<p>I love to trade. I currently trade equities only in a brokerage account. I have made my fair share of mistakes, but I have learned a lot from them. All I can focus on is economic news and how the markets move. I don't care what I trade (stocks, bonds, commodities, derivatives of such) as long as I learn how to do it and I make money while doing it. </p>
<p>What is the best undergrad major for this and what is the area I should look to? Most trading offices are in Chicago. (im in high school).</p>
<p>Also, any advice from people that have gotten internships on trading floors or offices like that? </p>
<p>Trading is what I want to do and although my grades don't reflect a perfect ivy league student's I know more about trading than all of my peers. I will do anything to get into trading.</p>
<p>A finance and math double major would probably be good.
Your grades and school name will play a large role in whether or not you get a position.
If this is something you want, work hard your first few years and transfer to a better school and get a 4.0 there.</p>
<p>You may know more than your peers as of right now, but by the time you get to interviews, their knowledge will likely surpass yours.
NYC and Chicago are both great locations. Chicago is more known for prop trading.
IMO, you’re probably better off starting out market making at a bb.</p>
<p>I could be wrong but I just don’t see your past experience helping in finding an internship.</p>
<p>I operate a brokerage account and have 2 years of internships at a financial planning firm.</p>
<p>And my grades aren’t bad. 3.85 w, 3.44 uw, 29 ACT, 30 superscore, good extracurriculars, good letters of rec., hardest classes I can take. That kind of thing.</p>
<p>You need to realize how competitive these programs.
Your grades and test scores are not bad, but they don’t even come close to your competition.
You have the advantage in that you know ahead of time what you want to do. Unfortunately, your performance as of right now does not suggest you have what it takes to make it.
The good news is that you have plenty of time to turn yourself around. Right now, you need to focus on doing as well as possible in your classes and getting used to the increased work ethic necessary to get to where you want to go.</p>
<p>Trading for yourself and being a trader at a firm are very different. You may not care if your portfolio is down 2 percent when its your own money because you are learning from your mistakes but when you are playing with 50 million at a firm, being down 2 percent is a lot of money and will affect your daily PL drastically. Also, it is helpful to know what you want to trade since you need different licences to trade different products. Pick something you will enjoy.</p>
<p>As for major finance + math and statistics are popular.</p>
<p>Absolutely. Trust me, I know the grades aren’t bad, but they aren’t amazing. I will get them up. I am used to a hard work ethic because I wrestle and I go to the most challenging school in my state. </p>
<p>On top of that, I do know that the idea of using someone’s leveraged money is scary. Look at people in bond arbitrage. Those trading Italian bonds got f’ed over hard today with the spreads growing 500 points. (depending on long/short) </p>
<p>I do have an advantage and I feel my current grades (again, while not bad) are not representative of my work ethic or knowledge of the markets. </p>
<p>I’m not expecting to come into this and be a millionaire trader by age 25. </p>
<p>I’ll start out low. From my research, the path to become a trader is intern, clerk, junior trader, trader.</p>
<p>If you can’t get front desk, you can also try doing some product control work.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your help on this topic. I know I want to do something with trading. My dream job would be to trade equities in a small prop trading firm that is well respected. Although, with high frequency trading computers taking that over and the volatility being almost unpredictable, Dodd-Frank basically outlawing prop trading at BB banks, and my grades currently, there is little chance of that happening. </p>
<p>I would be happy being a hedge fund trader, a trader of something very thinly traded, trader for a financial planning firm (even though their trading is very regimented and driven by customer orders), or even a daytrader.</p>
<p>Thanks again for the help on this topic and the reality check as well. Feel free to add any more advice to the thread.</p>
<p>Www.wallstreetoasis.com</p>
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