And your chances of getting into SIG given that you've gone to HBS are even greater! In all seriousness, to add to what Bob pointed out, just go to their website and look at the representative example of traders they've hired. They all went to top quant schools like MIT and Carnegie Mellon and I can guarantee they didn't get hired based on a option picking track record unless it was a peer reviewed academic paper they wrote where they demonstrated abnormal returns for a given replicable strategy. That's pretty much the opposite of what's being discussed here.
That's true, although I'd say that's more true of those with an old-school view of trading and not SIG, they've got some MBAs on their executive team and liberally sprinkled throughout. I think the feeling was a bit mutual until recently when the more data driven version of trading we have today came into the forefront. For sure you'd probably be better off with a math/comp sci degree from MIT/Caltech though competing for an entry level job.
Thanks for the post but I do not think you are very familiar with Sesqhanna. As far as a trading education, they are a top, top firm and the owners are all billionaires starting from basically nothing. Sesqhanna prides itself on educating their traders deeply in "gambling theory" as well as teaching them a broad set of skills. SIG seeks "the best of it" in many ways and they do this internationally, not just market making... market making of course, quant, manual, HFT, many types of arbitrage, and not just options and stocks. Few will be accepted and most people will have a far better chance of being accepted by a PM.
At my wife's MBA program, the students looked down on those who went into sales and trading. Real MBA's went into Investment Banking and then Private Equity! I can understand why an MBA wouldn't want to go into sales and trading. It's a pretty limiting career - and if you are big picture enough to get an MBA why would you silo yourself so fast. From what I have heard, SIG is pretty old school except for the quants who actually develop the risk models. Most traders are execution guys.
Certainly true for the very vast majority of people. Having played poker with some of the founders when they were Vegas poker pros before they went to Wall Street, I am familiar. My post was meant in part to highlight what the trading world is like In part to stimulate discussion And my post might be incredibly valuable to a very young person reading ET who does not understand trading well but who MIGHT have the qualifications for SIG. From time to time I converse with SIG traders as they all play poker. In fact (a bit of trivia) they are taught poker as part of their training.
[QUOTE="newwurldmm From what I have heard, SIG is pretty old school except for the quants who actually develop the risk models. Most traders are execution guys.[/QUOTE] Partly my point, since most ET posters are traders or want to trade. Even SIG execution guys (which is a huge part of trading) receive broad training in "Getting The Best Of It" Most ET members are not top quants, but a few young people with outstanding backgrounds outside of trading wander through ET. Sure.. advanced math and computer knowledge might get an interview. Absolutely. However, a young odd-ball chess Grandmaster living in his parents extra bedroom might be taken quite serriously if he applied.
I always wondered where sle had worked On that note, I'll leave the thread to those who have firsthand experience in the subject!
Lol.. perhaps the joke is on me for making a hasty assumption about Sle. And this may have even detracted from what I was trying to convey. Looking at Sle's posts, I see he has more than a good deal of trading knowledge, wherever it came form. Looking forward to more of his posts.