How to become a Stockbroker?

I'm interested in becoming a stockbroker. I am NOT talking about trading. I want to sit at a desk and sell stocks. I'm currently a high school Junior. What are the steps to becoming a stockbroker? Does one HAVE to go to an Ivy League college?

 

Assuming you aren't trolling (which I assume you are, but just in case), stock brokerage is a dying career field. There are only a tiny handful of stock brokers left. Within the next decade or so, the career field will be in the history books. Technology and regulation have essentially done away with the career field.

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Unlike others here, I believe stockbrokers, as useless as they are for anyone who understands what an ETF is, will exist for a long time to come.

Best way to become a stock broker: work in retail banking (in a downtown metropolitan area) as a glorified mutual fund advisor for ten years, build a huge book (100M+), then make the transition --> become a stock broker at the same bank or elsewhere and convince your clients to follow you (sell it as a promotion, where you'll be able to offer them better products). You'll probably convince 50% to follow you.

And Bam! You just built yourself a 50M+ book and can golf all the time!

Double Doubler
 

It may exist in some manner (especially in other countries), but in the U.S. laws are moving toward investment persons having a "fiduciary responsibility" to their clients. It's extremely difficult to tell your clients to buy and sell stocks (for the benefit of your own brokerage fee) when it's highly unlikely to be in the clients' best interests.

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Best Response

I'll save a dissertation on why my industry isn't going away for another day. I'm assuming you're not an idiot and you're not trolling, so if you are either, shame on me.

if you want to know about the business, read my blog, read books out there, don't ask WSO. they think PWM is the red headed stepchild of finance and IB is the holy grail (probably because most of the virgins on here area afraid of sales). it's easy to get into the business, it's NOT easy to become successful at it.

here are your most important priorities right now:

  1. don't get arrested/a DUI/drug charge/expelled/etc
  2. don't get a girl pregnant (but get very good at the act that causes pregnancy)
  3. get into a good college
  4. party
 
thebrofessor:

here are your most important priorities right now:

1. don't get arrested/a DUI/drug charge/expelled/etc
2. don't get a girl pregnant (but get very good at the act that causes pregnancy)
3. get into a good college
4. party

what bro said

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You don't have to go to an Ivy school to become a stock broker, you just need the right certifications. There are many many different kinds of brokers, but most brokers make their money from commission from selling and buying stock. Obviously, there is a lot of cold calling / networking involved, unless you have an established network of friends and families you can sell stock to.

If you do decide to take the broker route, make the decision of what kind of broker you want to be. Do you want to specialize in a niche and become well known in that space? Sell small cap tech companies to high networth / institutions? Help out your ibanking arm placing their stock?

Do you want to become a wealth advisor and actually go through the process of building an IPS with clients and maintaining the right portfolio mix? Maybe eventually managing their portfolio on a discretionary basis?

Or do you just want to pitch ideas and try get people to listen to you.

Broker is a very broad category, but the main thing it comes down to is selling. ABC

 

I know plenty of financial advisors that went to community and crappy colleges. I know a dude that makes 600k a year selling annuities to clients at a bank (he never went to college-worked his way up from a teller). Get a job as a bank teller to learn salesMorgan Stanley

 

so you just watched the wolf on wall street?

if you have no idea what the job is like or what it consists of, you don't really know if you want to do it or not.

Advice for pursuing any career is to get your grades right. The better your GPA the better your chances. Get into whatever college you can, GET FOCUSED , crush your gen ed courses and transfer into the best school you can.

you should still have fun in college, but if you struggled in high school, you should probably aim to have LESS fun.

 

Its mainly a two step process.

1) Watch the Pursuit of Happyness

2) Become a stock broker

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Sounds like you are talking about institutional equity sales. If you want to land a role in institutional sales with a strong reputable firm then you will definitely need a 4 year college degree.

 

@ Anthony,

Thanks for the reply...maybe its a UK thing......

A grad scheme is a training program that graduates usually do when they start a firm...this is usually two years. So im thinking if someone does the 1 year of it and in sep/oct of the 2nd year starts applying for grad schemes in sales of other banks, would they be in with a decent chance of getting something??

 

a stock broker? Can I ask why a stockbroker, say, instead of analyst? I hope you don't envision yourself cold-calling people like in Boiler Room/Wall Street: that career is pretty much dead. Also, the ones who are hired into that don't go very far these days.

 
<span class=keyword_link><a href=/resources/skills/finance/going-concern>Going Concern</a></span>:

Typically you start off in a stock broker trainee role and go from there. As long as you don't pitch the bitch and you don't write wood, the transition should be fairly smooth to analyst.

And none of this Debbie the Time Life operator bullshit.
 

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