Curious to see if there are any fellow traders who will be heading off to top MBA programs. If so, what type of jobs will you be targeting post-MBA?
You mean Harvard or Stanford?
I meant the M7 programs: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, Kellogg, MIT, Columbia.
So you meant not top 2, and not Stanford or Harvard…
Get ready for the hacksaw onslaught brah. Just warning you.
I don’t know any traders who are going to business school (come to think of it, I’m not sure that I know many traders who have MBA at all). One of our sales people is going to Stanford though. She doesn’t know what she wants to do. Last year, another sales person went to Chicago or Northwestern. I can’t really tell those two schools apart.
Also, no mention of NYU? People who go there keep telling me it’s a top school.
*whips out hacksaw
Why on earth would someone who trades leave their position to pursue education? My understanding is the only thing that matters in trading is the amount of revenue an individual generates?
Trading is a dying industry, with no transferable skillsets developed. Getting an MBA from a top school allows one to transition into other areas of finance such as investment management as well as other industries altogether.
But if you are good at trading, why would you want to leave? Espeially leave the industry? I have workedwith guys who have done extremely well with BS degrees. Your degree and school should mean nothing in trading shoudln’t it? The only thing that matters should be your revenue?
yeah, if your a zip at trading you will want to do something else. although, even if you are ok at it, you might hate it enough to want to get an MBA and do something else. I have a friend who left his trading job to go get an MBA and quit finance forever.
The only traders that are going to B school are those that are mediocre or suck at trading. I remember working with guys that just started trading and who were also starting the CFA program. As soon as they started killing it on the market, they dropped the CFA program as fast as you can say CFA.
^ exactly right. Seriously, if you’re making big bucks at trading, you’d have to be completely stupid to stop doing that and waste your time with any type of education.
Traders also understand that the market changes and not all traders do well in different kinds of markets . If you are doing well and have a good understanding of the dynamics in the market, the opportunity cost is too high to leave. Once you get back in the market in 2 years, it’s likely you lost your edge. New players are in, new technology, etc. and the market reacts differently to what you were accustomed to when you were trading. It’s a whole new learning curve. Many traders make most of their fortune in a small time period. Taking a 2 year sabbatical while you’re on top of your game is not advised.
In the last few years the market structure has fundamentally changed. With low volume and volatility, combined with increased regulations, it’s becoming extremely difficult for traders to make the kind of “F*ck you” money they used to make. Moreover, people are presupposing that successful traders want to stay in that industry indefinitely just because they’re making a lot of money. A buddy of mine was KILLING it at a top Chicago prop shop (getco/jump/drw) and left for one of HBS/Stanford because he was tired of trading and wanted to make a major career transition.
Only professional athletes and rockstars have it better than successful traders. I have a feeling your friend wasn’t killing it anymore. The best of the best traders hardly work 4 hours a day and make FU money. I used to work with someone that only trades the 1st hour after the open and economic numbers. He rips it when there is market volatily and trades big size. He makes 7 figures a year to this day. Is any job out of HBS/Stanford going to beat that? My answer is yes if you are part of the 96% of traders that don’t make FU money.
I can’t tell if you’re serious or being a troll.
My friend made a little over a million his last year at the firm. He went to b-school, so he can transition into tech and eventually venture capital.
Even within finance, people at top hedge funds and investment management firms have it better than traders: MUCH more interesting work, less stress, and more money on the upper end. If a trader gets bored with his work (and trading is oftentimes very boring) and wants to do cutting-edge investment research at a firm such as aqr, citadel, pimco, wellington, fidelity, capital group, etc., he needs to get an MBA from an elite school.
Someone with 100 posts accusing someone with 4000 posts and 6 years of AF service of being a troll. I think I’ve read it all.
I get this all the time. You should visit the exam forums. lots of L1 / L2 candidates with sub-100 posts and no finance experience posting advice as if they were wall street veterans.
On the rare occasion other AF’ers join in my defense, then they back down and claim “oh just kidding”
Arent you both saying more or less the same thing? I dont thnk there is any real disagreement.
Most “trading” is done to facilitate some kind of customer flow. For instance, if you are a CDS trader, unless you work for some kind of hedge fund or prop desk, your main job is to manage the customer flow from the company’s CDS business. While there might be some opportunities to make money at your discretion, the consistency of your revenue depends on the success of the business in general. Traders are workers in a company’s “Sales and Trading” business. It’s not like they are all just making money playing cards in the market.
Now that we are in the Dodd Frank era, some sorts of business will not be as viable as they were before. This means that many traders will leave the industry. If they are young, business school might be a viable option. Of course, if there is an opportunity to continue trading, most people will take that. The comp for a VP in trading (5 years experience) at a big bank can be upwards of $500k. For a director (~8 years), you can reasonably expect $700k or higher. Remember - these are people who facilitate a finance business, not just prop trading with huge risk. With these numbers in mind, it is easy to understand how the $150k or so average comp of 1st year MBA graduates might not be so appealing.
If you are one of these traders in a finance business (as opposed to market making). You are generally exposed to many aspects of the business, which can give rise to marketable skills. For instance, you will probably be involved in business development, risk management, regulation and compliance, or personnel management. These can lead to future job opportunities. For example, some traders/sales people quit my firm last year and started a consulting company. Others moved on to other roles like risk management - generally at a somewhat senior level.
Of course, if you have been in “trading” for 15-20 years, you generally have a large amount of savings. It is not uncommon for 50-year-old former traders to start restaurants, vineyards, or other “hobby” businesses.
Apologies for the long post, but I thought it would be useful to comment on this side of the discussion that hasn’t been addressed yet, as well as some things that come from my direct or indirect personal experience.