I recently graduated college in December with a BS in mathematics and physics and a MS in mathematics. My school is ranked in the 100-125 range. My gpa is around a 3.8. I have applied to various junior trader jobs at companies like Optiver, IMC, SIG, Marquette Partners etc. So far I haven't gotten any responses. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to where I should apply, and if there were any things I could do to make myself more marketable. Also, any general advice would be appreciated.
username, I don't know how to do this, but you might... How do you create a trading model in options that trades off a volatility model? Just knowing the answer should make you very rich, so it might be more fun to pick a random job and to solve that problem on your own...
Try one of the big grain companies like C@rgill. They're always looking for talent, but you'll have to start at the bottom. Your MS isn't shit as far as they're concerned. however, the grain companies will teach you how to trade........I know, grains aren't sexy, but what the hell...
the hairy, smelly, prick "chicago/wall st type" would pass a brick if they heard this.. they don't care... if you didnt come from a top 10-12.5 school, youre obviously an unsophisticated, state school redneck with a low standard of living. what could you possibly want to do with money from trading, buy a double wide? im sure youre a smart guy but they dont take kindly to youre kind around them streets. they cant trust someone from your cloth managing large sums of money. they might have you estimate the volume on the exchange by taking a sq foot sample of the tickets on the floor by the bathroom. if you want to succeed in the business you have to think like a douchebag and i feel you might be naive. read books on technical analysis and start to try coding some systems. after many years and hours in front of charts and data mining you might become profitable. my advice is to work some bullshit monkey job and save up 50-100k(probably take you half a lifetime), the more the better. keep studying independently and learning to trade with a fractional fx account. dont waste your young adulthoop being a degenerate prop trader on a 5k account.. there are alot of loser prop traders that have been sucking for years just getting by on a mickey mouse account. if your gonna win in this business you need to start right with lots of equity. companies like Optiver/ Shoenfeld/ Jane St/ will just throw your resume away. why hire you when they can hire a 3.8GPA MIT, Penn, Columbia, NYU, Berkeley, Chicago grad???
guess what ... "poker skills / top tier scholastic background/ phd yada yada yada I would bet one of those female "skateboarders" could give a good effort at trading if she was into it www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbRGZQBItbs
Get a useful degree like engineering. It shouldn't be too much harder with your math background. There are still (a few) well paying jobs for engineers. Save your money, trade on the side, live and have fun. What's not to like?