I know in general that stockbrokers is a sales position, they got to find new clients and persuade them to invest their money and etc. Doesn anyone here have some experience as a stockbroker. How do they find clients, are they given a list of prospective clients to call or what? Tell me all you know about their duties please.
do they make a lot of money? i gues it is a commision job, what percentage of what brokers get? How long does it on average take before a new broker starts making money?
Drop into your local friendly neighbourhood brokerage and ask to do an informational interview (if you don't know what this is, read Parachute). Ask to speak to their most experienced broker. He'd love to talk to a young whippersnapper like you, then let im have it with the tough questions.
New brokers without significant assets to draw from friends and family are effectively glorified telemarketers. When I was a broker (late 1990s, early 2000), they had us spending six to eight hours per day cold calling-- quite often right out of the yellow pages if a better list could not be obtained. The idea was to set-up a meeting with the mark, er, prospective client, or make calls inviting folks to a "seminar". This was a for one the the Street's top firms.
This is the worst job to do. Why you want to be sales or stockbrokers? You have to lie to people to make a living, is that a good Idea? Unless you are working for schwab, Goldman,...and dealing with really wealthy individuals
It appears the traditional broking business has splintered, with the upper echelon moving into private equity? Seems private equity managers are simply high-end brokers, no? The private equity business is exploding out here in Asia, esp. Singapore.
I recently left ml after being there for two years. Its true, it is a lot of bull$hitting and very little knowledge of the markets is needed. You are expected to bring in clients and do so by any means necessary. In my office, it didn't matter if you were on the phone 12 hours a day or out playing golf. But whereever you were, you were expected to be making contacts with qualified individuals and closing accounts. Certain assett hurdles have to be met after so many months, or youre fired. The big push has been on niche marketing and targeting rollovers. You are on salary for 2 years and comission after that, although this varies by firm and other circumstances. Basically, its a glorified sales job. btw, i resigned to go back to school, i wasn't fired.