Can Bud Fox still make it on Wall Street?

Hey guys, I am a first time poster, but I found this site a few months ago and love it. I was honestly pretty amazed at how helpful and serious most of the comments are, so and I would like some specific advise or opinions regarding my personal position.

Relative to 95% of the WSO community, I have failed about 80% of the test that, if passed, could result in an analyst position at a BB. Coming out of high school I chased the pipe dream of becoming a professional baseball player. I chose to go to a school that could hardly be considered a non-target (it’s in the Big South Conference) to play baseball. I was cut from the roster after my freshman year, and I decided to stay at the school for my sophomore year (this was obviously a regrettable decision, but I was influenced by a relationship, etc…), and my dad agreed to pay the tuition. After my sophomore year, I got into a pissing match with my dad, which resulted in not talking to him for two years and leaving school during that time. I moved out west, where I grew up and I took a job in sales for two years until my dad and I started talking again. I returned to school two years ago, and will be graduating this May with degrees in finance and economics. I have only an average GPA, mostly because of the shitty grades I got my freshman and sophomore year.

I am very interested in pursuing a career in finance (or real estate), but as I am sure you can guess from my background I do not exactly have offers from GS, MS, and JPM at my finger tips… I did an internship at an investment research firm out west last summer (tiny firm), and through some networking I did during that internship I have received some interested from retail brokers in NYC for a “Stock Broker Trainee” position. These jobs, at medium size firms (50-75 guys) sound ridiculous. I am looking at $500 per week while I am in training and getting my FINRA licenses, then commission only after that… I have told myself, that if I am able to make ends meet through commissions, I could get my FINRA licenses and then start studying for the CFA or consider B-School.

I apologize for the unnecessarily long story, but frankly, I am looking at following in the footsteps of Bud Fox, and I am interested in what you guys think my REALISTIC exit opportunities look like – post FINRA licenses, CFA, broker experience. I realize that, very rarely is there any conversation WSO about a topic like this, but you guys must cross paths with the brokerage community every now and then and I would like to get some feedback. Thanks!

 
Best Response

As I usually do, I'd recommend you take a look at the commodities houses, particularly on the ags side which is less competitive than oil and metals. This would be for physical trading.

The asset class is much easier in terms of the amount of theory you need to understand (hedging with futures is simpler than say, understanding MBS slices or pulling apart a capital structure), the style of physical trading fits "life experience" guys much better than it does your average Harvard economist, the money is excellent once you have proven yourself (a head of desk in Geneva would make at least 5m a year working 9-6, some junior traders pulled hundreds of thousands in their third year) and not too bad to start off with (starting in Geneva was CHF 70-120k depending on the firm, and that was years ago). None of this commission only BS as it takes years to learn the skills to be a good physical trader and to develop relationships with customers.

Your profile will get looked at if your cover letter is really good, as most of the applicants write something like "I can't wait to be putting on butterflies on November WTI" showcasing just how little they understand the job; and because there are generally less applicants than in the sexier bank front office positions. See the commodities thread. At least at our firm, the initial screening wasn't done by HR, but by heads of desks and senior traders (anybody who led something, really), this allowed us to grab the good non conventional profiles that always get binned by "keywords sensitive" HR women with zero experience of business.

Your exit ops, in case you get a little bored of travelling to cool countries and moving ships around the world, aren't limited to commodities funds or bank commo desks, there's some scope for moving towards more macro roles as the international outlook and the kind of problems you'll routinely face ("client will pay me in Vietnamese Dong, shall I keep it?" to "there's limited war breaking out in Ivory Coast, shall I keep my stock in my 30 year partner's warehouse or pull it out to save a few millions but lose his trust forever") are valued there. Or an EM equities fund, of which there seems to be more and more these days. Generally, you will learn the mindset of making money in tough circumstances and running your own business, which are good skills should you go down the entrepreneurial route. Let's say our metals guys would laugh when they heard people complain about regulatory zeal in the States; they had much worse issues in say, the DRC or China. And then you will learn cool things about the world, such as how the oil crush margin is inverted in China because people are using the crushing plants as assets against which to obtain 90 or 180 days LCs at 5% with which to invest in real estate (for which financing is around 20%, if you can convince a bank to do it).

Lastly, look outside the US. The US is a terribly competitive job market right now, the combination of a generation of students who have been bred to learn that the sexiest job after graduation is Goldman and so who all want to do finance, a 40% reduction in the demand for financial professionals, fairly slow growth and a certain lack of bubble to drive comp through the roof, and so on. Don't get me wrong - if you get a good position in New York, it's an awesome environment to learn, much better than bubble days where a rising tide lifts all boats. But don't hesitate to look abroad to less popular cities; Geneva is the obvious one for commodities as the global hub, no matter how much they pay the talent it's so boring that people all want to move and few apply; so the starting pay is high, responsibilities you will get much broader (remember this is the global non-US hub, that is, the non-US activities will mostly be HQ'ed there if not in Singapore), your American work ethic, attention to details and drive will absolutely destroy your average European who just wants to go home at 5pm and is waiting out his promotions (I say this as a European), and in a few years you can rotate to the Connecticut office or somewhere in Asia once you've earned your way into the firm. And finally, travelling the world is really cool and working abroad will broaden your mind and sharpen your skills in a fairly unique and quite valuable way no matter your chosen path later on.

 

The good news is if you didn't go back to the same school your GPA starts over.....your grades from freshman and sophomore year make no difference. It's sounds like you have some relevant experience and, in my opinion, you are being way to hard on yourself.

 

Do not do a stock broker trainee program. The fact that they are even calling it "stock broker" is the first clue. All the major firms are trying to make those positions seem like 'advisers' or something to that effect. I can't even imagine how shitty that job would be. I would rather work in ops than be a stock broker trainee, to be honest.

 

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