I am a student about to graduate in May. I am looking for advice on how to apply to Prop trading groups, Asset Management groups, and Hedge Funds. How do I go about finding the ones that are not scams? I am willing to travel and do just about anything (qualitative or quantitative research). I just really enjoy the pressure and challenges of trading (equities, F/X, commodities, etc.). Do you have any advice or more specifically, places I should be searching for jobs (websites, specific companies)?
Be very honest here as that is the only way you're going to get the CORRECT direction. 1. Have you been trading? (Real $, sim, or not at all yet?) Remember, you MUST be honest. This board is anonymous, so no one will show up at your door and heckle you. 2. What do you want to trade, or be involved in? Do you know what may fit YOUR personality? Imo, one can be a Level III CFA, and that means ZERO to me. Degrees mean nothing unless you can be profitable. From Pitbull: "It doesn't matter if you're wrong as long as you're profitable." So where are you right now with trading? It's ok to say, "I've never even tried to sim (paper) trade. I'm a total rookie." No worries! It's important for you to lay it all out so vets here can help you get from where you are now to where you want to be.
1. I have been trading since 07' with real money with little success until 09' because I needed the money for school. Since then have been trading equities and options on optionsXpress and have a practice F/X account with Oanda. I have had some sucess. 2. I really like the idea of prop trading but also have a junior financial analyst right now that I enjoy as well. I would prefer to trade based of the charts rather than the fundamentals but I realize that they are important as well. I was thinking I would be interested in alternative investments or hedge funds? Thank you for your response.