Poker Player - Trading Novice
I graduated in May 2009 w/ an engineering degree, and since then I've been playing online poker professionally for about a year while I've been figuring things out. In 2009, I made a shade over $100k in cash games in ~700 hours of play. I am beginning my job search and I am very interested in finding out more about trading for a firm. Unfortunately, I know very little about the field/job, making it difficult to evaluate my options and determine whether I would be suited for the job. Considering my lack of experience and the length of time I've been out of school, I'm wondering if it's even possible for me to break into trading.
I have several questions, some basic:
1) How does a trading job work? (responsibilities, compensation, etc)
2) For which jobs, if any, would I be a competitive candidate? Suggestions?
3) What type of job should I be looking at given my experience level?
General comments, advice, and questions are welcome.
Profile:
-Graduated from UC Berkeley w/ an engineering degree, GPA: 3.48
-GMAT 750, SAT 800 Math, 700 Verbal
-Zero Job Experience
-Out of School for a Year
you definitely have the aptitude but f you lack the attitude
I am sure with your great stats, your school you can get into a small or maybe even medium type of firm if you talk to a cal alumni high up enough...
to answer your questions more specifically:
you want to aim for something probably more quant focused. do a search on the forum to answer this better
search function again
entry level. you have no work experience! what kind of job do you expect?
also, if you can make that much with poker, why not stick with poker? quite nice life.
700 hours of play for the year? Dude you made $100k working 10-15 hours a week. You may struggle to find an entry-level position that doesn't make you want to quit and go back to that.
I'm a pretty decent poker player, but I've never spend the time to really study it and try to make consistant returns. However, if I were in your shoes I would consider running with poker (if you think its sustainable). There are a lot of random websites or people who make $ giving online lessons or advice. In my opinion, very little of this is done well. If I was a better player and had a proven track record, I'd look towards that market to get something going.
As to your actual question, I'm not in trading at all so I have no clue, but I know people here in Chicago that talk highly of the correlation between successful poker and trading.
PM me your pstars and/or FTP names?
There are companys that hire people like you to train for a short period of time, put you on a paper account, then give you the capital with a pretty decent split if you do well. I got into one with my poker background, I can give you the name if you send me a PM. Best way to see if you can do it imo.
Oh and on resumes round that GPA up to a 3.5
stars name? that's also a pretty standard amount of hours by poker player standards
http://www.pokertableratings.com/
I would love to look you up see where you stand compared to my friends.
There's alot of guys that make the transition over from poker to trading. Jason Strasser being the most famous and Moonshine being another. I remember when I made the initial switch over and I really preferred trading. You gotta look at the opportunity cost of future potential earnings in trading to be able to give up poker when you're making $100+ an hour. Now I"m making significantly more in trading with alot less stress in a more enjoyable environment. If management wasn't trying to screw me over, I would never consider leaving, but because of my other post, I may be forced to go back to poker. I remember making an epic thread in elitetrader that was good for a few laughs and it did have some serious responses. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=147181&highlig…
There are a several reasons why I do not want to continue with poker.
First, there is the question of sustainability (as accountingbyday mentioned). Games are getting tougher and online poker may not be legal in a few years. Second, if I stick with poker, I'm limiting my future options. Say I play cards for 5 years and it doesn't work out; I'll have zero job experience and I'll have been out of school for 6 years. Third, the social life of online poker is terrible.
On the whole, I think pursuing a career in trading is a safer bet, regardless of whether I end up succeeding as a trader.
Really good link, tripster. I'm definitely trying to channel Strasser here. I agree on the opportunity cost issue.
lol@ responses like
I don't think anyone told you this, but you need to rent the DVD "Casino." I actually know Lefty Rosenthall well (Robert Deniro played his part), and he will tell you in the beginning of the movie that Vegas is for suckers. The odds are ALWAYS in the house's favor. If you win on a consistent basis, they'll get rid of you before you can blink.
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