Cut from market making/trading - now what?

Hi guys,

Just thought i'd get some thoughts on an issue i'm facing at the moment.

I've worked as an options market maker twice. Once for a year in 2006 before getting sacked because I missed a long 200 lot delta 1 early exercise - i know, real stupid, but just an admin error. The second time was in 2009 up until a few weeks ago, where i got cut along with a bunch of people because I couldn't make enough money.

I was trading a few single stocks where it was basically impossible to make money. Nevertheless I'm finding myself looking for work. The big kick in the teeth was a stock I traded got a takeover offer over the last few days. Stock up 30%. When I left, I was long all the upside and would have made around 500k from that day. Anyway...

In between these jobs, I worked as a broker/in execution.

So, I've had my fingers burnt twice in trading and wondering what to do now...

I guess the obvious move would be to try to get in to sales trading/broking, but I really don't want to do that. I just don't think I could find it stimulating talking sht to people all day. The other, ironically, could be risk management. Again, not a lot of interest there.

I'm thinking of trying to move into something more stable/more analytical. Would it be possible to move into a research role or something of the like from here. Dealing and trading is all I know, but i know i could pick research up pretty quickly.

My degrees are BCom in Economics and Finance, and a Masters in Quantitative Finance.

Well , let me know your thoughts. I'm 27, so i guess now i really want to try and establish myself somewhere..