Hello,

I'm a Sophomore majoring in Finance at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. I'm interested in the prospect of possibly working as broker under a company that has a wealth management division. Most of my focus has been on real estate finance, but I have had a small, personal portfolio for going on four years that I actively manage. The equities market has always been a big interest of mine, and I'm wondering how competitive these types of positions are.

Additionally, how much would it help if I brought around 500k-1MM worth of clients with me. Thanks for the advice

Hey guys, I am a first time poster, but I found this site a few months ago and love it. I was honestly pretty amazed at how helpful and serious most of the comments are, so and I would like some specific advise or opinions regarding my personal position.

Dear monkeys,

Graduated from UG last year in continental Europe with a low GPA.
ATM working in Big4 audit but would like to move on to a more client-facing sales type of role in the financial sector in London, starting from this summer/fall.
The ideal job would be fast paced, entrepreneurial (commission should be at least part of the fee structure) and one where I'm constantly trying to sell products/services. Also something with long-term potential. (and smth I could be able to get a position at realistically).

I've done quite a lot of research but I thought this would be the ideal place to ask some more input.

So far these have been the options that have crossed my mind:

I just found out my new broker whom I was pretty excited about (low comissions, good product offering) doesn't offer junk bond investing. Pretty disappointed - do any of you see this much in your brokers? FYI their cutoff is actually below BB - i.e. BB is actually investment grade (never seen this before?).

I suppose I can try to get into the non IG market through junk ETF's. What do y'all think? Good idea?

BTW I like the non IG stuff because I feel like I constantly see these companies refi'ing their 4-5x levered cap structures, negative earnings, etc. I just don't see the need for even an AA or even A rated company at this point.

I am fresh out of college(graduated in May 2012), and work in investment sales in California. I found a passion for real estate early during college, got my sales license and took Graduate level urban planning courses during Undergrad since they were the only ones involving real estate. Coming from a large state school in the Southwest, I didn't have the opportunity to interview with any investment banks or Real Estate Acquisitions firms, since they mostly only recruited through Ivy league B-Schools. I completed 2 internships with commercial brokerages and now work in investment sales in California. While I enjoy sales(and I do pretty nicely for being 23y.o), I know that I only want to be a broker for 5-10 years, if that.

-

The general rule is your salary should be 40x your max monthly rent. Would a broker consider your 10,000 signing bonus as well? Or do they only consider your base salary?

Hey Monkey's,
A few friends and I from my high-school are in the midst of planning a New York trip in the spring as part of a school requirement. We are hoping to visit the New York Stock Exchange, but in order to enter you need a broker, as we found out in previous years. Basically if anyone could help us through this procedure (any brokers?) it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

right now, i work as a night broker(dispatch) for a tranportation brokerage firm. i have good cold caling skills, selling, negotiating, industry knowledge etc.. i am looking for a day time job that i can work from home on the phone that i can use my skills or any other type of . any recomendations or advice?

I am currently dealing with a firm for the position of stock broker. However, because of my ability to speak Chinese, they want me to help them finding clients in China if I work as a broker with them. Is it able for a broker to find overseas clients by just making calls and sending e-mails? It seems impossible for me,

What do you guys think??

I have a few questions.

Suppose a trader that wants to hit all the liquidity in the market whenever he puts an order out, but wants his order to remain hidden. In other words, a hidden market sweep (using IOC’s to keep the orders hidden in non-dead pools, I think)

This includes hitting dead pools and regular exchanges.

Great, so why not use the various brokers’ Smart Order Ready (SOR) algos available? Well, suppose their algos aren't hitting all the liquidity available in the market - clearly a problem.

Like most people might expect, REPE is getting the majority of the attention. This comes as no surprise since many of the well known shops are highly selective, pay handsomely, and provide employees an opportunity to refine their real estate modeling skillset and knowledge base.

However, not everyone can get a shot at a top REPE firm like Blackstone, Carlyle, or Fortress. So what else is there and how much worse is it?*

Below I've listed some other areas within RE. Feel free to answer any of the questions or add your own to get some more points of view in this bitch:

1. Capital Markets (Placements / Investment Sales): This fits into RE essentially how IB fits into corporations, so it's gotta have something going for it in terms of RE exit opps, right?

After constant struggles to find an apartment without a broker, I gave up and decided to get one. Worked with two terrible brokers, who made my life miserable, showing me apartments that did not fit what I was looking for. Finally, the third one was an honest and helpful woman who I would recommend to anyone. I would not like to advertise here, but if you are interested in knowing with whom I worked with (both the bad and the good ones), feel free to pm me.

Two different brokers showed me the same apartment, but they charge different fees. Both brokers made me sign an agreement, does this mean I have to go with the first broker, even though his fee is about 3% higher and he won't negotiate?

Would it be possible to rent another apartment in the same building with another broker? Or is the first broker entitled to the entire building? It sucks, because I really liked the apartment.

To those who are currently living in NYC or have lived there as a 1st yr analyst...how did you go about finding an apt and do you have any specific tips to share?

- Current budget for 3 ~$4500 looking for a flex3BR
- Looking to live Midtown East/Gramercy/Murray Hill/LES/Hell's Kitchen...West side is okay but basically anything above FiDi and below 42nd that's near a metro.

Any recommendation on specific apartment/buildings? Brokers?

Hey WSO,

I got a call for a broker/dealer trainee program. It's supposedly heavily involved in equity research, and the company is a solid boutique in NYC (not a scam, as I initially thought).

Is this worth my time? What are the exit opps as a broker? I've searched the forums but most topics are an argument of "I've never done it but I heard it sucks," vs "I've done it and it's great." Is it really a dying industry?

Anyone with experience care to chime in?

Has anyone applied to/ worked at Scottrade?

FYI, Im a S7, S63, and soon to be S65 registered broker.

What was your overall feel of the interview process? Any advice for me?

If hired:
What was your position? How did it go for you?

I recently got invited to meet with a BB for a junior broker position. They email me stating that they received my resume and wanted to invite me to a career seminar for the position. Has anyone else gone experienced anything like this. I'm not really sure what to expect. I currently work in PWM so this will be a big change for me. I have tried to read up on brokers as much as possible but still don't know what I'm getting myself into. Most of what I come up with I posted here http://wallstreetutopia.com/inter-dealer-broker/

If anyone has anything thing else to input I would greatly appreciate it.

Simple question...
Does anyone desire to be an FA or broker anymore?

I have been in the field for almost 2 years after recieving my BBA in Finance. Currently a registered broker at a firm with $80b under management.

It seems as if all the recent grads/ recent young hires ive come across fall under these categories:

-take a broker position bescause no 1 else is hiring retards

-take a broker position bc they think they can make it big, quick (also retarded)

-take a broker position and hope to use it as a launch pad to something bigger and better (me)

Is this part of anyone's relocation package?

I recently interviewed with the owner of an agency broker here in Chicago. No one has heard of them, and they are fairly new. Basically, they execute trades for large institutional clients, including janus, pimco, sac, and others. They are looking to expand into other business areas and want to bring me onboard as a strategist; in this capacity, I will formulate trading ideas for the clients.

I am gonna go in for another meeting next week to meet the other guys, but there's a very good chance I'm going to get an offer. The problem is that the owner said explicitly that compensation will be "mostly incentive based." I take this to mean that the base salary will be rather quite low, worse than what I'm making now.

Have a friend a year into analyst stint in M&A looking to get into S&T. Would a broker position be a plausible segway into the sales and trading side?

What exactly does an equity derivatives broker do? Also is this a respectable step towards trading? Lastly and least importantly, any idea as to comp?

Thanks

Sorry for dumb question, I'm on the banking side but curious, what is the difference between being a bond broker and on a bond sales desk? Thanks

http://brokershandsontheirfacesblog.tumblr.com/

I just finished up my IB internship for the summer and I enjoyed it a lot. I am a now sophomore in college at a non/semi target and the only reason I got the internship was because of networking. My question is though I think I would much rather be doing broker work (think ICAP etc.). I am coming up with thoughts for next year and I really want to try brokering or working at a brokerage house, but I am worried that within a couple of years...maybe even a decade or two that field will be gone. Do you think brokering is a path worth going down for the future? Or should I stick to IB?

Give me some advice monkeys