Career Advice

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ivantchourilov

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Hey all,

I have not posted on here in aaages, and I kind of really miss this site. I have kind of fell off the face of the earth back when Spanish got banned from the forums. I wonder if any of you remember that.

Anyhow, I have a question for the people working in firms. I am about to finish my uni degree here in Australia, however we have barely any large financial institutions. Over last financial year (July 14th - June 30th) I managed to trade a derivatives account from $1300 AUD to over $420,000. I know many of you will question this, but this is a fact and I can prove it. I had a win/loss ratio of 86.1% (391/454) which is actually an underestimation of the actual win/loss ratio because I use a scaling in and out approach. I hope this means I can trade. However, things I NEED to work on: cutting losing trades, and consistency.

To the point of this post. I have been out of the market over the last few months, because the volume hasn't been there, and I was a little unsure of this bubble's advancement. I have been bearish since April and in July after two slightly positive months, I decided to sit it out to wait for a little more confirmation. Ultimately, I think I would like to get some solid income from trading for a firm (understandably not $450,000 lol). That means I can buy a house here and have some constant rental income or something too. Most importantly I would like to open up a hedge fund sometime in the next decade, or maybe the one after, and thus I really need professional experience. I would definitely prefer a prop firm over an investment bank, but then again, who cares? I have no idea where to apply, how to apply and what to do. Graduate programs seem to be at a beginner level, whereas experienced positions require more experience. What are firms in the UK I can apply for? Who can I ask for advice, etc etc.

I know that I can return 20-30% a month, and obviously in a year without much difficulty. I know that I can do the job really well. I just don't know where to start. SOMEONE HEEELP :)
 
ivantchourilov said:
Hey all,

I have not posted on here in aaages, and I kind of really miss this site. I have kind of fell off the face of the earth back when Spanish got banned from the forums. I wonder if any of you remember that.

Anyhow, I have a question for the people working in firms. I am about to finish my uni degree here in Australia, however we have barely any large financial institutions. Over last financial year (July 14th - June 30th) I managed to trade a derivatives account from $1300 AUD to over $420,000. I know many of you will question this, but this is a fact and I can prove it. I had a win/loss ratio of 86.1% (391/454) which is actually an underestimation of the actual win/loss ratio because I use a scaling in and out approach. I hope this means I can trade. However, things I NEED to work on: cutting losing trades, and consistency.

To the point of this post. I have been out of the market over the last few months, because the volume hasn't been there, and I was a little unsure of this bubble's advancement. I have been bearish since April and in July after two slightly positive months, I decided to sit it out to wait for a little more confirmation. Ultimately, I think I would like to get some solid income from trading for a firm (understandably not $450,000 lol). That means I can buy a house here and have some constant rental income or something too. Most importantly I would like to open up a hedge fund sometime in the next decade, or maybe the one after, and thus I really need professional experience. I would definitely prefer a prop firm over an investment bank, but then again, who cares? I have no idea where to apply, how to apply and what to do. Graduate programs seem to be at a beginner level, whereas experienced positions require more experience. What are firms in the UK I can apply for? Who can I ask for advice, etc etc.

I know that I can return 20-30% a month, and obviously in a year without much difficulty. I know that I can do the job really well. I just don't know where to start. SOMEONE HEEELP :)
Click to expand...


you're failing to mention that you lost a huge amount of that $420k recently though.

give us a run down on that
 
Largesse said:
you're failing to mention that you lost a huge amount of that $420k recently though.

give us a run down on that
Click to expand...


Haha for all you fellow readers lovers of controversy, and those who do not know Largesse is a poster at a forum that I took part of until recently called australianstockforums.com.au.

Largesse seems to be a successful trader, however it appears he is in the wrong game; he should be in politics.

To your point, I haven't had a trade in since S&P crossed 955 all that long time ago. I noticed that since I started engaging in the forum my results went down the hole. I started listening to people on the forum and you cannot trade that way. So I decided to stop posting, but I wanted to leave in style, to keep most of the people happy, including you. You wanted me to blow up from day one, as well as some others. So my last trade was short, which was exited at a loss just after July (don't remember the exact day). However for purposes of entertaining you and the others, I started saying I was adding to my losses until I got to 120+ contracts or whatever it was. For your information, I am not that stupid or reckless Largesse. When the market started moving higher and breaking old highs, I was waiting for an opportunity to go short, and just when I thought it came in September it didn't. In fact the only positions I had were extremely light, and mostly on the long side, and have been entered over the last few weeks. So there you have it. The true story.

However, unlike you, I really do wish you continued success. This whole move hasn't been overly profitable for me, while you seem to have done well. I applaud it.
 
don't worry, we all believe you now.


side note: you traded a CFD account so i don't quite understand how a change in volume has affected your ability to trade?
 
Largesse said:
don't worry, we all believe you now.


side note: you traded a CFD account so i don't quite understand how a change in volume has affected your ability to trade?
Click to expand...

It really doesn't matter if you do or don't. I don't care. My question here was about careers. Do you have any advice from that perspective?

Change in volume didn't affect my ability to trade in terms of liquidity. It is just that low volume is easy to manipulate. I was a little cautious, and still am, of market manipulation, if you will, by the Goldman's Morgan's and don't forget government intervention. According to Zero Hedge there were about 26 billion printed dollars a day that went into markets from the Fed. A sell off came on increased volume, then markets gapped higher after a spike in futures. It was the same trend. Still is. In fact one of my only trades of the last two weeks was to the long side, because I saw that the October sell-off was not on volume of 5.5b+ on the S&P a day. Last year we were popping around 7b in October. Something is in store for us I think. But as of April when the market continued to rise, I stopped feeling it if you will. Between April and July I was lucky. I was wrong and ended up being slightly up for the period. It was time to take a break anyhow. Right now I am looking for 2 things: the exit strategy from the Fed, and some serious downside movement on higher volume. Let's see how Google and Goldman come out earning's wise, but I am of the feeling they will be pretty positive too. But then again who knows? The last US non-farm was worse than expected which I found surprising. You still long? I wonder how many people have seen the whole rise from March to now. I sure as hell didn't
 
yeh northern ireland hasn't got much either in terms of trading firms or derivatives etc. but after some 118 118'ing there's a few firms of my interest and i my grab the bull by the horns over the summer and try to get a week at one of them.

just ring some directories and ask for investmetns banks.firms and you are bound to find something, australia is like 20X the size of N.I. . albeit mostly desert with a rabbit fence along it you're bound to find something somewhere?
 
Why work ofr a firm ?
If your sucsess is that good surely you dont need to ?
Do the same a gain with $5000
Then take an oppersite psotion with another account with $5000 in
Take cash from the volitillity/movements of the market ?
Good luck
 
not sure what that meant. But regardless, the reason i want to work for a firm is for the experience. I would like to gain professionalism and consistency. I don't know maybe I just need a mentor or something. Ed Saykota out there by any chance? Haha.

There should be more here than in Northern Ireland, but then again, this is not Europe, and we are a little behind the times when it comes to finance. There are very few proper discretionary swing trading firms, and the ones that are here generally would like to see awesome uni results, which I cannot show. I do not have a HD average.
 
Have you considered the fact that you're probably a high stakes gambler and not a trader?

20%-30% monthly returns are generally impossible without taking huge risks which in turn means the probability of you going broke over and over again is almost 1, if not 1.

My advice is simple especially if your goal is to setup a hedge fund - aim to produce an average yearly return of 10%-20% with associated tiny drawdowns. Do that, and you can get very rich indeed. However, propose gains of 100's% a year and you'll only ever be able to attract small retail money who will withdraw all their money from you the moment you start losing (retail clients don't like or understand losses, they think someone who makes money should make every month like a paycheck).

Start to think in reverse, ie risk not reward.

Good luck anyway.
 
AlexGreen said:
Have you considered the fact that you're probably a high stakes gambler and not a trader?

20%-30% monthly returns are generally impossible without taking huge risks which in turn means the probability of you going broke over and over again is almost 1, if not 1.

My advice is simple especially if your goal is to setup a hedge fund - aim to produce an average yearly return of 10%-20% with associated tiny drawdowns. Do that, and you can get very rich indeed. However, propose gains of 100's% a year and you'll only ever be able to attract small retail money who will withdraw all their money from you the moment you start losing (retail clients don't like or understand losses, they think someone who makes money should make every month like a paycheck).

Start to think in reverse, ie risk not reward.

Good luck anyway.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. There is no doubt that you have a point. Retail clients are very different, and if I am to set up a hedge fund in a decade, the returns will be very different, for the purposes you mentioned. On my own account my Sharpe Ratio is 2.25. That's not too bad, right? The way I manage my money and the way I would manage other people's money is very different.
 
ivantchourilov said:
What I did forget to ask, what kind of opportunities are the in Singapore? Are you located there?
Click to expand...

No, i'm not located there - just there's got to be more finance/trading oportunities there. It's seeing a lot of development in those sectors & it's close/has low taxation.
 
I don't get it... is your account right now $420k? or is that a paper account?
If you have full confidence in your system and it's abilities (i.e. you are certain it is not a random case of"winning hand").. then stick to it!
WTF would you want to mess with it?

If it has only been on paper so far - string togeather a 20k account and get started trading!
If it hasnt been paper and you are really 420k ahead, then why even bother working for anyone else?!

If something isn't broken, why fix it? Yes a mentor would be great, yes risk management from a professional perspective would be great, yes to be surrounded by other traders might be a nice thing to have.... BUT... really, if you are making money, who gives a f#$k ... keep making it !
 
You seem to be pretty confident. It is good that you have necessary qualifications. Since you are out of the practical field since a long period, so I would not advice you to invest directly or to take responsibility. Better you join some trading company for some time, than start your own consulting firm.
 
varven: no all real. haha you fix it before it breaks :) No i want to get some experience in a field with a solid income.
shubra: not planning on opening a fund any time soon. as i said maybe in 10 years. maybe.
jasper: not sure who that was too haha
 
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