Weird job offer. Need advice

Hey guys. I badly need some advice.

So I got an offer from a fund this week. I can't go into details, but the partner is super well-connected guy who managed to get a stake in some upcoming juicy ipo's. He just opened up a prop desk and plans to use that money to trade, with leverage of about 10:1. I was offered a job there to research/trade mostly commodity options and some equity options. Since the group only has about 5 people, and pre-leverage capital will be around $60 million, the potential upside is obviously huge. However, there is NO base salary. Compensation is based purely on trading pnl.

What do you guys think of this? Is it worth taking for the potential upside, or do you guys think it's a crappy deal? The founder is friends with virtually all the big-name hedge fund managers and big players in finnace. So I'm not quite ready yet to call it a "chop shop".

Thanks.

11 Comments
 

since you don't directly deal with the trade, you can simply rely on the pros to handle the pnl thing. if this is a school-year internship, i'd take it without a question.

 

I'm an experienced hire. I have a few other interviews right now, but this is my first offer after leaving my previous job.

I would actually be trading commodity options, but the equity options hedging strategy will be what i'll be working on initially, for about a month or so.

 
UFOinsider
Derivativesfor about a month or so.
why?

Typically, when an employer says you will be doing one thing, but after doing something else, what you're looking at is a bait and switch...

There's a guy who trades highly volatile tech stocks, and he wants me to help him with hedging and risk management. Then, after passing the series 3 in about a month, he wants me to trade commodity options because he sees a lot of opportunity there.

 

You'd be stupid to not take this. You only live once, unless you have a serious press for cash I'd take this hands down over anything else. Look at your possible outcomes: A) The shop/fund/whatever you want to call it succeds and you get paid B) The fund fails, but you have just expanded your network tremendously C) If things don't work out and you're strapped for cash, you can be honest and any normal person would understand

 
lime1945You'd be stupid to not take this. You only live once, unless you have a serious press for cash I'd take this hands down over anything else. Look at your possible outcomes: A) The shop/fund/whatever you want to call it succeds and you get paid B) The fund fails, but you have just expanded your network tremendously C) If things don't work out and you're strapped for cash, you can be honest and any normal person would understand
Precisely what i thought after reading the OP. Do you think there would be any room for partnership down the line? Was this discussed at all?
 

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