I've been searching thru these forums for the past week or so looking to get info on shop reputations, specifically in the training area. I haven't come to any conclusions, so I though I'd ask outright: Which prop shops offer the best training to someone looking to get started?
This has been discussed at length on here if you do a search. I'll try to sum it up for you. It all depends on the group that you join. Within many big firms, like Assent let's say, there might be 30 trading groups of which 3 might be very good that provide good training. So the question is not which firms provide good training but which groups. This was also discussed on the live chat myself and Don Bright had a few months back which is posted on this forum as well.
Feel free to call and I'll go through our step by step training process, from real basic all the way through personal mentoring of advanced strategies. Don
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm based in nyc, and looking to make a career switch. I'm two years out of a top-tier college with a econ/math degree, so I'm thinking/hoping I have a shot at the more selective firms (First New York, Capstone, DRW, Group One, etc...). However, I'm wondering if being two years out will hurt my chances since I don't have a finance related job or Series 7. Ideally I'd like to start out as a Trading Assistant. Don, the advanced trading sounds interesting. I will definitely call you to find out more.
If you are two years out of a top-tier college, why not B-School or MF? Or better yet, why not try to get in entry-level stuff at a bulge bracket firm. That's where the training is. That's where the hedge funds go to get the talent...IB firms where the training has already been taken care of. At this stage, I would think trying to do Prop full time is a mistake. Get a job with the company you want. Check UBS, Barclays, Merrill, Morgan, JPMorgan, Bear...then go to the lower tiers if that doesn't work out. Just my opinion.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85088 Listen in tomorrow. Don and I will be going over this.
Bulge Bracket firms are the big ones I listed...i.e., the top firms. I don't know if I am missing anyone, but the unarguable bulge brackets are Merrill, Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Citi. Some would argue on the rest, but I still consider (maybe on an ever-so-slightly smaller scale) Bear Stearns, UBS, Deutsche, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan in the bulge bracket. And maybe Lehman.