Any traders? least, about, couple, difficult

MeteorShower

Hi guys, anyone working as a trader? If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a couple of Qs. Is it difficult to get a job as a trader? What qualifications do I need? What do you like best and least about your job? thank you so much! I appreciate your answers!

spartanag07

There are many kinds of "traders". Is there any specific sort that you are interested in? Generally, you need to be somewhat good at math and it helps if you went to a prestigious university.

kamara5

I'm interested in all types. I'm assuming qualifications would be different for different kinds - trader of exotic securities vs currency traders or stock traders..?

eagles_dare13

The guy above is mostly correct. There are few trader jobs compared to other sorts of finance jobs, and it's hard to break in if you don't have prior experience. Theoretically, you could get an "assistant trader" or "junior trader" job with no experience, but even these sorts of jobs are scarce. And since every random person applies for these jobs, it tends to be a crap shoot. Most people I know in trading happened to randomly stumble upon this career path. It's hard to really plan an entry into this profession.

As for hours... well, the hours are generally shorter than those in sales/research/IB. However, it can be stressful, since the trader (and not the sales guy/market risk/research guy) gets blamed for losses. For instance, if the stock market crashes tomorrow and a desk loses a lot of money, the trader is the guy who will get fired.

Compensation can be pretty good if you work for a decent desk. On average, traders are paid more than IB/sales/quants or most other people. However, traders receive a large portion of their compensation as bonuses. My compensation last year, for instance, was 2/3 bonus. So even if the total numbers are good, there's always a risk that you will have a bad year and will be compensated poorly. Plus, it's hard to take on significant fixed expenses, like mortgage payments, if most of your pay is variable. So this sort of compensation structure is not for everyone. When I am older and have kids and other obligations, I might look for a position with lower overall pay but more stability.

Ionutzakis

Not sure I necessarily agree with all of ohai's points. I don't know too many traders who stumbled into this area. Most of the people I know in this area were seeking careers in investment banking, fund management or trading. I very much doubt an investment bank or hedge fund would hire someone with no aim or career objective.

Of course i'm only speaking from my own experience, but the hours are long and can be fairly unsociable depending on what instruments your desk trades. I would say it is more frustrating than stressful. As for losses, thats a prerequisite with trading, the idea is to minimise losses and maximise gains, you have to realise your not going to win every time.

Personally, I would recommend it as a career as it can be very rewarding and is much more interesting than most other careers.

kd26gioi

That's what I meant. Obviously, most traders are people who wanted to work in finance/asset management/investment banking/etc. The random part is that they ended up in trading rather than another field in finance. If you are a bright young college graduate looking to work on Wall Street, you don't just apply for trading jobs - you apply broadly to many bank jobs and accept the best offer that you get.

Also, obviously you don't make money on each day. However, everyone has a reasonable boundary for acceptable daily losses. If you lose $100,000 today, maybe that's ok. But if something happens and you lose $10 million today, maybe you will not have a job tomorrow.

Wasteoftime

Normally, you are supposed to hedge against large losses. In real life, trading is not like what Shia does in that movie. So, if you have an extraordinary loss, the conclusion is that you did not hedge effectively, hence it is your fault.