Lumber Trader?

I'll soon graduate school with an economics degree and, like so many others on here, I would love to pursue a career in finance or trading. However, man of the usual concerns apply to me- non-target, unremarkable gpa, weak experience, etc.- so I realize it may be a long shot.

Recently, though, I've been seeing job advertisements for lumber traders. I've spent every summer during undergrad and a couple years previous working in the forestry industry and I'm hoping that will give me an edge-however slight- in landing a job.

Does anyone have any information about lumber trading? Can it be lucrative? If successful in the industry could you switch to other commodities later in your career?

 

How familiar are you with the market? Are you interested in trading futures or are you more interested in merchandising? If you were working for a large firm than be sure to contact them, particularly if they know you have great work ethic. There is definitely a market for lumber, it may not be the most glorious sounding job, but you never know what it can do for you. I personally am unfamiliar with the market, but if your experience helped teach the fundamentals you should be able to find a position somewhere. Best of luck!

Only two sources I trust, Glenn Beck and singing woodland creatures.
 
Best Response
m0bmx:

I'll soon graduate school with an economics degree and, like so many others on here, I would love to pursue a career in finance or trading. However, man of the usual concerns apply to me- non-target, unremarkable gpa, weak experience, etc.- so I realize it may be a long shot.

Recently, though, I've been seeing job advertisements for lumber traders. I've spent every summer during undergrad and a couple years previous working in the forestry industry and I'm hoping that will give me an edge-however slight- in landing a job.

Does anyone have any information about lumber trading? Can it be lucrative? If successful in the industry could you switch to other commodities later in your career?

I used to sit next to a lumber desk. Pretty interesting work--if I remember right, they traded a good amount of dimensional lumber, some mill byproducts (think sawdust and scrap) and some other manufactured wood products. The dimensional lumber business seemed extremely cyclical and ran behind new home construction numbers. The dimensional lumber part of the business also seemed more commoditized than everything else, which made relationships and execution extremely important. Also was very capital-intensive as some of the dimensional stuff could be in storage for extremely long periods of time (think years for some products) so if you do go after a trading role, make sure the company has some dollars behind it. All of the guys on the desk had come into it after having had experience in the lumber industry, whether in construction or working for large lumber companies or hardware stores. There is a lumber futures market but it's very illiquid and 5 or 10 lot orders would sometimes need to be worked for days to get filled.

I'm sure there's money in it because we wouldn't have had a full desk if there wasn't, but it's definitely cyclical so you have to worry about getting laid off in down years if you're not good. As far as switching to other commodities, you're in a niche market and you're going to meet the players in that market. If you want to move to a different market, you need to make friends in that market while showing success in lumber. Some of the skills will be transferrable but it's more about who you know.

 

A Lumber Trader isn't the sense you think of... You'll be working for Forest City trading group(where I would recommend going). You're going to make 60 calls a day, and you'll start in logistics will probably take you 1-2 years to be a trader. Lumber itself has many different markets for selling eg. Treated, dimensional, MSR, low grade. However, most guys you work with won't be "traders" its a heavily based on sales, and building distribution.

 

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