I'm hoping to get some advice on a potential career path change. I've been at a fund for awhile now and I've been doing execution trading (equities only) for the last four years or so. Our firm won't let traders prop trade and all ideas run through our analysts. I'll point out here that I also work on the analyst side of things as well. I finished with the CFA program awhile back and right now I spend about half my day researching. I really want to trade in order to impact the P&L, which is why I'm thinking about prop trading. Ideally I would work for a big bank on their desk but with those shutting down it's becoming harder to find a spot. Most of my contacts at other funds are more research driven places rather than trading funds, but I'm still asking around. I've been thinking about the pure prop trading places, but most of them seem to have training programs for people right out of college. Is this a potential avenue for me or should I try to think of something else? The pros/cons is that I make a decent salary at the moment but it's somewhat capped because my trading role is considered more operational. Ideally I would want to find some sort of prop trading position that allows me to utilize my research skills as well. Any advice would be much appreciated. Other relevant info: late 20's, I can move anywhere (not married)
how big is the fund you work for? Ask for a million in BP and tell them to take all losses out of your year end bonus, but you want 35 - 50% of the profits at year end...Might be a good starting point and if you do well they give you some real money to trade.
chicago has a bunch of prop firms. though I have never heard of a bank trader coming here and being sucessful... you actually have to make money