Feel free to IM me, and I'll set up a time for a call if you like...I'll share my thoughts, and perhaps get someone from GS on a conference call if you like. BTW, it's not so much that there aren't jobs within the industry, it's just that there are very few actual trading jobs with firms because they have computer models to work with, and yes, the ease of electronic trading (algorithm and black box response types)... ....but they will always need good people in the ancilliary positions, and many of those jobs pay well. Don
hedge funds hire speculative traders. Or they go out on their own through retail, leasing an exchange seat, or proprietary firms. You've got the wrong idea of investment bank traders. For the most part they are middle men "sell side" within the financial system. Speculative traders tend to be "buy side".
1 word: ECN'S.... I have watched this industry go down the tubes since retail and the buyside have access to this type of software. I have lost my job twice as both firms went under...
Steve, I will have to slightly disagree. In regards to the speculators, or to be more specific, prop traders, the effect of computer programs/technology has been detrimental. This is mostly due to the fact that the trader/investor ratio is out of whack but it is also due to the fact that a computer program will trade for much smaller profits than you and I will. These black boxes will fight with each other for pennies and as long as they do enough volume, the $.00001 profit per share will be worth it. Do not forget their speed advantage also. I've spoken with a lot of guys who have traded for a decade and even excluding the bubble years, there is not even a comparison of how much tougher it is now due to decimalization & shorting of volatility. Note that commissions were very high before 2000 and the technology antique vs today. You can even look back as recent as 2001-2002, I call it bullet time. The commissions were 5 times larger, the technology not so hot yet there were guys making 20k a month which could not even break gross positive last year, let alone today. There is no rule whatsoever which states that there is always money to be made by speculators in any given market. There will always be money for those in control, such as the big dominating players & privieleged maggots (specialists, MMs, execution traders) but even the top speculators may find themselves unable to make money at times. Refer to ROS's note of the "lean" years, I think 1914-1917. I'm just refering to US equities, there is obviously a lucrative market in commodities right now, there also seems to be some good action in fixed income. Always Forex and emerging markets as well. Contrary to popular belief, it's all about being in the right place at the right time.
Expanding on Hydroblunts note, I think what happens is , as the technology improves, it gets incrementally HARDER to gain an edge. When they are all slow as s**T, its easy to be just a little faster. When they are all millisecond fast black boxes 3 inches from the exchange server, well, you get the point. You actually have to KNOW something and have a GOOD opinion these days. Traders don't like that.