Passion for the Markets

We've all read in applications how trading firms want someone who has "passion for the markets". What would you guys say it really means to have passion for the markets? Reading the journal front to back daily? Knowing where the market is at any minute of the day?

Were do you draw the line?

 
Best Response
  • Getting excited when economic data comes out
  • When CNBC and Bloomberg TV are fun to watch
  • Have a subscription to WSJ and/or the Economist
  • When Bloomberg.com is your homepage
  • Having a real investment account (IRA, etc) or a mock trading account
  • When the majority of your book shelf is finance and economics books
  • Being self-taught and not waiting until a summer internship to actually learn something
  • Knowing more than just "the stock market". For example, bonds, currencies, commodities, credit, real estate, etc.

That is probably a good list for starters.

 

And don't worry about making sure you are on the "right side of the line". Because if you want to make sure you have "just enough" passion to look good in a job interview, your interviewer will see right through that and know you really don't care about the markets and that you just memorized a few things during the week before.

Bottom line: If you are truly passionate, studying this stuff should be effortless and actually somewhat enjoyable.

 

What they said is a pretty good definition, so I will add on to it saying that memorizing events and numbers, while helpful, is merely the begining. In my opinion, the ability to fluently speak about markets beyond regurgitating numbers is the real show of passion. Being able to take a situation/event, break it down and analyze what happened, why it happened and what will likely be the effects is the point where you are fluently speaking about the markets. That's what I like to see when talking with people interested in S&T. Anyone can memorize, but far less show the desire to learn the intricacies of cause and effect and critical thinking.

Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard. -30 Rock
 

Just to give an example of what the above poster is saying, I was asked what I thought of a jobless recovery and if I think it could be sustained, although there really is no wrong answer, being able to produce a coherent argument which made sense was more than enough to impress the guy. And all I did was speak about stuff I had read in the WSJ such as the idea of people exhausting unemployment benefits and benefit claimant numbers looking deflated without just cause etc.

 

I think it's just like any other profession. You can learn how to do the work and get by most of the time (i.e. fund or wealth mgt shop that practically tracks S&P). If you're passionate about what you do, though, you're going to do everything in your power to blow the competition away and try to achieve what only a few have every accomplished. Reading/modeling/thinking for 13+ hours a day about potential investments won't feel like work because you love what you're doing. The 9 to 5 clock punchers don't have a chance to outperform those folks over the long run.

Passion and being good at something usually align, but not always. I'll leave that discussion for another time, though.

 

I got interested when I was in 8th grade but the lightbulb never went off until we had a big correction my junior year in college and I read something Buffett put out (forget what it was). after that, I read interpretation of financial statements by him & then Graham's version and got a ton of other investing books. didn't have any money at the time to invest on my own so I built fake portfolios (tons of ways to do this like investopedia, morningstar, etc), and followed them.

part of the excitement is that investing is intangible, it's not like making a phone or a watch where you have physical components and it's scientific, it's more than that. additionally, the fact that participation in one of the greatest creators of wealth in the history of mankind (stock market) is accessible by anyone with money is truly astounding.

tldr: excitement is important because it's critical you think like an investor to enjoy anything buy side or sell side ER. I also think excitement is important because otherwise you'll hate what you do everyday, be buried under stress, and probably have miserable health. but don't worry if you don't have it yet, just try to find something that excites you.

 

You don't know what else to do with an econ degree? How about economic consultancies? Think tanks? Public service? You know, the stuff the majority of economists do.

To be honest, it's not a good idea to do something you're not interested in. Even if you managed to fake your way through an interview you'd be doing something 10+ hours a day, 5+ days a week you're not interested in. So you're a) not going to enjoy it and in all likelihood b) not be very good at it.

So, this might be pretty obvious, but rather than asking how to become interested in something you don't care for, you should ask yourself what you actually are interested in. What courses you enjoyed. What you do in your spare time that might be related.

 

I'm a liberal arts major and all, so pardon my ignorance, but econ degrees don't offer any instruction on this stuff? Really? Why the hell was it such a bitch to convince people that my psych degree was competetive against an econ major?

dafuq?

More to the point: what did you think econ was? Serious question. If you have no idea about or no interest in markets ('financial' or otherwise), exactly what was the point of getting that degree?

If you're not interested in this stuff, don't bother. There's enough people fascinated with this and willing to shank someone for a shot. Don't waste your time if all you're looking to do is show up and collect a paycheck at some job, that's not going to work out well.

Get busy living
 

Econ degrees are usually more about economics, and not finance. Hence the title. For example in an economics degree you can cover behavioural economics, environmental economics, economics of labor....you get my drift. Some unis might offer a few more finance focused modules but it's not usually the aim of the overall degree offer much of an insight into financial markets.

"All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality" -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
 

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[quote=patternfinder]Of course, I would just buy in scales. [/quote] See my WSO Blog | my AMA
 

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"All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality" -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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