hydroblunts comments remind me of the following observation: men who don't know talk. men who know don't.
Get creative! "During the past 3 years worked as Local Campaign Manager for Senator XXXX, built 3 homes for the homeless, and began/finished my BA/MBA. During this time my lifestyle was maintained as an independent trader. I miss working with others, see the limitations of trading and feel I can do much more....." Be interesting!!!!! Creative. Dynamic! Find out about who is interviewing you. Create a unique resume slanted for each interview. No broilerplate resumes... Make the reader want to meet you if for nothing more to see the person behind the paper! Those with a bad impression of prop trading will not be moved. For others you MIGHT get an interview. After the interview starts you are on your own! The resume killer is trying to be like everyone else. See the movie 'The Producers'. Be more like Baliestock and less Leo Bloom!!!! You can do it! Good luck!
Unfortunately, the reality is not so pretty. Prop looks bad on a resume. 1. It means the person did not receive training that is relevant to the position that they are currently applying for (if any training). 2. It means the person was not involved in anything very sophisticated (probably). 3. It means the person probably doesn't want the job that they are applying for, but are applying because they failed at their other job. 4. There is a big difference between the corporate rhetoric of employees with "entrepreneurial spirit" and actually having employees who are entrepreneurs.
I went from prop to big four accounting firm. Total resume builder if you market yourself right. 25% salary increase from my previous accounting job that i had 6 months earlier.
You're entertaining... Is there a 24 hour Hydroblunt satellite channel I can subscibe to? You're probably right about the prop shop sleazoid factor... But being a ** successful ** trader is actually very socially acceptable... People always find what I do interesting... And most seem to want to talk about it and fantasize about being traders themselves... To the point where I stopped bothering going into any detail years ago... Because people are completely clueless about the financial markets... And every idiot who ever bought Barron's thinks their a virtual professional. But seriously... The capital markets ** absolutely require ** traders to provide liquidity. Undeveloped capital markets in places like Ukraine seriously limit economic growth... And keep the standard of living at Third World levels. Unlike, say, being a pro poker player who makes a totally NEGATIVE contribution to society by exploiting fools... Which is why poker is mostly illegal because it has a huge social cost... Being a trader... Or I use the term hedge fund manager... Is a perfectly honorable profession.
It depends on how you market yourself and what kind of position you are looking for. If you are looking for another trading job then it will be tough to spin because the people you will be interviewing with might know too much about the business. However if it is another industry then I think it is fairly easy to spin and talk above the people you will be interviewing with. Most won't understand it so it will sound impressive as they glaze over while you are trying to explain it to them. You just have to explain it better then I sat at a computer trying to make 5 cents clicking a mouse. You can explain the research you do to make your decisions, how you follow the Fed and economic events, or basically trying to describe everything that might go into trading besides clicking the mouse. You can make this sound impressive and might even surprise yourself when you sit down and think about all the work and hours most traders put in.
Specialist Trading utilizing technical and quantative analysis. If you were successful i doubt it was by guessing whether the next bar was up or down
There are a number of other threads where it is discussed how socially acceptable trading is and the result is that there is a whole spectrum of responses. You must be meeting only one kind of people if they ALL think what you do is interesting or maybe you have selective hearing. Daytraders are considered the parasites of the financial industry, by those who are in the course of things. Quite ironic, since the financial industry itself is mostly a sycophant. NYC equity prop firms do have a reputation among the top tier trading firms. Ask a sales trader at, let's say, Lehman or Merrill. They consider daytraders to be gamblers and disregard any track record as pure luck. Can't exactly take it personally, you gotta consider the person doing the judgement. As I have said, portray the daytrading experience in the right way and it can be a great positive. If you rebating stocks all day, you'll pretty much have to lie to write up your experience in a positive way. If you are doing correlation, arbitrage, pair trading and mean reversion, well that's stuff that top tiers & hedge funds do. Of course if the interviewer recognizes the name of your firm as an infamous daytrading firm, it won't matter what the next few sentences say.
Its who you know....wait tables at the best steak house near you...and make connections....or better yet....go caddie at the best golf course (private) near you....you would be surprised how incompetent people like to have people who they are comfortable with and won`t intimidate them around the office....the peter principle at work....people rise to their level of incompetence.....i have seen more salespeople doing analyst work with no prior experience to make me just shake my head.....and when was the last time an engineer was actually doing anything related to engineering....and poker pro`s don`t take fools money.....the house takes everybody`s money....at 5% its just a matter of time before all the money goes to the house....high stakes players take money from the ultra-rich who have the thrill of giving their money to the best pro`s like phil ivey..(really rich businessmen....celebrities....lie selien dian`s(sp) husband)..nobody "realistically" grinds out a living like olddays of vegas when tourists were complete "atm`s"....everybody knows enough poker now through books, tv, etc....to cause any grinder to look for a better job than playing 10/20 limit hold`em for a living. but interesting thread nonetheless guys