Since you asked the question... Go w/ Goldman (institutional) and screw the options firm (Really retail no matter what they tell you.You generate commissions for the house) Firms like Goldman are the market. YOU CAN LEARN ALOT !!! 1) 150K plus compensation a year is a damn good living. 2) You are building a fantastic resume. After, working at Goldman for a few years you can write your own ticket. 3) You can save toward a trading stake while at the same time work and learn in the premier wall street environment. If you happen to get lucky enough and land on the J. Aron desk...........you hit lotto. You have entrance to the world of heavy institutional / hedge fund hitters. That options firm is peanuts compared to this. 4) YOU CAN ALWAYS TRADE YOUR OWN ACCOUNT. & you will never be wondering how you will pay your rent in the process. So, in wrap up: The GS job offers you 1) Big Salary/ benefits/ bonus packages 2) Bluechip chance to build job market value, experience, and access/learning on their dime. You'll have a skill set you can always fall back on. That options desk and 10 like it will always be out there if someday later you want to give it a try. No rush. 3) Access to contacts that could earn you alot of $$$ and possibly live abroad (London, Hong Kong, Singapore) whether in trading or finance. Bear in mind alot of GS personnel eventually leave and open or work at hedge funds. Don't hedge funds trade from time to time , Yes??? more opportunity. Tell the options guys thanks but no thanks. Their are a 1000 guys out there who would kill for the chance you have been offered today. Listen to this voice of experience and be kind to yourself and accept their offer. You will be a better man for it and in a better place once you take your 1st personal account trade best of Luck, J-Law
I feel that I have misrepresented the trading firm opportunity as some lame prop shop that charges you a fee. You only trade the firm's capital, and they train you extensively for one year, then place you on a trading desk as a junior trader as you continue to develop. You have extensive mentoring throughout, as well as classes and teachers. One of my thoughts is to simply try out the trading firm while I am young and without commitments. If I succeed, it will be lucrative enough for my liking, and if I fail, I hope that I could get an MBA from a top school and then get in to investment banking or corporate finance later (and as an associate). To me that makes more sense than doing banking for 2 years, then trying trading. I will always have my undergraduate record on my resume which is solid, as well as at least one summer of investment banking at goldman sachs. Heck, even if I stunk at trading, I could probably still get in to banking as an analyst (although not at a BB firm like Goldman- Id have to go to like a harris nesbitt type of company). I dont know. I am risk-averse, but I also believe that I can learn anything, and once I learn it, I will excel at it. Thus far I've been good at every subject and never really failed at anything, but I know that will not necessarily translate to success at trading options. However, if I devote all of my time to it and have the right mentors and resources, I would like to think that I would succeed at it.
I would go with Goldman. However, it seems you like the options opportunity so my advice would be synthesize the comments you've received with your own aspirations and arrive at a decision.
I still can't understand how you could get an offer from Goldman when you have absolutely no clue about anything. Lacking common sense is just one of your problems. F*ck the trading firm, get into GS then get into trading at GS if you like trading so much. By the way, maybe someone should forward this thread to GS, so they can fire their recruiters, 'coz the suck at it!
Boy, this thread is like looking at the scene of a car accident after the clean up crew has come and gone - still morbid but now also dull.
Morbid is the wrong word. This kid cant even write, much less think at a high level. If this kid actually has an offer at GS, which I doubt, he would last about 3 days there. Imagine putting this kid in a high pressure situation, eveyrone yelling, testosterone raging, phones ringing, market moving and this kid decides he has to endlessly think about an obvious move. Maybe he could rise to be in charge of lunch at GS. And Mr Kamikaze, you doth protest and comment on me too much. Tell us what you really do now. OK?
U must be nutz to leave a side a once in a life opportunity. Goldman ain't gonna give u a second chance, mate; I cannot understand the difficulty of making a decision here. I am beginning to believe myself u got no offer whatsoever from either GS or the prop-firm, u just a kid looking to impress ET community; NOBODY here would even think twice and majority has got no qualifications or nba, but yet u can't figure out what's what and what's not. Earth to kid: get a grip on yourself.