It's been over an year since I left Chicago but based on my year old information, just off my head... Goldenberg Heymeyer Transmarket Group Kingstree REFCO (Man Fin. ... MAC Trading... I'm really not sure how they are doing with the bankruptcy and etc.) ... had some ND guys trading well for them...
LOL so this basically means you know jack squat about how the financial systems of almost the whole world really work and have actually formed mental blocks about it, possibly preventing you from ever truly understanding it. Chicago is the spot for prop trading jobs (REAL prop). Get the list of firms and start hitting them up, it's not going to be easy. If you are into money supply & Fed-funds rate (an overpublicized & misleading stat), Treasury trading is up your alley. Many places doing spreads in Chicago. This may be a shocker, but everyone and their mother wants to be a trader nowdays. You are one in a thousand right now, so now go work at becoming or at least appearing to be one in ten and you will land a spot.
Haha, thanks for the blunt advice (A nice name by the way). You may be right about my inexperience. I know this may seem a little presumptuous of me to say, but I hold a strong conviction that I have a good purchase of the activities in which the Fed and other monetary institutions engage. That's what I have specialized and studied under well-known professors in that particular field. I mean as a trader, you have to believe in your ability in order to succeed. Wouldn't you agree (I probably got that from Jesse Livermore or somebody else)? I have been interviewing with prop firms that specialize in interest rate risk and government treasuries. I'm just waiting to hear from them. I'm looking for more interviews. Any help will be appreciated. Speaking from my own experience, I understand "it's not going to be easy". It shouldn't be. But I am willing to give my best shot. I'm that persistence kid that you see in the dictionary (using Gordon Gekko's line). Like I said, I am competitive, and like challenges. Hopefully, good things will eventually happen. Anyhow, thanks for the advice.
dude, you need to learn to trade that won't happen where you are aiming at now spend time in front of charts after time, you won't look for a job
If I become a trader, I want to be able to give all of my effort. Having another job wouldn't let me do that.
I posted this somewhere else too. Equity firms in Chicago are 5k down and little to no training. They are mostly just arcades. If you want a salary position. You have to go to one of the futures or options firms on the CBOT/CME/CBOE. You are not going to go anywhere and just start trading. They are going to make you an assistant/clerk/runner whatever you want to call it for 12-24 months. go to the exchanges websites and pull up the clearing firm listing. Check everyone of their websites for job openings or email addresses to send your resume to. There are also tons of small, 5-10 person operations that clear through the bigger corps. You aren't likely to find them posting jobs on monster and they don't have websites. Check listings like craigslist. I've seen lots of small operations post on there because its free.