so you want to trade, eh?
which of the four main divisions?
what products? why?
do you know what flow is?
do you know how to hedge a call or a put?
can you explain what vega is?
what is reset risk? and what's so big about immy days anyway?
what's your take on the wheat market? are you bullish or bearish and why?
give me a good trade idea. why will this make money? what happens if it moves against you? what's your bailout?
how's the euro moved against the yen, chf, usd, and aussie dollar over the past few months?
do you think greece will restructure or leave the euro zone? give me a trade idea and how you'd hedge yourself if either of those happen.
being able to answer all of those questions, on the spot, rapid-fire (along with many other questions) will help you more than just having a "brand name" on your resume. any number of quant finance programs can land you trading gigs (a lot of graduates from mine landed trading rotations full-time), but you have to know your stuff.
and if you don't like quantitative stuff, this isn't the industry for you.
this industry, despite what millions of money-hungry people think, isn't the way to quick riches, unless you're spectacularly good. an oft-quoted statistic is that 90% of restaurants fail (do not know the veracity of the statistic, but i've heard it a ton). the same's true for traders. most will never make it, and those that do know their stuff. yes, it can look glamorous, and it sounds awesome when you read in the journal about some trader who just blew 3m on a loft in tribeca. but if you look at the probabilities (as you should if you want to get into this industry), that's a three sigma event.
if that's what you want and you're smart enough and hungry enough to make it, god speed and best of luck. but do some research and learn about what you're getting into before you start chasing the extra zeroes at the end of your paystub.
