our schooling is backwards that way.
Nowadays you need a college degree to get an interview. With the credit crisis and recession it gives the companies an excuse to hire folks as slave labor. Trading is highly sought after because there are lots of high paying jobs. I think you are better off starting a small business. I wasn't suggesting getting a CFA, being from Chicago, there are alot of successful traders, it used to be where if you had a knack for trading it didn't really matter if you were pedigreed, now though with computers they seem to be looking for quant types that are highly educated. The prop route offers a way to at least get your feet wet and see if it is for you. I mean based on the discussion here it seems like if you aren't at the top of your class you can't get a job in ibanking. Seems like prop is the only way to get in these days.
 
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