I am in my 2nd yr of school at the less than prestigous Univ. of Cincinnati. Altho in my 2nd yr, I'm technically a Jr. I'll be graduating in 3 yrs total, thanks to some AP classes & a little overtime. So this will be my penultimate yr.
I've been trading for about a year now; not futes, just common stock & options. For the past month or so, I've been running Forex demos. I know a fair amount about futes, but haven't traded any yet.
I, like a number of you from the looks of it, will be spending my Christmas break applying all over the country (and a few firms in England) looking for an internship for the summer.
All my efforts thus far have gone not so much to a prop. firm but rather major banks in which I'm hoping to find a prop. trading job, or whatever else they have open. I'd do Investment Banking--although I think that'd probably be MORE competitive than prop. trading.
I'm thinking of shying away from equities & going for currency trading. I think that'd be kind of a niche I could tap into. IDK--just a thought. I do like options trading quite a bit, and have been fairly successful, but it seems like the major firms / funds put more $ into currencies, equities, & futes (be them currency /financial / commoddite / index / what have you) than they do options. Thoughts on that?
Anyways, here's my list of places I'll be applying thus far:
Goldman
Merrill
Lehman
JPM
Morgan
Legg Mason
Citigroup
Bank of America
US Bank
HSBC (perhaps in London)
UBSS
All those are in NY, w. possibly oppurtunities in Chicago or abroad. Q: am i forgetting any majors here?
I'm also looking at the exhanges:
NYSE
CBOE
CME
BOT
LSE
AMEX (yeck?)
So: IDK. If yer thinking what I'm thinking right now, yer thinking I'm looking at some long shots. I mean I am a very dedicated student--3.95gpa--(econ major w. tentative math minor)--and also heavily involved on campus.
But I go to UC. Do I stand a chance? IDK.
I'm looking for some hedge funds and / or prop. firms that I could use to fall back on should I not land a big bank for trading.
HSBC I've read around their site & I think I stand a good chance there. It's places like Goldman, Merril, and some of the others, where I feel like a minnow among sharks. They want my SAT scores, high-school transcripts--all this hooplah. And, while I do pretty well in college--I wasn't so hot on the SAT (1100). That's not bad, but it won't live up to the Harvard boys.
So what do you guys think?
I plan to, like Batesman said (good advice bud), work my way in one way or another: I want to end up right @ a major firm on the Street, but should I look for a stepping stone?
Does anybody know a Greenwich fund or something similar--to point me in a 'flight-to-safety' direction?
All thoughts are appreciated.
This is a great msg board BTW. The best I've seen for prop. trading & futures.
Thanks,
-Sean S. (PM me for anything )
