I am in my second year of university and want to trade after I am done - this is the goal. I have traded for a year and have been profitable. Enough to sustain a living - probably not. Anyways, my university has a coop program and I was wondering what kind of job I should try to get. My GPA is very good and my resume is also solid - so I am probably one of the top candidates. I am wondering if I should take a job with one of the big four accounting firms...E & Y, KPMG, Deloitte, and PWC or look for a finance job possibly in I-banking or as a equity analyst, or some trading assistant (there aren't many trading jobs at - maybe 1 or 2 - and they are just trading assistants). I somewhat look at this job simply as a backup plan if trading doesn't work out down the road. This should impact my decision. The Chartered accounting route is appealing because if I do all my coop terms in accounting I can get my designation quite fast and be a CA by age 24. However, being a CA could be very boring and something in finance could be a lot more interesting... anyone have any advice...
Only mediocre talents and ultra-conformists chose "accounting programs". You will make a fine cog in someone's wheel someday... But most successful pro traders are the opposite... Genius level non-conformists.
I'm not in an accounting program. I am in a business/commerce program. Its the coop job that is accounting. If I went that route I would start taking more accounting courses but the program isn't accounting. I am typically a non-conformist but I decided I would finish school and now I have to pick a coop job and the only real options are finance or accounting...
you are probably from South Africa as it is the only place that really pushes the CA designation while london. The reality is this, if you become a CA, it would be excellent for equity trading based off fundamentals, as your time spent doing auditing during your internship will help spot crooked books and u can see the insides of the company. You will not be able to trade commodities though. If u looking to be a quantitative trader the the CA qualification of no use and i would reccomend a stats degree over a finance one. Either way........you need to learn to take risk and no self taught trader is profitable from the beginning, it probably takes about three yrs to become consistently profitable.
other than providing startup capital, few "professional" track jobs - like accounting, or even deal oriented i-banking - will provide you the background to get good at trading. maybe a trading assistant job will give you more exposure?
thanks for the reply I was leaning towards accounting because it was separate from the trading environment. It would be a viable option if trading didn't ever work out. Having a CA in Canada give you lots of options. That is why it is appealing. Would working as an assistant trader at a bank do any good? Would I really learn anything about trading? Don't these traders at banks spend all day on the phones trying to get their clients big fill orders?
really depends on the person/situation. what do you trade? accounting will certainly help you with the language of fundamentals based trading. ie when a company reports earnings, you'll understand what they're saying besides good/bad. if you're a technical trader, it may not matter as much. it may also be good to diversify your income stream - and accounting would be that. depends on the trading assistant job and who you work for.