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opinions needed : work ex in Prop Trading

kpa.trader

Joined
6/9/13
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Hi guys ,
I am Indian Male with bachelors degree in Engineering. Decided to pursue a career in trading after the degree. Currently working as Derivatives trader – Commodities markets for a London based Prop Trading house for more than 2 years now and fairly successful at it too.
The problem I am facing is that the exit options are almost none ( other than trading for hedge funds / ibanks ). I am a good trader but I dont see my self trading after say 4-5 years.
So looking for Mfe/Mfin program to make a career shift into quantitative finance .
Ques-
  1. Are there any areas in quant in which my trading experience will give me an edge .
  2. What are the exit options for various fields in quant .specially quantitative trading (will I face the same problem I m facing now )

Any other views are also welcome :)

Thanks

KPA
 
Great questions, I worked as a trader too, but it was discretionary and at a prop firm and I realized that my skill set was just too narrow and I also dont want to be a trader for the rest of my life either. Its too unstable and too niche to be worth investing more time gaining said niche skill only to not find a job later. I am not comfortable living day to day having what I earn depend on what I make in the market, as my opinion of trading short term is that of gambling regardless of using algo's and statistics you are just trying to be the house at the casino with better odds, but its still a game, a useless game adding no value to society. Unlike long term investors who allocate capital to companies which they believe have the most promise and help aggregate information into one beautiful mathematical representation called price.

But i did some research, on this topic and my understanding is that your trading skill should help you gain a developer role at a trading fund, or even a risk position tasked with over seeing other traders. So you wont have to be pulling the trigger on the trades themselves but be more a support role to such activities.

But again there are many more here who can give you better advice that I can
 
Harkkam said:
Great questions, I worked as a trader too, but it was discretionary and at a prop firm and I realized that my skill set was just too narrow and I also dont want to be a trader for the rest of my life either. Its too unstable and too niche to be worth investing more time gaining said niche skill only to not find a job later. I am not comfortable living day to day having what I earn depend on what I make in the market, as my opinion of trading short term is that of gambling regardless of using algo's and statistics you are just trying to be the house at the casino with better odds, but its still a game, a useless game adding no value to society. Unlike long term investors who allocate capital to companies which they believe have the most promise and help aggregate information into one beautiful mathematical representation called price.

But i did some research, on this topic and my understanding is that your trading skill should help you gain a developer role at a trading fund, or even a risk position tasked with over seeing other traders. So you wont have to be pulling the trigger on the trades themselves but be more a support role to such activities.

But again there are many more here who can give you better advice that I can
Click to expand...

not too sure how you trade, but traders add liquidity to the markets and make them more efficient. they help to achieve equilibrium prices so no one party have more advantage over the other. they take on risk on behalf of hedgers and pass on risk to speculators who wants them. so it's not entirely a useless game if you know what and why you're trading for.

with regards to exit options, you may want to consider management roles with an MBA. You can take on research on strategies, modelling, or portfolio management. you may also want to consider operations - running of quant departments, overseas and domestic, if you happen to be in the right company at the right time.
 
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