I have been interested and watching the markets for a couple months now and have been greatly intrigued by them and how you can make (and lose) money. I opened my first account through Scottrade last week and have made a couple of trades. I am actually interested in trying to find information on making a career change into being a broker and/or working directly with the markets and buying/selling on a daily basis. I don't necessarily mean a day trader, because I don't have experience or the money for that. How would one go about making a career change in this direction? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks so much.
Scottrade is a first class brokerage. Many of my friends work there. Why don't you go knock on the doors of your nearest Scottrade and see if they have any openings.
I was actually thinking of doing that. But I assumed that no matter what position would be open, they are looking for experienced brokers. You don't think that is necessarily the case?
Most of my friends who gets hired by them, granted they are business majors but usually have no clue about stocks or the stock market. I think all they require is some kind of bachelors and a willingness to learn on the job. And also, quit thinking and just do it.
I am a Computer Science major and have been a software engineer for over 5 years now. So I am no dummy. I think I could handle the learning curve.....ha. You're right.....thinking=procrastinating. Thanks for the advice. Much luck to you.
Do you have good interpersonal skills? Because a stock broker is a sales person....selling financial products.
Hey Sharwei, Are you limiting yourself strictly to stocks, or would you consider trading currencies (forex)? Because of the nature of global money (forex) being traded 24-hours a day, and having no commission costs, you can trade it on your off-hours, and get into it for less money than you can with stock-trading, especially if you ever want to sell a stock, SEC rules state you must have X-amount of liquidity/capital in your account. We have no such rules in forex. The forex market volume is 10-times bigger than the stock markets combined. We trade $2 trillion dollars a day. You can download a free demo trading platform and learn forex trading at no risk of losing your money. The demo platform is the same as the real one. Just something for you to think over.... Kindest regards, sKaLpZ
I have great interpersonal skills, and I'm wasting them doing what I do now Which is partly why I want a career change. But sales involves actually believing in the product and knowing it very well. This is easy to do if you're greatly intersted in it and also believe in it....which I do. The most important thing in sales though is making the people believe that they need this product. I wouldn't be here and asking questions if I didn't think people need to invest their money.
Well I might be wrong, but I assume when you say 'trader' you mean 'day-trader'. I definitely don't have the experience or money for that. I am not really familiar with all careers and positions in the financial world, but I have the desire to learn and be a part of it. I would assume stock broker, but if there are other positions that involve trading and learning about the markets in a more pressure filled, minute-by-minute role, then I would love to hear about them.