Trading/Financial Markets Career Advice Req'd

Morning,

My only career aspiration has been to work in some way or another in the financial markets. However I am not sure what kind of work I should be looking for. I will be graduating with a first (I can guarantee it!) in Global Economics and have always seen myself as becoming a trader. I have recently come to the realisation though through reading various items that my skills may not be suffice to suceed in this field.

I mean, from what I gather exceptional mathematics skills are a must. Is this true? I would describe my own as average/good but by no means exceptional. Do you really need to able to perform quick, complex calculations in your head at short notice? It annoys me as I am very knowledgeable in economics and have a good background knowledge of the financial markets and how they operate. I also fit the example of a person who is extremely motivated and ambitious, willing to work exceptionally hard to achieve goals and has a desire to succeed in the industry.

Do I have a chance landing a trading job or are there other jobs within the markets that I would be better at? Examples?

If anyone could give me any advice/feedback it would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Steve

Trading

If you want to be a trader you need a trading plan that is profitable.

That could be fundamental stratigies as you have experence in that field but you must work you risk parameters and trade entry, as you may be right in the long run but bankrupt in your trading account.

Any one can be a trader but good traders have simular traits , cut losses, run profits, stick to the plan.

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The speed and complexity of the calculations you need to calcuate in ur head or on paper depends on what instruments u want to trade. The complexity of trading an exotics options book is going to be exponentially greater than that of a pure delta book (just tarding shares)......If u want to be a derivs tarder I recommend u learn calculus and the wealth of matematical material out there and know how to program in excel and VB......plus be quick, calm ruthlesss and very confident./...

PS one doesn't need to spell correctly to succeed as a derivs tarder ;-)

The mis-spellings usually indicate the trader has a quick mind, unless the actual mathematical skills, well, um. Anyway, calculations are very important.

Thanks for that! I am still very keen to become a trader... however what other kinds of jobs are there within the financial markets?

I have so far concluded that I need do some serious math study and also improve my MS Excel skills if I am to succeed...

Anything else?

Hi soosta,

I work on a fixed income trading floor and there are plenty of successful traders there that are not exactly mathematically minded. They calculate risk in their heads pretty quickly but that's about it. Some I would say are indeed exceptional (even mind-blowing!) but of course, it helps when you're doing the same calculations day in day out for years.

As far as accounting, pnl and research goes, that is all done by people who have a good grasps of the maths side of things.

You could certainly do worse than finding yourself in a banks graduate program. The grads that work in our team get a great overview of the different roles within the bank. They also get a taste of some trading floor pressure (and a chance to build up contacts of course).

I, like you, have always had 1 career aspiration and so hopefully you, like me, know that you'll make it regardless of any current shortcomings. Nobody can do everything from day 1. Confidence goes a long way - or more importantly, the ability to fake it!

Good luck!

Scott.

I expect that the most important skill a trader needs is a willingness to adapt oneself to reality.
JO

soosta said:

Thanks for that! I am still very keen to become a trader... however what other kinds of jobs are there within the financial markets?

Click to expand...

There are a wide variety for jobs in the markets. Aside from trading, there's analysis, sales, brokering, runners on the exchanges, and of course there's also the back-office staff.

It would be good for a person to realize if one has the aptitude for a particular type of vocation.

Some are born salesmen, they can literally sell ice to eskimo. If a person has a talent for marketing but lacks trading skill he or she may still be able profit by marketing the services of others' trading skill, eg. providing online trading platforms to many traders. Could actually earn more by so doing.

Others are simply impossible as salesman, a clothes salesman on the clothing departmental store who isn't really a sales talent may actually be folding clothes instead of selling them. But if he has the ability to absorb information, observe, analyze, learn the departmental store's business practices, what goods sell, where are the suppliers, where are the customers, how the departmental store actually practices "borrowed money" through selling suppliers' goods, collecting the money first before giving it to the creditors, allocating the resources properly so that the business carries on, etc. He may have a skill in some area other than sales.

Trading skill is something which there is no "bluff your way through"s, the trader's overall statements of account say it all. Either he is profitable or he is not, it's the result that counts.

It is good for a person to possess many skills, but if he has only one skill it should be something which can let him be financially independant.

soosta

Maybe a good idea would be to wade through some of the job ads, and see what they are looking for ? Then put out some CVs and phone for feedback. A couple of links for starters :

http://www.bankrole.com/banking-jobs-uk.htm
http://www.hedgefundcenter.com/employment/job_list.cfm
http://www.cityjobs.com/

etc etc

The hard part may be getting onto the first rung of the ladder.......

Good luck
rog1111

soosta said:

Do I have a chance landing a trading job or are there other jobs within the markets that I would be better at? Examples?

If anyone could give me any advice/feedback it would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Steve

Click to expand...

soosta said:

Morning,

My only career aspiration has been to work in some way or another in the financial markets. However I am not sure what kind of work I should be looking for. I will be graduating with a first (I can guarantee it!) in Global Economics and have always seen myself as becoming a trader. I have recently come to the realisation though through reading various items that my skills may not be suffice to suceed in this field.

I mean, from what I gather exceptional mathematics skills are a must. Is this true? I would describe my own as average/good but by no means exceptional. Do you really need to able to perform quick, complex calculations in your head at short notice? It annoys me as I am very knowledgeable in economics and have a good background knowledge of the financial markets and how they operate. I also fit the example of a person who is extremely motivated and ambitious, willing to work exceptionally hard to achieve goals and has a desire to succeed in the industry.

Do I have a chance landing a trading job or are there other jobs within the markets that I would be better at? Examples?

If anyone could give me any advice/feedback it would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Steve

Click to expand...

soosta,

I, like you, only ever wanted to be a trader from a young age. I also did economics at uni and did an internship at a large investment bank to improve my chances of landing a trading role. Needless to say as I am not a 3 A's a a-level, Oxbrige, Msc, Phd, 10 languages etc...I did not get a graduate role to trade, so I went the middle office route.

I have recently landed a job as a trainee trader at a small house but I did have worked in the middle office for 2 years prior to this. The one piece of advice I would give you is get a job in the back/middle office that gives you exposure to the trading floor and then work out what you want to do fro yourself. I know loads of people who said they wanted to trade but when they actually sat on the floor and saw for themselves what the pressures/requirements on traders were they soon realised it wasn't for them. Working in the middle office is an excellent place to start working and get exposure to the working of a large bank.

If you are only graduating now you are still young enough to work in the back/middle office for a couple of years, learn about how the bank works, learn about certain products/markets etc and then decide if you want to trade or not.

If this route doesn't interest you then just apply to grad schemes...but be warned competition is high and a first in your degree will be, by no means, impressive to the majority of big banks...

On the maths side of things, I wouldnt worry too much about being a genius mathematician. Obviously if you want to do exotic structuring or such like then maths is v.important but for the majority of traders a solid ability in maths should suffice, and if you did economics at uni you shd be ok...I know traders who didn't even finish school and they are still doing well after 20 yrs in the biz...

Good luck...

Hi guys,

Haven't visited the forum for quite some time, but am glad to see there are some useful replies to my thread. I hope this proves good reading for other "newbies" such as myself!

Many thanks.

very good thread, i always though i couldnt do day trading because of my average maths skills. good thread!!

hey guys

do any of you know if you can go from a market maker to a hedge fund? i don't mean to trade, but to grind out numbers etc... i'm thinking macro or quant