Am i qualified to be a city trader??

hello, i am using a friends account to post a thread as i have been extremely impressed by the informative advice on this forum.

As a self-starter (decided to work on my business after one year of university) i have moved forward with the aim of entering into the financial industry and acheiving desirable qualifications for employment in the city, hopefully as a trader for a major bank.

After 3 years of running a business, currently i am a financial advisor with RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) and have the following qualifications...

(Cert FA ) Certificate in Financial Advice
(Cert FP) Certificate in Financial Planning
(SII) Certificate in Securities and Financial Derivatives

I have also been trading my personal portfolio for over a year now and understand the trading environment, jargon, industry etc.

I am now 25 and extremly keen to make a move to work as a city trader.

I am looking for advice,

1. Do you think i will be accepted with my current qualifications into a reputable investment bank? if so, what position?
2. Is there any other desirable qualifications you recommend i should take to enhance my cv for city trading? (excluding a degree)
3. Any other advice? What other steps can i take to appeal to city employers ?

Your realistic advice , and help with career progression options will be greatly appreciated :innocent:....thanks in advance, Neil

To be a city trader there are 2 entry routes.

(1) Grad Scheme - This will obviously be the best option and most likely to succeed. A rotation of Front Office roles and then a placement as a salesperson or trader. However this is exclusive to only the most impressive CV's (Oxbridge/Straight A's/Captain of Sports Team/Previous internships etc) hence this counts out 99.99% of us!

(2) Entry to the Front Office via a support department. Major problem here is that you are unlikely to go from a role in settlements/finance straight to trader so it will involve stopping off via a desk assistants role. Furthermore everybody will pretty much have the same idea and it will therefore be very competitive. Also from my own personal experience support departments are never overly joyed to hear of your plans to move on so often will not support your application....

Feel free to privat messsage me if you want further advice, but you may find the reality of working for a Bank very different to the "Buy! Sell!" image....

imho you need to decide what sort of trading you want to embark on. I had the same career path as you, started financial planning, was successful at it but thought it pretty much sucked dogs balls and could not imagine doing it for the next 20 years.

I realised that although I may have had the potential to get the "Oxbridge/Straight A's/Captain of Sports Team/Previous internships etc" if I embarked on that path, but the reality was that I did not. And unless you have some really strong personal links, any IB HR is not going to consider you.

I ended up getting up a job with a prop options market making firm, getting some solid trading experience, beefing up my resume with Masters in Quant Finance and know with this background, alot more doors have opended up (funnily enough one with a prestigous IB).

The whole middle office/front office ladder climb to trader for me was not a good trade in that the chances of landing the trading role, time spent in crappy roles, politics in transitioning between areas etc just was not worth it (there will be some out there with some great success stories but I am guessing for every 1 success story there will be 10 failure or stuck in a rut stories)

Market making is a great start and many firms out there (optiver, mako, liquid etc) that will give you a start still at 25 provided you have the raw ability and skills ie. very quick, think under pressure and outside the square.

Even some friends who are traders with GS in the US did a year of market making through there training program.

Hope this helps.

please excuse the grammar, spelling etc with last post, very tired

I agree with mmone, you're gonna need a relevant Masters

You say you are a financial advisor at RBS ?????

If this is true! Why don’t you apply to change departments or contact HR within RBS.
Did you know that RBS controls 8.9% of the FX by market share 2007

With Unit 1 and Unit 4 that you have you are qualified to trade almost everything (if you have Unit 3 complete course you can trade commodities as well)

I think you are not telling us the story right

Where are you really going?

By all means apply, but you have to ask yourself whether you really want to work for anyone else. If you have business experience, then you know that being an employee you never really get anywhere. I worked in the City for 15 years, then did something completely different. I am now trading again for myself.
In my opinion, because you still have the advantage of youth, you should read (at least) the four following books:
The Way to Trade, by John Piper,
The Crowd, by Gustave Le Bon,
Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert T Kiyosaki (read the first two in the series)

these books are ESSENTIAL: the first two will give you excellent preparation for the mental preparedness you will need if you want to trade for yourself, not just obey somebody else's orders, and the second two were the two books which enabled a friend of mine to get to the point where he would no longer have to work for a living. He did it in two years. I am well on my way, but I have a young family, so I can't follow the book's path quite so quickly as my friend did.

If you really go for it and you follow the Kiyosaki school of thinking, because of your age and therefore flexibility, you could be independent within just a few years.

Good luck, let me know...

W.

hi

i was just wondering what would my chances be of getting a job as a trader for a good company or bank..

I have studies a-levels but never really managed to get the best grades, they actually wearnt very good. however i still managed to get into a decent uni, to study economics at nottingham trent..

it would also be helpful if anyone could reccommend any alternative routes or even simialar careers paths. i am currently 20yrs old hope thats still young enough to become a high flyer lol.

please be honest with your reply's

thanks Qas

qasim999 said:

hi

i was just wondering what would my chances be of getting a job as a trader for a good company or bank..

I have studies a-levels but never really managed to get the best grades, they actually wearnt very good. however i still managed to get into a decent uni, to study economics at nottingham trent..

it would also be helpful if anyone could reccommend any alternative routes or even simialar careers paths. i am currently 20yrs old hope thats still young enough to become a high flyer lol.

please be honest with your reply's

thanks Qas

Click to expand...

if you dont do an intership in IB is a long shot... therefore not. Your uni is good but is not CAM or OXF? try to get that intership, you really need it