What to expect from a prop trading job?
I've received and accepted an offer to start as a trader at a prop shop and while I have a decent understanding of my day to day job, I'm realizing I have a lot of unanswered questions about career path. I'm hoping you all can give me some insight.
I don't want to name the specific place I'm starting at but think Chicago prop shops. I know this makes answering some of the questions hard but I'd prefer not to make my cluelessness super obvious to my future coworkers.
1). How is retention among juniors at prop trading places? Are there any places known for having particularly high churn?
2). What percent of people who receive a full time offer end up being awful at it?
3). What do exit opportunities look like for traders at prop shops?
4). What is a typical career path for junior traders?
I appreciate any info you all can share.
1) if you lose a lot of money, you are fired 2) if you make a lot of money, YOU make a lot of money 3) there are no "exit opportunities"....TRADING IS THE EXIT 4) there is no "career path"...you trade, you make money. that's it. 5) wake up the next day and do it all again...starting with #1
High churn? Assume all of them. Regarding 1), I would say that prop shops are more impatient than banks in terms of how long they give you to "learn" trading. Some places you need to start trading after 3 months and make money.
We don't trade at all for the first year from what they have told me. But apparently they do cut some people during that year
Ok.. so that means you're probably looking at SIG, maybe DRW or Belvedere. Do well at the trading sims I guess
1). High turnover / S&T is alright but industry is dying
2). Very hard. You work with a diverse team of people.
3). Trading
4). Trading
Can you elaborate on what you mean by "the industry is dying"?
It's sort of a trendy thing on this forum to say that "S&T is dying," meaning that it's harder to make money due to spread compression, electronification, passive indexing (reducing active manager flows), etc.
In prop trading, this argument can be made about options market making. Most of the Chicago props are trading CME/CBOT options contracts, which are extremely competitive markets (thus yielding dwindling profits). Some props have diversified into OTC products, other exchange-traded products, or into random shit like crypto/RE.
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Yes, I have heard Jane Street does not cut juniors often.
One q: what sorts of things can get a junior fired (other than losing money)?
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Do you mind if I PM you specific information about the place I'm starting?
You can feel free and I’ll try my best to answer what I can if I knew anyone who worked there.
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