There are a lot of resources to learn how to trade, but I was wondering, how do the big shots at JPM, GS, etc learn to trade? I'm assuming on the job from the folks that kill it every day but seriously, does anyone know how the big banks teach their own young traders?
They put them in a prison first , with all the top investment managers like Bernie Maddoff and give them secret lessons on how to rob the world. http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Born_to_Steal.html?id=frWzYtIVTGkC&redir_esc=y Gary Weiss, one of the business worldâs most dogged investigative reporters, has written the definitive book about the dark side of Wall Streetânot just a few bad apples, but the whole rotten barrel. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tEV-77eDm6sC&source=gbs_similarbooks
Start by throwing away technical analysis & most directional punts. Leave that exotica for customers.
Both of these are actually pretty much spot on. Most of the proprietary desk traders are making markets for customers in physical OTC products, swaps and derivatives - and then laying that risk off in the form of a hedge in the exchange traded instruments. Generally speaking, the newbies are not really allowed to take on much in the way of directional risk. I have been told by a client who recently went to the JPM desk that even the senior traders are told not to take on directional risk.
the keyword being "customers" first thing I learned when I went independent. Not only do I not have any customers, I AM the customer. Took me a while to learn and understand my new limitations, as compared to my previous advantages. thank g-d those big boys weren't trading corn back then, and they just left us little traders alone. otherwise to OP, time and energy is better well spent understanding and accepting your limitations rather than competing in a game you can never win. but to answer your question, they just tell you to get on the phone and sell something to somebody. That's how they make money. I don't know where you get this idea that anybody over there knows how to trade. They just know how to sell. Like the man said, they don't need to make money directionally, they can make it just hedging the other side of your risk, and they charge you out of your account, and you pay it because you think they must know something, because after all, they are professionals. Just because a man is smart doesn't mean he is smart about the market and how it works. That's why brain surgeons routinely give their money to stock brokers. Get enough doctors and lawyers on your list and you can pretty much get them to bail you out of any situation you have got yourself into.