Commodities Analyst at Citadel and similar roles

Hi,

I'll be working as a Commodities Analyst at Citadel (or similar firm) starting next summer and am really excited for this opportunity! I was choosing between my current role and prop trading at some quant shops (e.g. Optiver, JS) but enjoyed my summer internship experience in a similar role and decided to return to the industry. I know it's late to be asking this having already made my decision, but I was wondering what kind of opportunities would be available to me after working for 2-3 years? Ideally I'd stay and eventually become a PM but would like to see what other avenues are available. If I was in prop trading I could switch to another quant shop as a trader or perhaps do more QR type work, but I think my experience might pigeonhole me into a commodities specific role since a lot of the skills I develop will be about understanding commodity fundamentals/ad hoc commodities modeling and analysis work rather than the MM type trading strategies that most prop shops employ.

I have a general sense of what physical traders at places the supermajors/trading houses do, most stay or switch between various physical shops or perhaps transition into position taking with paper/derivatives. But, I'll most likely be learning how to trade paper. I wonder if this will put me at a disadvantage compared to the physical traders who gain a lot of insight into the physical markets from their years spent as ops/schedulers? Just spitballing here.

Thanks!

8 Comments
 

Would I be right in assuming that landing the PM spot (which I've seen some do quite fast, i.e. in their 20s) is the end goal for all traders in the commodities space? I assume that but also see PMs/traders jump between various commodity funds every few years, would've guessed that they'd find a place they like and just stay.

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