I can't say what's happening to actual laid-off traders, but the young woman mentioned by the OP was clearly some kind of analyst or mid-level paper pusher. Not a trader. When you think of the military, you think of soldiers in direct combat roles. The fact is that most military roles are in logistics and support. Same with Wall Street. They're mostly not traders. Stock brokers aren't traders, for instance.
I agree. And I'm also a bit perplexed about the ex traders who resorted to poker. You'd think they might consider, oh, I don't know...trading? Surely you'd think that they could rub a few dollars together from their previous oversized compensation packages to open a trading account and at least try their hand at something vaguely resembling what they had previously been doing. (Unless, of course, they already burned their hand on that stove, which may explain why they are out of a job.)
They probably spent every penny of their oversized compensation packages already on toys and whores during the good times and now have nothing.
My guess would be that if you make more for the bank than you cost they would still keep you, so I would suspect that the traders losing their jobs are not ones who would have much of a shot on their own, they probably made a lot of their money off commission business, not trading for the bank.
wow.. yeah.... this sucks this crash is the financials crash, much like dotcom crash was the computer/IT crash obviously so this industry may suck for a while yeah, if i'm a finance major with a course work geared towards getting a job as a trader, i can forget it
Actually, I HIGHLY recommend becoming an accounting major. But not accounting as a career. I tell my kids all post secondary studies are not the same value. Accounting is one that is vital if you are to understand how business works. If you don't understand the accounting, you're pretty much clueless. (I'm talking general principles, not tax code) If you want to become a trader, you have to slowly work toward it. And the best education you can get is trading (and losing) real money.
Just like all those young real estate agents that lost their jobs its now happening on wallstreet. VP BSC banker to making cupcakes, I highly doubt that business even lasts more than 3 years, if she is lucky. What a joke.