Floor trading clerk/ trading assistant
Hey everyone, I recently started a job as a trading assistant/clerk for a market maker on the floor of (NYSE, CBOE, CBOT). Its a small, but very profitable, firm that uses a combination of computer models, some electronic trading, and floor trading to make money. I like it so far, and they are teaching all the new trading assistants option theory and all that goes into pricing options. Its good experience, but since I am working on the floor (which I think will be extinct at some point in the future), how would this affect my ability to find another (probably electronic) trading job in the future? I am not saying I want to leave my current firm, and there is a definite possibility that they will be able to be successful if the floor is closed. But I just want to make sure I am not pigeonholing myself, beyond learning all about options should I try learning programming?
You have to learn programming, especially if you want to do options. Everything is moving to the screen and a lack of VBA or C+++ will make you less competitive as a TA/Junior Trader... non-quant traders are a dieing breed. If you become a trader then you don't necessarily have to be the guy coding the algos or modeling the trade in Matlab (at large firms they will hire you a personal quant or have a quant group) but you need some knowledge of programming. If you want to move to a BB bank that still does prop (I see openings in foreign banks for TA roles such as Soc Gen) then you will add value by actually being quite proficient in programming (VBA at the least). A lot can be done in Excel but eventually traders with huge portfolios need to step up and get more customized tools.... and this I learned from a PM at a $10B+ HF.
Learn the concepts (option theory, black-scholes, delta-hedging, etc) now in addition to some elementary risk management techniques while gaining trading floor experience. At the same time def consider improving your quant skills if you want a future in trading. You don't need to do a MS in financial engineering but trading roles (actually trading and not S&T "selling" aka glamorous brokering or related "x product" institutional sales) are becoming very specialized.
Otherwise consider arcade trading at one of those leveraged brokerage places where you deposit your own capital to churn your discretionary account for 10 cent moves multiple times a day, 5 times a week. Or you can also consider flat out execution trader for Scottrade, broker-dealer, asset-management firm, etc.
Read Natenberg and Hull before starting focusing on the concepts that mb666 outlined, and I would also suggest that you learn Python programming (VBA is awful when dealing with large data-sets) although it won't be nearly as useful as getting up to speed with option theory. I'm not convinced that being a programmer is quintessential for options trading but you undoubtedly won't get very far without being highly numerate and proficient with computers. I'd also spend a lot of time improving your knowledge of statistics if you are lacking in that area. Learn as much possible and try to transition after about a year.
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