Prop Firm Offer
Hi,
I have fortunately secured an offer for a Prop Trading role at a firm. There is no monetary requirement from myself, and the first few months involve intense training. After training, capital will be provided by the firm to trade with, and the profit is split. There is, however, no salary being paid even during the training period.
I am kind of sure this is pretty legit, but just wanted to ask your opinions? Some friends have mentioned I should be wary of such firms, however, since there is no capital requirement from me, this should be fine right? Is there something I am missing?
Of course, it could turn out that I am absolutely rubbish at trading, and I lose say a year of my time and receive no income, but apart from that, there isn't anything else I am risking here is there?
And finally, do you guys think it is feasible to do an MBA after a few years? I wouldn't do the MBA if I was to stay in trading, but say I wanted to move onto something else like Equity Research. Would top schools take me/view prop trading as a reasonable enough profession to consider me?
Thanks for your time guys, I appreciate it.
the paradox of the mba is, if you're good at trading, why do the mba, and if you're bad at it, then you wont have the record to get a decent one.
the offer seems ok, do your homework on hte firm, ask about survival rates and the nature of the training. Keep hunting aroudn but otherwise its your best chance.
That doesn't seem too crazy. The prop firm I worked for paid you a salary to work as their operations guy while you learned to trade. Eventually they would allow you to trade and at that point you got no salary and whatever you made at the end of the fiscal year you could split 50/50. After a few years you can bump up to 55 or 60% of what you make. If you really want to trade it is worth a shot. Unless you think you can get something better?
PTVERDOV - where did you work where you could be an ops guy while learning how to trade? I ask because i currently work in Ops and want to get into trading. Thx
Thanks for responses so far.
The survival rates were around 20% or so I was told at my interview.
Do you guys think S&T desks at banks will view this job favourably? Do prop traders ever become market makers? The only reason I'm asking these questions is that say if I'm not all that good at it, what will my options be after?
if you're not good at it, life will become your user name. if your job has more of a quant element (algos, C++ or any programming, statistics, etc...) you might be able to parachute into software engineering at a tech company but that's a big MAYBE as competition in tech these days is quite rough. It depends on your tranferrable skills. If your record at your first prop firm is weak, it's unlikely that future firms in that field will take you in...
Is the training free?
if you can afford to live for free for a few months to learn..why not??
Yes, the training is free, and there is no monetary commitment required by me. Like watersign mentioned, I just need to be able to support myself for a few months until I can start making money trading.
My only concern was that if I do this, will I be able to exit to anywhere else. The job seems pretty sweet, and if you are good at it, then there is unlimited upside.
If you have no other options, take it, but don't expect to gain that much from it. An 80% attrition rate is brutal, especially when you consider that most of the 20% that stay on won't be bringing in much. The skills also are pretty non-transferable since its not a quantitative spot where you can transition to software, and usually at these types of firms there is not much collaboration/teamwork, so from an MBA perspective that doesn't look good either. Bottom line is if you have no other options it can't hurt, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it.
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