Hi Steve, hehe, Most people won't make it like you Steve. Whoever is making above $100k a year obviously knows walmart scrubbing doesn't pertain to them, so I don't see the issue there. Although 27 out of 30 will be making shit, and thats reality.. Anyway, A person can do anything if he really wants it. I just don't see it in many so why take the risk ps. I like my time machine, no need to be jealous :/
You'll need to develop some sort of "feel" for playing the market. It's not necessary to be on the firing line all day long. You can learn and get experience by doing longer term swing trading using end-of-day analysis. If you are successful, the experience will transfer to any other time frame or vehicle. One thing for sure... no leverage until you've proven yourself.
Slyfoxed, Reading your post brings back memories. Although in a different time (early 1980's) I along with many other fellow EE's, looked around my cubicle and saw little in the way of a financial future. I saw brilliant people, 15 years my senior, making 10k more than I was. Scary! I wanted to make serious money and it wasn't going to happen designing missile guidance systems! After 2 years I abandoned my electrical engineering career and went on to do other things. Fast forward 20+ years. For the last 16 of those years I have been an executive recruiter working with the top tier investment banks and commercial banks in NYC. I have placed traders, quants, structurers, and marketing people across all asset classes , both cash and derivatives. Some of the people who work for me specialize in recruiting for hedge funds, energy derivatives, equity derivatives, etc. My job now is more in managing and growing my firm so I try to personally limit the searches that I will take on. But I feel I am qualified to give you the following advice: Wall street firms look for young, ambitious people with advanced degrees form Top brand-name schools. I would suggest, if possible, that you go back immediately and get your masters degree. My suggestions would be math, statistics, or physics. You could also do an MBA but that would put you on a different path. Either way, you must shoot for a top 10 school in the discipline that you choose. We are talking about the most competitive job market on the planet -- people from all countries jockeying to get into the sales and trading training programs and land positions on a desk. At that point you will have the raw material that these firms are seeking to develop their trading models. That is the way the game is played now and you are still young enough to take advantage of it. When you look at the market wizards and the people who run the most successful hedge funds, you will see that they came from the trading desks of the major investment banks, or they started on the floor of an exchange. The future big swinging dicks will come from the major firms (investment banks or established hedge funds) which provide a "sophisticated environment" with sophisticated resources and tools that most prop traders can't touch, never mind understand. Keep in mind when I use the term "prop traders" I am referring to the firms that you read about in this forum. But let's not forget that Lehman, Morgan Stanley, GS, UBS, etc, all have proprietary trading areas and the backbone of those areas are the quants/scientists - and that will only continue. When we are hired to conduct a search, the prerequisites are very specific. Its the square peg in the square hole with no room for flexibility. People have asked, in this forum, why, if I know so many people can't I land one of these trading jobs myself. First of all, I am in my 40's - so forget abotit. In their world I would be ready for the nursing home. Secondly, while I am an EE, I do not have a masters and my technical skills are not current. C++, VBA, etc, were not around when I was programming (anybody remember Fortran?). I think you get the idea. For business people like myself who have accumulated some assets and would consider a mid-life career change to do something challenging, prop trading can make sense. But for you, I don't think so. Time is a depleting asset and it gets more difficult every year to go back to school. So if you can do it, do it now. I hope that helps. Venturerider2
In market wizards most 90+% of traders didn't come from IBs. I think there was a currency guy from Bear Stearns? I think that we'll see plenty of BSDs come out of prop firms - but they'll most likely be reputable prop firms - not bullshit trading arcade bucket shops. I see reputable (fully backed etc etc) prop firms as being the new trading floor.
Prop shop or not, 27 out of 30 will fail in this business anyways. It had nothing to do with whether you are prop or trade from your own home. At least at a prop firm you may find a mentor who gives you guidance and may speed up your learning curve somewhat. If you trade from home by yourself, you may have only the saps from CNBC to look to (boy that would suck huh?)
If you want a career, not a job, you need a degree from a top tier school - anything lower than a Tier 2 school, IMHO, is a waste of time. Dont bother.
Not bad. Knowing something about EE I would add, stay on your current job for another 20 years or so till you found out something about trading and don't have to ask at ET anymore. nononsense
Not all prop firms are the same. In my 2+ years at my firm, not once has anyone told me to trade more and churn more commissions. As a matter of fact, we were told to trade LESS when times were slow. They are more interested in developing successful traders for the long term rather than churn a guys 5k stake and then let him go and repeat the cycle. I am starting to sense that those who hate prop firms so much either went prop and failed there (blew out their cap), or sat there for months and months making nothing and felt betrayed. Otherwise it would make no sense for these people to have such strong feelings.
I'd love to spend a day at a prop firm in NY. Any ideas? Then I'll report back my findings and see if y'all agree/disagree.