Look guys, I've posted this before but what the hell, we're among friends here, let's try this again. In my opinion one has basically 3 or 4 routes available to becoming a trader. Let's go over them.
1) If you are right out of college and you have the resume, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind you should look for a salaried job. Provided you've got the the goods i.e top 10 school, quantitative degree, top grades and top internships, then go for the big banks, the tier one prop firms and the hedge funds. This is a no brainer. Now say you didn't listen to your parents and hit the books hard or you got a degree in women's studies or simply went to a lower tiered school, or maybe you're an older guy, then we need to move on to #2.
2) Go to a deposit prop firm. These include Bright Trading, Echo, Avatar, etc. Those are all equity firms. There are a few futures firms like HTG that accept deposits. Bright now requires 40k. Echo maybe 10k to 20k. Not sure. They will accept anyone with a clean background and a check in hand. Now, perhaps you don't have the money. On to #3.
3) This one is hard but can be done. You can, yes even with a hypothetical track record, set up a CTA. Go out and raise funds and manage other people's money. You better be a great salesman. On to #4.
4) Trade your own money. You will need 25k to 30k to trade stock around the PDT rule. And in my honest and humble opinion, you should not even consider trading futures with less then 25k either. Yes, I know you can, I'm simply not recommending it. If you don't have the capital, then 2 and 4 are gone from the list. And if you don't have the resume, 1 is gone.
Now there are some other routes. If you have a solid 2 or 3 year track record with "real" money, there are prop firms that will let you come in and trade on a split. But paper trading is not going to cut it. The issue here is number 2 and 4.
I believe most guys on ET are already out of school with a questionable resume. I believe most guys on ET have already blown out several accounts and are probably broke or near broke. And that means most guys on ET have no hand to play here.
This leaves basically a firm like TST as their only option. And yes, even with TST, most guys really don't have a shot. This business is too tough for most people. TST is not a fix all. At the very least it should hopefully humble one enough to either look for another line of work or get them to bust their ass to make this work.
Guys, there are no shortcuts here. Years ago it used to be a lot easier where one could move to Chicago, clerk on the floor when they were 18 year for a year or two and then get on a badge. A lot of working class kids from the south side of Chicago with nothing but a high school education became millionaires. Those days are loooong gone. LOL.
If any of you are reading this thread and you are still in school, do not f*ck it up!!!!! Please. Whatever you do, you guys have the best shot at this. Get into physicals. Get the f*ck away from stock. Don't even look at another stock ticker again. Learn about energy. And seriously think about moving to Asia. In 10 years, Singapore will be the financial trading capital of the world. Get the best grades you can. Get the best internships you can. Join every club that's remotely related to your field. Take the quant classes. And if you did your undergrad at some southeastern northern regional tech school, then bust your ass to get into a good grad school. Print this post out and tape it to your wall. You're not going to get better advice.
