hey guys. I had pm'ed pumpndump, and he answered my question about the math test, the 50 true or false. Thats primarily what i wanted to know. GHCO...theres no particular reason why I applied there. A friend of mine works at a firm in chicago that was founded by a trainer at GHCO. His advice was stay away, as there are many folks willing to hire recruits now. I'm not sure if this is the case, but wouldn't doubt it. I visited some places that didn't seem right for me. Assent, Echo, and this odd place named LT Trader...wow....don't go to the last one. Had a phone conversation with HLV, but when told I would need to pay for training, I brought the conversation to a close. All these places are great for a certain type of person. I am young, and need guidance. A place like GHCO/Optiver/SMW/Mako/Wolverine/ SIG/ect. or any salaried/place that pays for your training at least is appropriate for a newbie. so in short, theres no reason for GHCO. Its just one place that I'm looking at right now. If I get it, I'll take it. If I don't, its the only place i'm currently interviewing for in chicago. I haven't done any other interviews thus far, so I'll move out to chicago and do a proper search. Right now I'm not really in a position to be shopping around. I'll be more serious if I have to move out there and look at multiple firms for their Fall recruiting. So thats what I'm doing. And some people have pm'ed me about my experience interview with Altea or SMW. Well I never did, so I don't have much to say. But my GHCO interview is set for 5.10.05. If anyone is interested in what was asked, I'll pm you with the info. Good Luck to you all.
What will happen to their current salaried traders in Chicago, and even London then if this is true. Will their contracts be terminated or will they be made to see their contracts out, I suppose it will be dealt with according to the individual. I noticed that in London they have had a fairly high turn-over of late, a few are friends of mine, and a lot of current and former GHCO traders have turned up at my current firm for interviews lately, so maybe that is why? Who knows the truth about the deal though, I think that salaried positions are too risky for most prop. shops due to the high potential loss for those who fail to succeed.
If you don't live in Chicago then you should really shop around if you will need to move anyway. Mako are recruiting and seem like a very good firm but they specialize in Options Market-Making, same thing with Optiver, I know a couple of people at Mako and they really like it. I would go for Mako if you want a salray as they pay a very good starting salary in London £28,000+, plus you will learn a lot from them and they have a far more respectable name amongst the institutions. They advertised on www.efinacialcareers.com today for new trainees so check it out. Failing that then try Refco as they have offices all over and you may find one closer to where you live. NY has a few prop. shops too that you may want to look into. Or you could always ask you friend to get you an interview. Just make sure that you research which ever job offer you accept fully, and check the contract for any details that may hurt you in the future, particularly non-competition clauses, as a few firms have them and they should be avoided like the plague in my opinion.
i've got an interesting question. I won't be graduating until december, but i will be all done with class this may. Most employers believe i will be graduating this may, but my actual degree will not be confered until december. I know companies do background checks on credit and criminal. I've heard that about half do academic checks of some kind. How many of you have been required to submit your academic records to your employer, and how did you do it? Did you have your school send the materials to the company directly? Did the company just directly contact the school? ( i know that this is illegal without your written permission, via fax or mail...can't do it over the phone or internet.) Most of my friends didn't have to submit anything. The ones that came right of school at least. The ones that were out of school for some time were usually asked for something. I'm just asking because of my odd situation. This is partially why i'm just applying to GHCO and only one firm right now. I figure having to explain the graduation date will be a hassle, and potentially employment ending.
I was told today by a current GHCO trader that they are ending salaried positions in London in the near future, and I was told that no new groups will be paid salaries from now on. Again this is yet to be confirmed by GHCO themselves but the traders in London seem to think that the salaries are a thing of the past. The person I spoke to said that they do not know what will happen to the guys currently with salaries, but it seems as though certain people are being allowed out of their contracts fro various reasons. I must state however that this is all second hand information and I cannot personally verify this, but I would belive my source incidentally. For anyone that was hoping to get a GHCO salary and learn to trade then it seems as they you will need to start looking elsewhere.
I've just checked ET for some new threads with regard to GHCO after I'd received emails about them only to discover that three different threads have been deleted, presumably at the request of GHCO. Threads were "GHCO closes its doors", "ghco facts revealed" and "Chris Hehmeyer" all posted today. GHCO censorship strikes again. Three in one day though, that's good work!!!!
so it looks like people from GH surf the elite trader boards, you think they have better things to do, say like run a business ... where there is smoke, their is ...
I read one of the threads this morning, the readers digest version is that it was posted by someone claiming to represent GHCO ("GHCO Partners" was the alias) and said that they would be closing their doors as of July 1st. I'm against censorship on these boards as much as anyone but those threads definitely crossed the line: falsely representing yourself as a company and then posting something like that ("we are closing our doors") is definitely criminal at least in the US. I hope that whoever did it was smart enough to use an anonymzer to cover their tracks.
The reason there's so much negativity about the company in question is that there are so many lame traders looking for a scapegoat. The fact that most have moved from one prop firm to another after being let go by GH for being unprofitable illustrates the point nicely. You know the deal when you sign, if you dont like it go somewhere else, if there is indeed so many places falling over themselves to employ trainee traders in these markets (maybe where you lose your own dough/where you wont be given so much of a chance to become profitable). Or you can welch out of a contract that YOU yourself sign and whinge about the companys morals, the minute you become profitable because of greed and the fact that you cant see the fact that it's give and take.