after dropping out of law school, i worked for an insurance company, but saw the light, after visiting the VP's home and realizing that that these guys were small time clowns running a minor leaque serfdom. i quit in 1994---best thing i ever did. good luck, surf
The insurance company has its perks. There is almost no way to get fired once you have a job especially if your older then 40. You can simply walk in and stop doing your job for a few weeks and you wont get fired. I've seen it done where people wanted to get fired to collect unemployment. It took some 3 months for them to get the boot. Then there is the outright criminality at work like bid rigging and the like. Oh well. This consequence of the biz breeds a bad work ethic, however. I enjoy working hard and challenging experiences. I like to use my mind. However, this type of work environment where no one does a good job and so many are involved in criminality encourages you to think a different way. I do make trades at my desk which is another perk. No one seems to care what I am doing during the day or if I am getting my job done. I can get on stockcharts.com for analysis or Ameritrade to make my trades easily enough. Sometimes I feel like half my day is spent monitoring the stock market and the other half is spent actually doing my job. I do plan on quitting the insurance game, but I would like to find something else to do on Pine St first instead of simply hitting the couch back at home. I've been aggressive, but have not gone to the extremes yet. I work for one of the largest companies in the world. I just got off on the wrong floor of the building though when they were holding the job interviews, thats all. As for transfering to another floor its difficult. Once you get stuck in the "ghetto" then its hard to move out. The "ghetto" being that mess of cubicles in that big room with papers flying all over the place and the smell of someone else's rotting food permeating the air. Once you are labeled as a ghetto guy then people look at you differently. In the morning and the evening, there is a fleet of black cars downstairs. They are there to take the top dogs in and out of the building. Not only the top dogs, but the guys who work in the global investment group to and fro. The analysts whose pictures grace the website in suit and tie. As for myself, no black car, not yet. Somehow my ability is being wasted in this environment. Quitting is not the most logical step just yet. . .
Pine Street??? So, you work for AIG. Not a bad company. My friend works as a credit analyst and he says he makes six figures. You already sound like you got a nice situation going. Trading half the day and spending the other half not working. Stick to this you might not like what you see on the other side.
this proffesion has a nasty learning curve . you must have a lot of cash to burn the first 2-3 years.
Ive been in the stock market since the early 90s when I was in college. I've burned my share of cash... Fortunately, whatever mistakes I make only effect myself since Im single with no kids.
Why not give it a shot independently? Money is moving in and out of the market every day. While there is obviously no guarantee you will be able to draw from it, it seems as if you have a secret desire to give it a shot, though may be a little averse to taking the risk.
Subban gave you advice worth it's weight in gold...I too had a job like yours, it was boring and dead end, but I could trade half the day. Do you realize that 75% of companies BLOCK access to web sites like Yahoo Finance! You need to ask around amongst your friends. Anyways, I'm trading full-time (trying to) now after being laid off with a severance package, but that time at work trading while pulling down a paycheck was a fantastic primer. If you want to start trading your own money, you have the perfect situation right there. Just start swing trading.
Michael, You are in great situation if you can trade 1/2 day while you are in the office. While you learning to trade properly, you getting an income so you will not depend on trading income to pay bills and this is huge. redduke
if you work for AIG, then you would know they have a huge trading department. I know they are big in fixed income and energies (natural gas)
Why does it matter that they have a trading dept, the guy has said several times transfering to it is impossible given where he is now.