first of all, I know, that it is extremly hard to make it as a trader. most of the funds I hedge underperform, but the funny thing is: as long as they have a strong sales force behind them, the managers get paid a descend part of the management fee every year.
so even if you don´t perform well managing, lets say an emerging market fund, as long as you loose less then the benchmark, you will be all right (and thats really easy by just collaring your stocks, capping downside risk).
of course managing a total return fund is a different animal.
i totally agree with the the analogy risk manager == wife and trader == husband.
as risk manager you are always wrong
if you hedge a fund, that is performing well you killed it´s return => moron
if you hedge a fund that´s going south you didn´t hedge enough => moron
in the end, I think it is better for me to either apply for another risk management job, that appreciates, what a risk manager does, or wait untill the markets are up to a level, where anyone who doesn´t make it as a trader at a descent firm could get another job easily.
i don´t care about making less money as a trader then i´m making right now. my concern is about the exit. if i decided to make the change a couple of years earlier, it would have been easier to bail out and get a job as execution trader or broker.
but right now, when even the former robots of LEH are flipping burgers at MacD or counting cash 14hrs a day for less then $2/hour at chinese banks, applying for a trading position really looks like suicide.
@black diamond: I totally understand, what you are saying. in my company, there are quite a few ivy graduates every year, who get a job as trading assistant or execution trader.
those guys know nothing (one guy asked how it could be, that there are so many differrent guys bidding and offering at the same prices in US - equities whereas there is only one guy in the orderbook in XETRA stocks, untill someone explained him, what ECN´s are) and brag about how many wise decisions they make each day (most of them are just executing orders or analysing funds).
but none of us in the risk department would ever get a job as analyst or execution trader, because we "don´t know enough about the markets"
Why don't you keep your job as a risk manager, and at the same time you start with your firm' conservative customers, using collars, limiting exposure and/or other long-term strategy with limited risk?
