What do failed former traders do after being laid off?
After the last few years, there have been many layoffs at the ibanks. Especially for flow/market makers who never made big $$, and who are not algo guys, what can these former traders do?
Is starting over as an investment banking analyst an option? Do you just apply thru normal recruiting channels (since you are no longer a student)?
Does experience trading = MBA?
Trading is a specific skillset, and if you were not profitable, then did you really even have that skillset?
Is the only skill of a former trader "attention to detail", "hard worker", "capable of being judgmental"?
Bump
I wonder this a lot too
I'm also very curious about this
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broker
This, seemingly a lot in gas basis.
from what I've been told by senior people who have seen it all: as long as you didn't get fired over illegal activities, you can find another job in the industry most likely. Yea a lot of firms are cutting, but some firms are also hiring for various growth areas for them.
Take post Bear and Lehman, a lot of the guys there ended up either at shops like Jefferies or European/Canadian/Japanese banks that were expanding at the time. Yea you don't get the BB name brand anymore but I think in that situation being employed is more important than worrying about "prestige". Plus I'd argue in this business the name brands don't matter nearly as much as the franchise and capabilities.
Well, think of the quant skill set you developed, and see what other fields you can use it for. It's not the end of the world. Some travelling doesn't hurt either.
Get a CFA and try to get into the Asset Management industry
Flow - Trading/structuring at other bank, Asset Management Structured - more likely to have industry contacts (eg. RMBS guys can go to CFO/CEO at mortgage banks, energy guys can go to energy corporations, etc etc)
I've met some reasonably well off independent consultants who serve banks and prop shops and they were all laid off traders
also I know a treasury trader who started his own plumbing company
Fired high frequency trader (Originally Posted: 04/27/2012)
What can a person do after being a quant trader at a top high frequency trading prop firm (jump, Getco, etc.) for a year or two out of college if they get fired? Would another firm be interested in someone who was fired, or are you pretty much out of the industry, and back to school, at that point? The trouble is it seems these jobs develop very few skills applicable outside the industry, and HFT is probably not a great background for applying to an MBA either...
A friend of mine used to be a head trader at one of those shops that you mentioned and he was recently axed after some disagreements with management. Several members of his group/ desk also decided to resign shortly after, but I'm not sure what they're up to. The rest of the guys were moved around the firm. Well, he's now currently pursuing a PhD and is also in the process of starting a prop firm. There are no exit opps in trading. Regardless, I think most HFT traders do have some remarkable alternatives due to the intersection of tech and finance, which contrasts traditional traders. There are several former HFT traders in silicon valley who try and surpress their failure by constantly reminding themselves that markets provide no value to society, while startups do.
There are a lot of secrets at these types of firms, so there's a lot of demand for ex-employees of a rival.
They will be fine.
If you worked at one of those elite prop shops you don't have to worry about finding a job. Another trading shop will kill to get you, as well as quant desks at banks and quant hedge funds. Moreover, with strong programming skills you can get into tech/startups as well.
Getting into a top MBA is a different story though. B-schools hate traders, which I personally think is bullshit. It's laughable to see brilliant traders get dinged while some buffoon who did marketing or non-profit gets into a MBA business schools">M7.
I'm not sure I believe you on the banks and hedge funds part. I would say in general the HFT prop firms are not as sophisticated from a quant perspective as banks and hedge funds, which might make it hard to get hired by one directly. Maybe do an MFE, but then you'd probably start as an analyst...
What makes you say that?
As an addition, the above is probably not true of shops like Teza (came from Citadel) and HRT, which are definitely more quantitative, but I think it is probably true for the Chicago shops like Getco, whose ultimate origin is floor trading.
Holy logic failure batman.
Can you please explain why you think "bank groups generally have a higher level of quantitative sophistication"?
And for the record, could you state why did you even made this thread when you obviously do not care about the answer.
If you were fired after 2 years at getco or jump, you will be fine, and you will be hired if you want to continue to work in the trading industry. However, if you want to leave trading, you also will be fine. You most likely have a masters in computer science/electrical engineering from the best of the best universities and can find a job in the tech industry.
And if you don't think low latency programming aren't useful in the "real world" you are completely clueless. And need to educate yourself on a vast array of things.
as far as money, your first couple years you make way, way, way more at a top prop firm than you do at a bank. on average at least 3x
follow the money
How many percent of traders "fail"? (Originally Posted: 05/08/2007)
About how many percent of traders get the boot after 1 or 2 years? What do they usually end up doing?
Usually all the traders that don't know how to form sentences correctly fail.
wrong.try again
wtf is this english class? to trade u only need to kno abbreviations and how to type "bid - ask" on an orange screen.
give the kid a break.
Does anyone actually have an answer?
what do they end up doing? nothing.... they're fucked
B-school is a good option.
Move to middle or back office.
They start their own hedge funds......
i think its generally set up for you to succeed. if you end up sucking that badly im sure youll realize it pretty quickly (or they will) - you can go to sales i guess
this is just my conjecture as i dont work sellside.
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