Prop Trading Internships
I am a second semester Sophomore accounting major who is extremely interested in the prop trading world and trading in general. I have been trading equity options and futures for over a year. I am 100% going into finance for my career path (accounting, IB, ER), but trading is my true passion. I use purely technical analysis and daytrade mainly futures now. I am looking everywhere around the country (and world) for potential prop trading/trading internships at trading firms for the summer of 2017. If anyone has any advice or experience with prop internship programs, please feel free to comment. I have a 3.93 GPA and I am currently studying abroad. Any information will be helpful as there is limited information I can find about trading internships. Thanks!
I would suggest you look at a couple solid prop trading firms to see if they have internship programs like Trillium Trading, First New York, and Chimera. Especially since you have an edge going in with previous trading experience is great. If you can't find anything with them you can look at firms that require capital investment like T3 and SMB as they will have a lower barrier to entry to see if they can provide an internship or a shadow opportunity etc. Good luck.
lol
Edge over STEM students? Don't think so. Competition is hard these days.
a stem major is highly beneficial, but a few prop shops employ strats that are subjective. it's going to be a while until algos become capable of running sophisticated event driven, LS equity or fundamental macro portfolios beyond systematically harvesting some form of risk premia (i.e 'smart beta'). non-stem (and stem) majors could focus on those strategies if they're inclined.
Thanks, I will check them all out.
Give it a go.
If I may ask, how did you start in the prop world? I'm looking for this internship to be my entry.
There are a lot of prop trading internship opportunities in Chicago but the recruiting process can be extremely competitive. A lot of probability questions and EV games during the superday / Weekend. PM if you need any advice for specific firms. Off the top of my head I know Optiver, DRW, Wolverine, CTC, Gelber, Group One, Belvedere and Spot all have trading internships for incoming seniors.
Problem with prop trading internships is that you wont get close to the action. Most of the time it'll be a Back/mid office internship. I mean think about it, why should they trust some kid with any amount of money when they have have guys that have been playing the markets for 20+ years? From what I have seen, most prop traders have an analysis background and are very nichelike e.g trade only nat gas derivatives etc.
That's basically the standard for all trading internships, whether it's proprietary or S&T. For the most part you're just kind of there shadowing people. If you have technical skills you can create tools or run quantitative analysis at some level which would at least have a chance to provide some sort of use.
Can you explain more on the recruitment process of new traders? I have a track record and am "experienced" i guess you can say with trading. I still wouldn't see any action or opportunity to prove myself for potential future employment?
PROP SHOP INTERNS (Originally Posted: 06/24/2010)
any of you guys out there currently interning for a prop trading firm, or have any of you ever interned for a prop trading firm ? please enlighten me !!! im looking top tier, i go to a top target, good gpa etc. really want to get an internship at a prop next summer but i want to hear from you all ... please any help
What are you looking to find out/know?
Obvious troll. 2 weeks ago he'd already "graduated from a non-target".
Chicago prop shop intern experience? good or bad? (Originally Posted: 05/29/2008)
Hey, I am a sophomore. Would working at a very small chicago prop trading shop over the summer look good to get me into ibanking/S&T at a BB? The firm has like 15 traders and I would be sitting on the desk keeping track of indicators and shouting out anything important that I see and other random front office stuff.
the guys are math majors from decent schools(UIUC) and most spent a few years on the floor at CBOT. they use company capital and do not take any money from traders.
should I keep looking? would a hedge fund(150 mil AUM, 25% avg returns) equity research internship look better?
i think for a summer, that can be a fantastic experience if you want to be a trader. and if you want to do fundamental research, then go with the hf, doesn't matter that it's small. honestly, this is dependent on how you look at the markets, and where you think you would fit in best.
for me personally, trading is not appealing; the thought of taking positions in companies so fast and based on technicals just doesn't jive with my mindset. i don't know if that's how it'll be at this firm (some prop shops def have somehwat of a fundamental bent)
however, analyzing companies based on deep value and growth prospects is far more interesting for me, personally. i like to learn about companies, what they're doing, where they are, if they're undervalued/overvalued with respect to their industry peers, how to look past the masses and find value in a specific and given company that is dislocated in their share price with respect to the market. if this interests you (involves fin statement modeling, industry trend modeling, etc etc), then go for the hf. if you're more a numbers, math, technicals person, go for trading (although again, depends on the type of prop shop; from what you're saying, seems to be much more the technical type)
trading internships at prop shops - which one would you do? (Originally Posted: 02/02/2011)
If you could pick a summer internship between Jump, Spot, Chopper, and Jane Street, which one would you pick and why?
Well those are all quite different shops, involved in very different markets and products and completely different cultures and environments. Do you have offers at all of these places? What are your interests and strengths?
Jane Street by a mile
I have a pretty technical background - CS major at a target school, did algorithms research during high school and won a pretty prestigious research competition for it. No background in finance, my previous summers were spent working at startups, decided it wasnt the right path for me and so I want to try trading.
I know these firms are pretty different in terms of their markets, but they're all recruiting for CS majors at my college. I honestly have no idea which product/market I want to work in, but from what I've been told during interviews they say I don't need any prior knowledge of finance and that I'll learn all that stuff during the internship.
My primary goal this summer is to gain exposure to the various types of trading so that when I graduate I have more options then just a programming/quant role. Basically I want to be pushed to learn and do things outside my field of expertise so that when I figure out which type of trading fits my personality best, that option will be available to me when I graduate. I think that I would get that sort of exposure from internships at all these firms from what the recruiters have been telling us at the info sessions, but then again its their job to recruit people so idk.
Oh and I have an offer at one of those firms, waiting on the others.
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