maybe the poster named titan27 was only making a newbie suggestion as far as what firm to contact glad he did not mention Worldco :eek:
With a Phd in Physics, there are proabably a lot of trading positions available to you at firms that are heavily into quant stuff. This would include larger institutions and hedge funds, especially the DE Shaw type firms. There are a lot of choices available to you that are not available to most. Why not try to take advantage of them? The positions are much more difficult to get into, but it will probably be a worthwhile experience. You can always go to the daytrading firms (Assent, Bright, FNYS, etc.) later.
Pay even less attention to those with over 1000 posts. If they are so great, what are they doing here? A friend of mine with a Ph.D. in physics too, incidentally, and also an accomplished trader, stopped posting here when he reached about 1000 posts. He decided not to choose the 'elite poster' rank.
With a Phd in Physics, there are proabably a lot of trading positions available to you at firms that are heavily into quant stuff. This would include larger institutions and hedge funds AGREE totally ..... as far as posters with more than 1000 posts being Elite Traders .... ha ha ... I did not notice that thanks for the info
and merry Xmas to you ! I just go to SIG web site and do a little search. I found two positions are good for me to apply: 1.Assitant Trader 2.Quantitative Research Associate position 2 need a Ph.D. so I feel this one may be better for me. Can anyone tell me other similar positions with different title which require a Ph.D. and suitable for me? TIA. Also I want to know the future for these two positions if assuming my performance is great. What's the difference between them? And which one is harder to get? I named my trading method "X_Wave" because I just catch the wave for long and short. Once the wave is gone I will close my position. So far it works great. Thanks again.
You won't be trading in any one of these positions. Just so you know. Your Xwave will probably be laughed at so stay low, be corporate and get him the morning coffee on time.
Plenty - contact your nearest quant recruiter (Options Group in NYC is one example). But be prepared that your PhD is not enough - many people want these jobs and there are people out there who are far better qualified then you are. Read Hull or Wilmott before you go to interviews The truth is that you would probably fare better in some stat arb fund - plenty of these around. You are not qualified to trade anything exotic (or to put it bluntly, you know nothing about it) and I am willing to bet that most serious regular equity traders here will trade circles around you despite your percieved prowess. So, the only place where your math skill will come in handy is a small fund that does some sort of stat arb. Alternatively, you can go my route - become a quant developer and a trading position might come in the future.
No, not really - most places are looking for people that have seen some action in a specific field. An entry level position is hard to come by.
Probably not. These are two different skill sets. If you are a quant developer and you want to move into a trading position then you probably are not a very good quant developer: The quant developers we employ have years of experience in these areas and are in some cases worldwide authorities in their areas. I dont know of a single example in this group of qualified professionals that wants to move into trading.
The above comment from Caltrader is probably the best response you have gotten so far in this thread! I have met few traders in my time that are really good. However, I used to be a Futures Broker for a guy who was a Laser Physicist at NASA and one of the brightest minds I have ever known! He could not trade his way out of a paper bag! He could not trade to save his own life! BUT.......he is great at programming and writing code and developing trading software. As far as statistics goes....there is none better than he. He has developed dozens of programs that crunch just about everything you ever wanted to know about the markets...."All of the markets"...in the U.S.A. from as far back as the CBOT back in the 1700's when men stood underneath a tree to conduct business. My point: Find what niche you have and exploit it for all it is worth. Being a professional trader takes years of hard work and much defeat and humility that can only be taught to you by the markets themselves. One good year means absolutely nothing. YOU CAN SPEED UP THE PROCESS AND LEARNING CURVE! Learn how to trade / and developed a system for Pork Belly Futures that is profitable and you will rule the world! That may sound funny but it is true. The "MEATS" are the most complicated instruments on the face of the earth to trade but can make you rich if you can figure out how to manipulate that environment. Hillary Clinton made over $100,000.00 in Pork Bellies a few years ago. And................. ......I made over $9,700.00 over night with only a few contracts! If you can beat this market you don't need to work for anybody else unless you want access to their risk capital and not expose your own. Something to think about? T-REX p.s. I'd like to think that I'm a very successful trader being that I have made a small fortune and have helped others to do the same. but even with that I could not get a trading job at a Hedge Fund because I do not have a college degree or any credentials. So if "I" a successful trader (and mentor) can not get a trading job at a mutual fund or hedge fund even with my 10yrs of system development & trading experience what are your odds? even with a Ph.D. in physics? Something else to think about?