thoughts on how a 40yr old former futures prop trader can career transition into investment banking? As a futures prop trader, you don't have many transferable skills.
however, you do have: -attention to detail -ability to multi task -general market knowledge -an economic mindset -a thick skin emotionally -ability to focus and grind out work
however, without the pedigree of a top school...how can a former prop trader get a job in investment banking and restart their career?
The most obvious way is networking.
If you were prop trading equities/credit, it may be an easier sell into IB (most likely in the boutique space) compared to if you were prop trading FICC.
GL.
anybody else?
Out of curiosity, what level would you look to come in at?
since i know that i have minimal practical experience in the role (the specific modeling techniques, etc...), i would expect to come in pretty junior...either analyst or associate (perhaps similar to MBA grads...perhaps more junior?)...but i would expect to move up a little faster than the avg fresh college grad.
That's fair. The question is....do you want to put yourself through an associate grind @ 40? You'd have to ramp up so your first 6 months will be analyst level busy. I was a 32 year old stub associate and I'd say I was 3 years older than the average MBA associate and 6 years older than the average analyst promote (my bank is a 3 year analyst program).
I know a guy who came in from JPM research (analyst level) to IBD as a year 3.5 associate and got promoted to VP at the end of the year. There's probably more transferable skills from research than trading but clearly you have the intellectual horsepower for the job so I don't think that would be questioned.
Just out of interest since I'm interested in a TR career. Why wouldn't you go into something like asset management? Wouldn't that be an easier transition?
as a prop trader (specifically, US govt 30yr bond futures), i'm not sure what i would do in asset management...i've never done work or research on portfolio construction (i suppose i could learn like anybody else...not sure what kind of leg up i'd have).
My main "skills" (what i spend all my time during the day doing) are looking at a chart of bond futures from various timeframes annotated with economic data events, watching news feeds from various sources that i've curated to encompass all relevant economic data analysis, and then predicting future price movement (having various degrees of success, but generally better than 50%). This of course is great for a prop trader, but i doubt there is much rollover to asset management because my style requires active management (trading).
i might be too close to the weeds of day trading to have an accurate understanding of asset management and portfolio construction, and how my "skills" would translate. I think i could learn faster than the avg non-finance person, just because of my proximity to financial markets over the years...but idk.
The reason why i'm asking about IB is...the exit ops and future career path is much more stable but still have very high trajectories than trading, ...which i've learned is highly volatile. There are days/years where i make great money, and i control my time (well....i'm a slave to the market....but i "choose" to be that slave...i don't have a boss...but i also don't get paid if i'm not making money trading...this is a double edged sword...as some days/years i lose money).
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