IBD attracts bright people because it pays well. Simple. Needless to say, were the salaries to go down, the numbers applying would plummet, as would the quality of the candidates applying.

From what I've heard, the work done isn't particularly hard; I always assumed the wages were high merely because of the sheer volume of work done as well as the competition.

If it were to become a regular paying job* with lower quality employees, would the quality of the service provided by analysts and associates go down that much?

*Starting salary 40-50k with no bonus, assume regular hours with the workload of 1 person shared between 2 or 3 people to bring it down to 40/hr weeks

Questions about risk at BBs has come to the forefront again following JPMorgan's CIO hiccup, but what about risk management when trading your own cash?

At the moment, I'm only investing what I can afford to lose (just under $600) and have been putting it in fairly volatile stocks (pink sheets in particular) looking to see what sort of gains I can get. It could be up 200% or bust in a matter of hours, but I dont mind as I have set aside that much to lose; if I was putting my whole savings account to work it would be a very different story.

I'm interested to see how much risk other monkeys take on in their retail accounts?

One of the main things I never understood about the US (along with amish people, lacrosse and the drinking age being set at 21) was the idea that the founding fathers provided some sort of guiding light towards economic prosperity, social justice etc.

Ron Paul talks a lot of sense, but he seems to back up a lot of stuff with 'what the founding fathers intended'*. And he's not alone; all of them Tea Party gobshites are at it, too.*

What qualifications or real experience did the founding fathers have? They were just a bunch of guys who came together and wrote an idealised version of what an 18th century country could be..

There have been a lot of threads about the best lesson people have learned/tips etc. But with all the advice being thrown around by people, many of whom are just repeating what others have said/pulling facts out of there arse, I thought it could be helpful to ask the more experienced users of this forum:

What is the dumbest myth that you have heard (on WSO or elsewhere) about IB that is generally accepted?

I have always liked Jamie Dimon, and think this article is a tad overdramatic about today's events and more than a lttle rough with him; I think he handled himself well and, IMO, as the majority of the government are caught up in bueraucracy and/or idiocy, no major reform are going to come of this JPMorgan CIO loss.

However, I believe it will be days like today that bring the demise of Dimon. Being the lead banker out of the economic crisis will be the end of him, no matter how good or honest a job he does.

As the article contends:

As I understand it, most in IB/PE/HF are (naturally) fiscal and don’t piss away every penny that they make. That said, it seems that, by your late 20’s, you can be elevated to a level of income where you can throw a few grand at something without thinking twice.

To those monkeys who have spent a few years in the industry, what is your weakness when it comes to ‘squandering’ your money?

Aside from the shitty hours in some division, careers in IB seem to provide the perfect conditions for enterprise to flourish. You're wealthier than most other people your age, you’re young so you’re still a bit of a dreamer and, if you’ve made it in, chances are you’re pretty fuckin’ smart too.

While I do have an appetite for finance and IB seems well suited to my interests and aspirations, the idea of owning my own business has always attracted me.

Is it possible to successfully manage both? Do you know many people in IB who have side projects that they set time and money aside for?

Someone asked me this earlier and it got me thinking. These days education seems so hard wired to graduate positions that it feels odd to even discuss education for education's sake.

If degrees had no bearing on jobs and you had to get a degree, what would it be?

I recently read a list of the great financiers of all time and also another one on the top 5 bankers. Although I obviously knew that banking has been around for ages,

I was expecting more contemporary players from the industry, but was shocked with how few photographs there were in the first link, just paintings. I guess it makes sense, these days it is harder for one person to single-handedly have such an impact.

Who, in your opinion, has been the greatest financier/banker of the past 50 years? With the size of the industry there are so many possible answers, I'm surprised it isn't discussed on here more often.

Finance doesn't seem like music, politics or other fields whereby people are inspired to join by those before them; most people drive themselves to succeed based on their own personal goals (e.g. money, personal growth, developing their skills, and of course, money). Myself included; I've never spent too much time looking at the paths of 'great' financiers, I'm too busy trying to start on my own journey. That being said, most with an interest have people in mind who they consider to be extraordinary because of what they achieved or how they achieved it.