if you're making 120k (pounds) + / yr (base) as a 23yo, you should NEVER be thinking of going solo. if you want to go solo, you'll have lots of time to develop your methodology under the bank's "cover" so that if you blow up, you won't personally take the hit. in the meantime, you can develop people skills you don't have, and professional contacts you'll never be able to make without your current business card. and in a few years, if all goes well and you've got more money than your friends in uni thought possible, you can leave, with a lot of fallbacks that you don't currently have. read jack schwager's latest book hedge fund market wizards. one of the british traders' section is a very good read, about him leaving and his style no longer working because he didn't have the order flow information (i think) that he did when he worked at the bank. oh, as someone mentioned before, although elitetrader is the name of the site, there's lots of people who aren't traders, or trade periodically but are marketers/columnists/etc. for their main source of income. read everyone's advice, including mine, with a jaundiced eye (or grain of salt).
THis is a bullshit story, anyone of 23, making so much would not be posting here, asking if it is doable to make 20%. If they are as successful as they claim, they would just go and do it. If they are lucky enough to be in a cushy job earning GBP120K and their success is order flow driven and they need to ask such a stupid question.Then the answer is ; stay in your cushy job, count yourself lucky, save until the tide changes and you lose your job
at anyrate, he never could answer atticus's question, which is exactly what I was going to ask. What do you trade? To what do you owe your success other than the fact that you are a wind up doll? Does that mean you are screwing the boss? Hey, I worked my socks off to buy my first pair of Oxford shoes, so I know how hard it can be. Those shoes opened a lot of doors for me. (well actually, I opened a lot of doors for other people while wearing them. I started out as a doorman at the Darktown Poker Club, and they wanted a dumb kid wearing oxfords so as not to attract any heat.)
Oh, really? What are you trading? At least name the area (credit, rates, equities) or better a specific product class (e.g. single name equity options or structured rates), otherwise you do sound like you are taking a piss.
at anyrate, if I was was 23 and a successful trader, what should my fantasy be? Workng for a bank in London, or being an independent trader?
You asked for responses. You got them from realists. If you're smart, you'll listen and be thankful. If you want to get stroked, go to Facebook or Match.com.
no, it's not that unusual for young traders, it's quite unusual for old traders. An old bull and a young bull were standing on the hill. They looked down on the valley and there was a whole herd of heifers. The young bull said, "Let's run down there and fuck one!" The old bull said, "Let's walk down there and fuck them all."
OP - Yes, and once you mention the specific area, we can grill you further to know if you are lying or not. There are lots of posers on this forum and you have have lost credibility by saying you making 180k base after 1 year. However, if our suspicion is wrong and somehow your story is correct, then you will get lots of wisdom from people here both in the thread and through PMs. At any rate, couple of issues I described in my first reply to you are serious in nature which you will face as an independent.