Graduate looking for tips from pro's

Hi guys,

my names dev and im 20 years of age, im in my final year of my degree in finance. im hell bent on becoming a trader, im planning on doing a masters after my degree but im still unsure what kind of masters to do,

so my first question is what should i do that will make me attractive to future investment banks or trading firms??

iv dabbled a bit in dummy trading and i have managed to turn a small profit, now i realise that it is a very different matter when your out in the real world but i do feel i have a good instinct and i believe that i will be very successful in this industry. my maths skills are not outstanding but if i put my mind to it i can do it. this brings me to my second question

How good do your mathimatical skills have to be to be a good trader or to even get into the industry?

i have read many books on trading and the finance industry and i have come to the conclusion that being a trader is more of a calling then just a job, you have to be passionate about the industry. it seems to be a fast paced adrenaline fueled life and i cant wait to get into it.

any advice experienced traders could give me would be greatly appriciated. looking forward to reading sum pearls of wisdom lol

heh im not exactly full of wisdom at teh age of 15, i was wondering though, what do you learn about trading in a finance degree? I ask because i too want to be a trader and a degree in finance is certainly a way to get into the industry even without a track record. What i would say is to start trading real money and make consistent gains, prop firms alike should be attracted to consistency.


ireland eh? me too although from the north- no hard feelings eh?

wow im kind of taken back with your knowledge even now......at fifteen i didn even know wat a stock was never mind a prop firm lol my degree has definatly given me a huge insight into the finance industry it has allowed me to narrow down the exact section i want to be involved in i.e trading and investment. we covered everything from banking to insurance to funds to accounting. this year things will get a lil more tastier with modules(classes) like portfolio management.

although your point about trading real money and making consistant gains is very interesting, it never ocurred to me that something like that would be of major interest to a firm. im still very wet behind the ears and have no training wat so ever in trading thats my main problem. im hoping that my final year in college might cover some of the basic strategies etc. obv once you join a firm or even start an internship in a prop firm or investment bank, you recieve a wealth of traning from the pro's.

i would suggest you have a look at these two books "citi boy" and "citi girl".......they are writtin by two english people that have been working in the industry over the last decade or so. very entertaining and as far as i can tell a very good indication of what the inside of the industry looks like. now perhaps these books are vastly exagerated so as to sell more copies but they are very entertaining and they made my mouth water lol in terms of describing the industry.

heh at 14 i didn't know what a stock was , then i watched pursuit of happiness.......dragged in ever since, that was around august 08, wen down the usual newb route for about 4 months...penny stock newsletters...crap like that . Then i started learning startegies etc, read loads of books. I thought i was invincible, then i took my 'knowledge' to the test and tried demo trading, i failed miserably from the start. 2-3 months on and wow has it been intense and i've finally found a technique/method which suits me (time and sales/tape scalping on YM/ES futures)

Yeh i mean all prop firms, the real prop firms want is a cut of money so if you show them your consistency then they will probably think ' hmm then maybe he can be consistent with evem more money than he has'. I think you have to do some mental maths test - not to worry , i've been learning the trachtenberg system , look for it on amazon or find a pdf on it on google it's unbelievable how quick you can do sums like 22744X22993 in your head with it

man you are way ahead of your time....im officially impressed! your talking about technuiques iv never even heard of.

ye persuit of happiness was a motivator for me too.... check out wall street, rogue trader and also theres a documentry that might be floating about called million dollar trader defo up your ally lol im sure youtube will have it.

i am definatly going to check out this trachtenberg system i really hope this is wat iv been looking for because i fear that my maths skills is the one and only obstical standing in the way of me getting into this business. for you to be getting involved in this so early is going to be of huge benefit to you especially of you are able to understand and practice the techniques you spoke about.

Hey nice to hear someone who is commited to learning to trade. I have been trading since i was 17 years old and i am now not far off retirement! I have recently started a group and written a trading manual with what i think are the most important things to know and use in trading, i am offering my help and book to those who want help from more experienced traders. I have always been involved in markets in some way from consultation, trading hedge funds, private managed accounts and of course my own personal funds. My help is 100% free but i will be mentoring for 1 year only! Let me know if you think this may be of help to anybody.

Trader - X

trader-x666 said:

Hey nice to hear someone who is commited to learning to trade. I have been trading since i was 17 years old and i am now not far off retirement! I have recently started a group and written a trading manual with what i think are the most important things to know and use in trading, i am offering my help and book to those who want help from more experienced traders. I have always been involved in markets in some way from consultation, trading hedge funds, private managed accounts and of course my own personal funds. My help is 100% free but i will be mentoring for 1 year only! Let me know if you think this may be of help to anybody.

Trader - X

Click to expand...

are you trader-x as in the fibonacci blog trader?
'heck out wall street, rogue trader and also theres a documentry that might be floating about called million dollar trader defo up your ally lol im sure youtube will have it.;

wall street good movie, rogue trader isn't really a motivater lol it's more of a kick in the teeth when you see what can happen in forex . Yeh i watched some of million dollar traders but can't find it anywhere, bbc iplayer won't play it anymore lol, apparently the guy lex van damn is doing an apprentice style show with traders soon...

No but i have used the alias Trader-X for many years

cool, so you ran a hedge fund/private account? that's impressive ,what age are you? what do you trade? im guessing commodities,
say, if you wouldn't mind how much is that manual you made?

Yes i have done everything from consultation, hedge funds, private managed accounts, and personal trading accounts. The book is free. I make my money from trading not selling ebooks
My email is [email protected]

dev2012 said:

wow im kind of taken back with your knowledge even now......at fifteen i didn even know wat a stock was never mind a prop firm lol my degree has definatly given me a huge insight into the finance industry it has allowed me to narrow down the exact section i want to be involved in i.e trading and investment. we covered everything from banking to insurance to funds to accounting. this year things will get a lil more tastier with modules(classes) like portfolio management.

Click to expand...

If I was in a position to hire I'd be far more impressed by someone who had the highest levels of relevant quals and could demonstrate a hunger and desire; that hunger/desire would be best demonstrated by a record of all the trading he'd/she'd done in order to pay their way through Uni. BTW my Son is 13, he understands TA and can 'trade' now in a very basic method with 50p bets using; rsi, stoch, macd, candles, 2 mas, one ema on a 5min tf ...."what d'ya reckon Son, take it and we go halves?"

hi black swan,
ye im definatly going to look into trading real money to show some sort of a track record. im still a lil wet behind the ears at the moment and i would not like to jump into the deep end too soon and lose wat little money i have lol.

your son sounds really intellegent, obv it helps alot to have a parent thats in the industry, i myself sadly have no connections wat so ever and i seem to be the only person thats interested in getting into the citi. may i ask wat kind of work you do, obv trading but do you just trade yourself or do you work in the industry aswell.

dev2012 said:

hi black swan,
ye im definatly going to look into trading real money to show some sort of a track record. im still a lil wet behind the ears at the moment and i would not like to jump into the deep end too soon and lose wat little money i have lol.

your son sounds really intellegent, obv it helps alot to have a parent thats in the industry, i myself sadly have no connections wat so ever and i seem to be the only person thats interested in getting into the citi. may i ask wat kind of work you do, obv trading but do you just trade yourself or do you work in the industry aswell.

Click to expand...

Sorry bud, I'm not as per as per your title "a pro", I've been a fully commited day trader for just on a year now...the enthusiasm has touched my eldest lad, he has a real bent for maths and as a consequence has been fascinated by Dad's new career and "Dad's charts"... he's (on my accounts) taken small stake trades since approx. the Easter holidays on the S&P for a bit of fun, his strike rate is unreal, interesting...not sure will it will lead but his interest in the charts was something to see, his face lit up like it was Xmas, probably not many 13 year olds would react like that.