I've been a programmer for the most part of my working life. Over the recent years, I've become interested in finance and been involved in a few projects in the financial industry. Long story short, I'm now looking into a career in finance/banking.
I've been interviewing with large investment banks, but my other option would be to go my own way and start a tiny quant fund. I would definitely prefer the latter option because of the freedom and excitement, but the risks make me first want to pursue this safer path working for a bank, accumulating more savings, and then perhaps 5-10 years from now leave and start trading on my own if I still feel like it.
My question is, since banks have their own trading secrets, business concepts and whatnot, is there anything that would legally prevent me from quitting my job at some point and starting my own fund? Could a bank sue me for coming to work for them and learning some tricks of the trade, and then exiting and exploiting that information? (I'm not talking about anything that would directly damage the bank, but simply exploiting knowledge about the business that I might learn.)
I've been interviewing with large investment banks, but my other option would be to go my own way and start a tiny quant fund. I would definitely prefer the latter option because of the freedom and excitement, but the risks make me first want to pursue this safer path working for a bank, accumulating more savings, and then perhaps 5-10 years from now leave and start trading on my own if I still feel like it.
My question is, since banks have their own trading secrets, business concepts and whatnot, is there anything that would legally prevent me from quitting my job at some point and starting my own fund? Could a bank sue me for coming to work for them and learning some tricks of the trade, and then exiting and exploiting that information? (I'm not talking about anything that would directly damage the bank, but simply exploiting knowledge about the business that I might learn.)
