YEs...its full of speculation and hearsay...which is helpful, but first person testimony and some real numbers tell the real truth. From some east coast elitist type friends from college (rowers) I know for all of them it was all about who you knew, and then you had a good chance of getting in...of course you also had to be pretty smart. It was either Oxford/Cambridge and rowing there...and they got London finance jobs (Canary Wharf stuff) or Princeton/Boston/Georgetown...and they got pretty good hookups then too....the rowing connection really helped, employers liked the balance of extreme physical challenge and still getting good grades...time mgmt, committment, yada yada. Good Luck...be pushy and go/ask/checkout everywhere you can.
I've just received an offer to join OPUS Trading's trainee program. It's 30,000 annual salary guaranteed for the first 18 months. Then, you get 65% of the net or 29% of the gross profits. Does anyone work there currently? Or has worked there? Should I take this job???? I'm considering another non-trader job that is more secure, but really want to try trading for a while. SHould I take this opportunity? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks
It will depend on your style. The 65% net is a joke and they charge double the rate then most firms that give you 100% payout do. So figure your working for 29% gross which is not bad if you make very little mistakes and trade major size overnight. The problem is to start itâs a good deal but if you become successful itâs a terrible deal. You sign away your right to leave on that deal. So letâs say your trading 2 million shares a month. Youâre paying 7/10âs and other firms are charging people 3.5/10âs thatâs 7k a month your giving away. Itâs hard to make 7k every month let alone give it away. Then youâre still sharing your profits with Opus and other firms give you 100% payout on the 3.5/10 on 2 million shares a month easy. My problem with Opus is there are a lot of fat cats making money and they donât trade. So they have to squeeze it from your money. They also only let you trade at the firm no private account short term trading so they run you like a mule even after you earn money.
I will be joining Opus' training program in July. I took it mainly because right out of college I needed to have some sort of guaranteed income and that was the tradeoff versus higher payouts and cheaper rates. Other firms may give you 95% of net and upwards with cheaper rates, but if I can't make any profit for 6-9 months, there is no income no matter how high the payout is. But for the people that don't want to front the $5,000 or so to get started this seems like a good place to start, get a salary, learn a few things and try to be profitable, and even if you aren't net positive, you still get 29% of gross, which is a positive with the higher rates. I have interviewed with many firms from ones that pay a salary, don't pay a salary, and some that ask you to front capital, for me going with Opus is my best option at this time, but everyone elses situation is different. All I know is that I want to trade and this allows me to do it. -CTT
swing - fwiw, unless its over beers and just for making conversation perhaps, i'd never spend more than a sec talking to a guy who says he wants to be a trader but is unwilling to put a few bucks down... to me it means the guy's got no nerve (balls?)... not a success factor in this biz... all the best
I have been at Opus for over a year. The difference at Opus is that they are very well capitalized and they can handle risk. While I do pay high commissions and give away share of profit, I have significantly more capital than I can get anywhere else and its worked out great for me. The hard part is establishing yourself here, but succesful traders have huge potential. But you have to make it on your own.