00:00:00
that's my Quant your what my
00:00:02
quantitative my math specialist look at
00:00:05
him you noticed anything different about
00:00:07
him look at his face that's very racist
00:00:10
look at his
00:00:11
eyes I'll give you a hint his name's
00:00:14
Yang he won a national math competition
00:00:17
in China he doesn't even speak
00:00:20
English so yeah I'm sure of the
00:00:25
math actually my name is Tyler and I got
00:00:28
these new hipster glasses so please stop
00:00:30
calling me the MIT neurosurgeon thank
00:00:35
you all right pros and cons of working
00:00:37
in prop trading so I'll start off by
00:00:39
saying that the industry has evolved
00:00:40
quite a bit the industry grew out of the
00:00:42
pit trading culture the spectrum of the
00:00:44
culture in the industry is probably like
00:00:46
pit traders in and and all their
00:00:48
Shenanigans and then you know all the
00:00:50
way to like modern tech firms because
00:00:52
these these trading firms have kind of
00:00:53
evolved into Tech firms most of the
00:00:55
trading firms you know of today like
00:00:56
jump trading are basically grown out of
00:00:58
the pits you know like it's called jump
00:01:00
trading because people would jump in the
00:01:01
pits to try to get the attention of the
00:01:02
Brokers and drw Don Donald R Wilson was
00:01:05
a really good pit Trader and pretty much
00:01:08
all the founders of these well-known
00:01:09
trading firms are are are pit Traders
00:01:11
that's kind of the history but also keep
00:01:13
in mind that if a trading firm is has
00:01:15
more of a pit culture it doesn't mean
00:01:16
that it's more backwards because um some
00:01:18
firms just utilize the pit more in their
00:01:20
trading strategy whereas other firms
00:01:22
don't and so that's one of the main
00:01:23
differences there but yeah let's get
00:01:25
into it I I I created a little list I
00:01:27
wrote on a napkin uh all right con
00:01:29
gambling so there's a lot of
00:01:31
similarities between trading and
00:01:32
gambling which makes sense so um you
00:01:35
know you're going to see a lot of
00:01:36
gambling in the industry during March
00:01:38
Madness there's going to be like a chat
00:01:39
room where there's like $20,000 worth of
00:01:41
action just flying around um between
00:01:43
Brokers Traders and um what's fun about
00:01:46
it is that they'll make these unique
00:01:47
bets that are kind of based off of uh
00:01:49
trading Concepts you know like
00:01:50
butterflies and call spreads they'll
00:01:52
make these kind of interesting bets that
00:01:55
you won't see in normal gambling circles
00:01:56
but to give you a little background on
00:01:58
how how pit Traders quote options
00:02:00
markets so there's like a certain lingo
00:02:02
where they'll do like uh oh I'm I'm 95
00:02:05
at 105 you know like if something's
00:02:07
trading around 100 and you want to buy
00:02:08
it lower and sell it higher you might
00:02:09
say like I'm 95 at 105 100 up or
00:02:11
something and that's basically saying
00:02:12
you're willing to trade 100 of them on
00:02:14
the bid and the offer so people use this
00:02:16
kind of lingo and all kinds of things
00:02:18
right so you know you leave uh work and
00:02:21
the and the Traders are waiting for the
00:02:23
elevator that might say what's your
00:02:24
what's your Market on the elevator
00:02:25
getting here and someone might say I'm
00:02:26
10 seconds at 30 seconds you know and
00:02:28
they'll be like I'll buy those you know
00:02:30
and so they just kind of live and
00:02:31
breathe this stuff um and like if there
00:02:35
like the trador on like a Tinder date or
00:02:37
something and the girl is not replying
00:02:39
he'll be like what's your Market on this
00:02:40
girl texting me back you know I'm 3
00:02:42
hours at 10 hours and the guy might be
00:02:44
like I'll buy those I'm one week at
00:02:46
never you so there's just all this like
00:02:49
funny lingo and people people get really
00:02:51
into it it just kind of like spills over
00:02:53
to their day-to-day lives um and uh
00:02:56
what's what's really interesting is
00:02:57
these like unique prop bets that they do
00:02:59
you know like um so in the pits there's
00:03:01
this guy who said he could eat 100
00:03:03
chicken McNuggets in 10 minutes so
00:03:04
people are all like what and after the
00:03:06
market closed they brought over 100
00:03:07
chicken McNuggets and there's all this
00:03:09
action people crowning around him you
00:03:10
know there's like literally like 10,000
00:03:12
$20,000 worth of action people making
00:03:14
side bets um and then he just starts
00:03:16
eating and there's someone like timing
00:03:17
him and you know this is just like part
00:03:19
of the pit culture you know very much
00:03:21
like frat house culture um High School
00:03:23
cafeteria culture uh a story that
00:03:26
happened at at my particular firm this
00:03:27
one uh junior Trader was talking to the
00:03:30
head of the desk and he was saying he
00:03:32
likes tartar sauce and he was like how
00:03:33
many packets of tartar sauce you think
00:03:35
you can eat and uh one one sitting and
00:03:37
he's like I could eat like 40 40 packets
00:03:40
within like 10 minutes and the guy's
00:03:41
like sold you know so you know sold
00:03:44
meaning like you know it's probably
00:03:45
lower than that um and so there's this
00:03:47
bed where he the sun's coming out
00:03:50
there's this bed where he he basically
00:03:52
um we all crowded around I have a
00:03:54
picture of it um and I think he got $300
00:03:58
but there were all these other side bets
00:03:59
so he might have made more um and then
00:04:01
we timed him 10 minutes and see if he
00:04:03
could eat 40 packets of tartar sauce in
00:04:05
uh 10 minutes and um yeah he did it but
00:04:09
there was like a another um contingency
00:04:11
where he he couldn't puke for 15 minutes
00:04:14
afterwards so there were like side bets
00:04:15
on that like oh yeah he'll do it but
00:04:17
he'll he'll puke within 10 minutes after
00:04:19
after uh and people are taking action on
00:04:21
that so uh yeah just an interesting
00:04:25
culture um it's my dog um but it's kind
00:04:28
of like uh
00:04:30
you know yeah I I still call it a con
00:04:32
because like you know a lot of people
00:04:33
can't control their gambling impulses so
00:04:35
so it like spirals out of control but
00:04:37
you know a part of it you could say as a
00:04:39
pro because it's fun right it's fun to
00:04:40
kind of like you know bet on things and
00:04:44
watch someone eat packets of tartar
00:04:45
sauce and um you know and it was
00:04:48
probably fun for him to make $300 it's
00:04:49
not like anyone told him he has to do
00:04:51
that you know that would be toxic as
00:04:52
hell but you know he wanted to make $300
00:04:54
and he thought he could do it so um he
00:04:56
definitely puked after that 15 minutes
00:04:58
but still I mean you know he was a
00:05:00
junior Trader that $300 probably you
00:05:02
know went far for him all right Pro
00:05:05
location so most trading firms are in
00:05:07
like the downtown historic downtown area
00:05:10
you know like Chicago's uh border Trade
00:05:11
building is like one of these like
00:05:13
really fancy cool architecture buildings
00:05:15
um it's right on the cell people take
00:05:17
their wedding photos there it's a really
00:05:18
cool place and it's it's in it's right
00:05:20
in the middle of Chicago and you know
00:05:22
Wall Street in New York city is in is in
00:05:24
Manhattan and you know the location of
00:05:26
these trading firms is you know because
00:05:28
they grew out of the exchanges pretty
00:05:30
cool you know when you compare it to
00:05:31
like a lot of tech firms that are in the
00:05:32
middle of nowhere you know like I guess
00:05:34
like Twitter's in San Francisco but then
00:05:35
you know like Google will have shuttles
00:05:37
if you live in San Francisco so you can
00:05:39
take the shuttle to their campus and
00:05:41
then take it back location matters so
00:05:43
most trading firms are in cool cities
00:05:44
like New York City London Singapore Hong
00:05:47
Kong Chicago and uh and they're normally
00:05:50
downtown um you get to kind of hang out
00:05:52
with like what I would call Finance
00:05:53
celebrities like I got to run into Rick
00:05:56
Santelli a lot sorry this sun is like
00:05:58
hitting my neck now really bad timing
00:06:00
for my video uh I got to meet Rick
00:06:02
Santelli I have a picture with him he's
00:06:04
like a big deal in kind of financial
00:06:06
news he's a fun guy um and uh who else I
00:06:10
got to meet like John nerian he's he's
00:06:12
like this big jacked former football
00:06:13
player that became like a big deal in
00:06:15
the options trading scene um he's
00:06:17
probably worth like $50 to100 million
00:06:19
but yeah there's only one main gym that
00:06:22
all the Traders use like Buckingham gym
00:06:24
because it's like right in the uh sibo
00:06:25
building and so my locker is actually
00:06:27
next to his cuz my last name is Masuda
00:06:29
and his last name is Nigerian I think
00:06:31
it's alphabetical so I took a picture of
00:06:32
that and but I got to meet him at like
00:06:34
conferences and stuff because he was
00:06:35
trying to like pitch this option
00:06:36
software to uh to our company so they
00:06:40
were like hey man you want to go out and
00:06:41
like see if his software is any good so
00:06:43
I got to meet him and um you know it's
00:06:46
like good networking opportunities I was
00:06:47
never much of a schoer but you know for
00:06:49
people who are like try to like you know
00:06:51
do all that like you know transactional
00:06:53
stuff like all let me get buddy buddy
00:06:54
with this guy like you know it's cool to
00:06:55
get to meet these powerful people all
00:06:57
right next Point frat culture so this is
00:06:59
is a con uh you know a lot of the more
00:07:02
more pit Centric trading firms they have
00:07:04
a frat culture and um you know they'll
00:07:07
they'll they'll Haze you they'll like
00:07:09
walk by and like fart on you like like
00:07:12
like crop dusting I guess they would
00:07:13
call it um just like they'll give you
00:07:16
demeaning nicknames like my buddy they
00:07:18
they called him Farm dog because his dad
00:07:20
was a farmer and he was from a small
00:07:22
town that was you know big on Farming
00:07:25
and um they'd be like Farm me get me
00:07:28
coffee you know like
00:07:30
like um but they they their nickname for
00:07:32
me was like piston which was like
00:07:34
whatever like I don't really mind that
00:07:36
you know like Detroit Pistons I guess um
00:07:38
that wasn't really that bad so I was
00:07:40
grateful but um yeah the Frat Culture
00:07:43
The Hazing the nicknames you know um
00:07:46
they'll make you like run little errands
00:07:48
for them like oh I forgot to like pay
00:07:50
the uh cleaning lady like she's going to
00:07:51
be there in an hour like go take an Uber
00:07:53
to my place and hand her this 200 bucks
00:07:55
or whatever and
00:07:57
um one guy had to go down and he Lo like
00:08:01
one of the partners lost a bet to one of
00:08:02
the brokers in the pit so you had to go
00:08:03
down and um give him like $2,000 in cash
00:08:08
that's probably a little scary to walk
00:08:09
around with that much money um just like
00:08:11
they run errands for them and stuff you
00:08:13
know um so the Frat culture the
00:08:15
hierarchy um that's a con another con
00:08:18
drug use um there's like heavy drug use
00:08:21
which makes sense cuz trading is such a
00:08:23
stressful industry a lot of people smoke
00:08:24
cigarettes and then they um that evolves
00:08:27
into chewing dip because people uh they
00:08:30
don't want to obviously you can't smoke
00:08:32
indoors and so you got these like
00:08:34
Partners like chips chewing dip like
00:08:36
they just like have a little cup they're
00:08:37
spitting in it and it just kind of um
00:08:40
you know other like Junior Traders want
00:08:42
to emulate them they look up to them so
00:08:43
then they'll pick it up they'll be hey
00:08:44
what kind of dip is that oh that's
00:08:46
really cool man and and you'll see them
00:08:48
doing it and it's kind of like not not
00:08:50
good right to spread that kind of
00:08:52
attitude um there's a heavy drinking
00:08:54
culture the bar series and the Border
00:08:56
Trade building they're always serving
00:08:57
double shots by default because people
00:08:58
are so stressed stressed out when
00:08:59
they're like making and losing fortunes
00:09:01
every day um people smoked like weed um
00:09:06
you know can't say I didn't partake in
00:09:08
that but yeah like a subset of the firm
00:09:10
would would uh like to smoke after work
00:09:13
so uh we would just go you know when the
00:09:15
Market's closed we would there was one
00:09:16
guy whose dad was like CEO of a big
00:09:18
company so he was loaded and he he had
00:09:20
this ridiculous apartment with like
00:09:21
Florida ceiling Windows overlooking
00:09:23
Grant Park and in Lake Michigan and
00:09:24
Buckingham Fountain you'd see the
00:09:26
fountain like shoot up every few I guess
00:09:28
every 30 minutes and so we love to go to
00:09:31
his place and he would host and he had
00:09:32
these like cool smoking Technologies
00:09:34
like this cool volcano thing and so uh
00:09:37
we would like to smoke at his place
00:09:38
every day after work um and uh yeah
00:09:41
definitely other people partook in like
00:09:43
heavier drugs but you know I was never
00:09:45
really involved in those those like sub
00:09:47
circles but it was definitely a thing it
00:09:49
kind of comes with the territory um Pro
00:09:52
dress code so a lot of these firms have
00:09:54
what I would call an inverse dress code
00:09:56
so it's like uh Partners basically look
00:09:58
homeless like one of the partners would
00:10:00
wear pajamas to work and and this yellow
00:10:03
shirt that says Cheerios um and this bum
00:10:07
like ski hat and this like scraggly ass
00:10:08
beard he literally looked homeless and
00:10:10
if like the the door man downstairs if
00:10:12
they like didn't know him they probably
00:10:14
wouldn't let him in the building but
00:10:15
this guy pulls like $2 to5 million I
00:10:17
think at least that's what I heard from
00:10:19
someone else like every year his bonus
00:10:20
is like $2 to5 million and he comes in
00:10:22
the work looking homeless and so there's
00:10:24
like an inverse dress code where you you
00:10:26
kind of earn the right to dress crappy
00:10:28
As you move up and then new hires have
00:10:29
to wear khakis and tucked in like
00:10:31
button- down shirts and um you know it's
00:10:34
like the thing about prop trading is
00:10:36
that you don't have investors or clients
00:10:38
You're basically trading the capital of
00:10:40
the founders or the partners so
00:10:42
basically there you know who are you
00:10:43
dressing up for you know you're you're
00:10:45
only trading trading in the markets
00:10:47
you're just trying to make money so
00:10:48
you're dressing for the other people at
00:10:50
work so the new people have to kind of
00:10:52
like dress well for the other people at
00:10:53
work and then um and then once you move
00:10:56
up you basically get to dress crappy and
00:10:57
you can prioritize comfort and um
00:11:00
basically like uh this Tipping Point is
00:11:03
when you make Trader you know you pass
00:11:04
all these internal tests and then
00:11:06
they're like all right congratulations
00:11:07
we're going to put you on this desk and
00:11:08
once you make Trader you can wear like a
00:11:10
cap like a baseball hat like I would
00:11:11
wear my New York Yankees hat cuz I'm
00:11:13
from New York and um that's kind of it's
00:11:16
kind of like getting a black belt you
00:11:17
know when you're moving up in ranks in
00:11:19
in whatever karate or Judo like the cap
00:11:21
is like your black belt and when you
00:11:22
show up to work it's like oh bro's
00:11:24
wearing a hat like he made Trader you
00:11:26
know so it's a really funny kind of
00:11:28
concept the invers dress code and you
00:11:30
could wear CRA work like these ratty
00:11:31
t-shirts like I would wear like those
00:11:33
free T-shirts they give it job fairs and
00:11:35
stuff and wear these like crappy jeans
00:11:36
and flipflops on the summer so yeah my
00:11:38
my lifestyle like during those summer
00:11:41
years they were so fun you know I would
00:11:44
stroll on the work and flipflops you
00:11:46
know trade it up making six figures
00:11:48
leave and go smoke with my buddy like it
00:11:50
was just such a chill life um and I do
00:11:53
miss that that was like my eeky guy you
00:11:55
know cuz trading firms don't really
00:11:56
operate like that anymore at least it's
00:11:58
they're far and few between they're
00:11:59
mostly collaborative and um you know
00:12:01
there's like standup meetings and it's a
00:12:03
lot of like coding and stuff but yeah
00:12:04
those were the Glory Days for sure um
00:12:07
all right next Point yeah
00:12:08
countercyclical I talk about this in
00:12:10
other videos but yeah it's it's a pro
00:12:11
you know you get to make your biggest
00:12:12
bonuses when the markets are crashing so
00:12:14
you have money when other people don't
00:12:15
have money and you can uh you know you
00:12:18
can buy real estate at really low fixed
00:12:19
rate fixed mortgage rates um you can buy
00:12:22
stocks within the dip usually um and you
00:12:25
know while everyone else is out out of a
00:12:27
job and you know it's like a fire
00:12:29
like fire in a movie theater everyone
00:12:31
there like a bottleneck everyone's
00:12:32
trying to like get out of the exit doors
00:12:34
trampling on each other like you're
00:12:36
you're making your biggest bonuses and
00:12:37
you're outside of the exit door like you
00:12:39
know selling them water bottles for like
00:12:40
$20 a piece you know just kidding that's
00:12:43
that's a really predatory example there
00:12:46
um but then on the other end bra when
00:12:47
the markets are just calmly grinding up
00:12:49
uh you might have have to deal with a
00:12:50
layoff at work but then it's fine
00:12:52
because other Industries are hiring so
00:12:53
you can transition to be a data
00:12:54
scientist in big Tech or something you
00:12:56
know so you're pretty much hedged on
00:12:58
both sides so being at a counter local
00:12:59
industry is amazing um all right con
00:13:02
waking up early you know I'm not really
00:13:03
a morning person so this is a big con
00:13:05
for me especially in Chicago it's like
00:13:06
freezing and it's 1 hour behind New York
00:13:08
so you know Stock Market opens at 8:30
00:13:11
and uh you know typically these these
00:13:12
firms trade options on Futures Futures
00:13:14
usually trade 24 hours not counting
00:13:16
between 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. so you know
00:13:18
but they start picking up in volume at
00:13:20
like 7:00 a.m. maybe but if there's like
00:13:21
a number like some kind of announcement
00:13:23
it might be you know might be close it
00:13:24
might be like 6:30 a.m. so you're
00:13:26
expected to be there at like 7:00 a.m.
00:13:27
usually at latest and so so you got to
00:13:29
get up at like 6:00 a.m. or so and yeah
00:13:31
the sun isn't even up usually and it's
00:13:33
like so cold outside you leave your warm
00:13:35
bed to go into this like freezing cold
00:13:37
and you know it's like it's not for
00:13:39
everybody you know that that whole like
00:13:41
early morning schedule but yeah if
00:13:42
you're a morning person maybe you
00:13:43
wouldn't mind it all right con it's it's
00:13:46
pretty much all men though this is
00:13:47
changing but at least the pit trading
00:13:49
Centric firms it's all men and um it's
00:13:51
definitely a con like if you're a woman
00:13:53
um it can be kind of like uncomfortable
00:13:55
untoxic like one of the one of the
00:13:57
portfolio managers of one of my firms uh
00:13:59
one of the desks I worked out she would
00:14:00
go down into the pits and they'd be like
00:14:02
you know saying all these like pervy
00:14:03
things to her oh wait there's like an
00:14:05
animal over there that's crazy oh wow
00:14:08
it's like a
00:14:10
coyote who dude
00:14:12
Arizona anyways yeah they would say all
00:14:14
these pery things to her like why can I
00:14:17
fill your order baby you know like just
00:14:19
I don't know it's like girls don't want
00:14:20
to deal with that right and um and uh
00:14:24
yeah it's like pervasive sexism and
00:14:26
stuff but um you know even for a guy
00:14:28
it's annoying because there's no woman
00:14:29
at work so it's like you know at least
00:14:31
for the people who like to date within
00:14:33
work like that's kind of annoying right
00:14:34
like I I don't I don't do that but you
00:14:36
know I guess for some people they want
00:14:38
to there's few prospects and um if
00:14:40
there's finally like a new girl at
00:14:42
worker oh wow who's going to chase after
00:14:45
her you know it's like I don't know
00:14:47
there's other reasons too but you know a
00:14:48
culture that's all men is definitely not
00:14:50
not desirable so that's a con um Pro
00:14:53
poker tournaments yeah there would be
00:14:55
charity poker tournaments at like
00:14:57
Ferrari dealerships and stuff and you
00:14:59
could you could um there would be like a
00:15:01
limo that picks us up after work and
00:15:03
we'd all be like drinking it's like open
00:15:04
bar and it's just so much fun you know
00:15:06
and um almost everyone of these trading
00:15:09
firms have their own annual poker
00:15:10
tournament and usually this was a
00:15:13
standard at least you know in the last
00:15:15
10 years the winner would get a free uh
00:15:17
Free World Series of Poker uh buyin
00:15:19
which is a $110,000 um buyin so um but I
00:15:23
think as a condition they have to wear
00:15:24
like the firm's like brand like on a hat
00:15:27
or a T-shirt and so it was so much fun
00:15:29
you know poker culture is really similar
00:15:31
to trading culture you know it's a lot
00:15:32
of like Risk Management um games of
00:15:34
incomplete information so a lot of the
00:15:36
players were a lot of people were big
00:15:38
poker guys it was fun one year one of
00:15:40
our guys who came in first in the poker
00:15:41
tournament he got within the money he
00:15:44
almost got to the final table and so he
00:15:46
uh you know and while we're all trading
00:15:48
at work we we have all those wmount TVs
00:15:50
playing like uh financial news we we
00:15:52
switched it to ESPN to watch him play um
00:15:55
and we're like rooting for him and stuff
00:15:56
you know so it's it's it's cool you know
00:15:59
the overlap between the poker world and
00:16:01
and the trading World um I like that
00:16:03
aspect of working in prop trading so
00:16:05
that's a pro uh another Pro this should
00:16:07
I should have mentioned this way earlier
00:16:08
but like the outings are amazing um you
00:16:10
know like sporting events Brokers get us
00:16:12
tickets to Cubs games they're usually
00:16:14
like the very front row on third base I
00:16:16
don't know why they even at different
00:16:18
firms they always had that front row on
00:16:19
third base I it's like a broker thing
00:16:21
you get access to like the VIP lounge
00:16:23
where there's like all this like free
00:16:24
food steak unlimited drinks yeah like
00:16:27
you know I was single like it was a
00:16:29
great Flex when you when you go on dates
00:16:30
and stuff you just get these tickets for
00:16:31
free so you you know you just bring a
00:16:33
Tinder date there and she's so impressed
00:16:35
and um you yeah you get tickets to Bulls
00:16:37
games the partners would get like
00:16:38
courtside tickets but we would get like
00:16:40
seven rows from the front um and we
00:16:42
would get Blackhawks Bears tickets so
00:16:45
like all the sporting events we could
00:16:46
get tickets like pretty pretty regularly
00:16:49
for free we go to Michelin star
00:16:50
restaurants a lot of places have like
00:16:52
monthly outings one of the firms I
00:16:54
worked at uh we would have like a
00:16:56
Michelin star dinner annually we went to
00:16:59
l2o CPA like just like the best
00:17:02
restaurants in the city and they would
00:17:04
rent out the whole place or they would
00:17:05
rent out like one room for the for the
00:17:08
company and uh yeah it's a great time
00:17:11
laala paloa we would get three-day
00:17:13
passes they would be the the VIP passes
00:17:15
so it's like Cabana passes and I've
00:17:18
never experienced this before but like
00:17:19
the porter potties are fancy it's like
00:17:21
mahogany wood and stuff it's weird it's
00:17:23
like a it's like a oxymoron cuz it's
00:17:25
like a porter potty but it's like Swanky
00:17:28
and uh there's like open bar there's
00:17:30
like all this like food and then it's
00:17:31
like elevated so there's like a little
00:17:33
balcony area and it's right by the main
00:17:34
stage so you could see Lady Gaga perform
00:17:36
on the main stage but then we get to
00:17:38
like look over this balcony thing and I
00:17:40
don't know I was always worried about
00:17:41
like crowd surgers and getting squished
00:17:42
and stuff so it's kind of nice to be
00:17:44
able to look over the balcony and be
00:17:45
like you know like that Meme of those
00:17:47
like um those like snoody guys like
00:17:50
looking over the balcony like it was
00:17:51
like that it felt good um and then like
00:17:54
uh like big bigname uh celebrities would
00:17:56
come perform like we had train come per
00:17:58
performed for us you know they sang like
00:18:00
Hey soul sister and um like Drops of
00:18:03
Jupiter um I know uh Katy Perry
00:18:05
performed for other another firm there's
00:18:08
a lot of you know you hear about this
00:18:09
kind of stuff um so that's always cool
00:18:12
it's like a nice Flex you know it's like
00:18:14
company small so you can easily just go
00:18:15
to the front of the stage you know and
00:18:17
just take pictures and videos of like
00:18:19
two feet away from them um all right con
00:18:22
um non-transferable skill set so
00:18:25
especially if you're in the trading side
00:18:27
A lot of times your specialty becomes
00:18:28
understanding the nature of that
00:18:29
particular market and um you know if the
00:18:32
strategy you're trading dries up then
00:18:34
you you no longer make money in that
00:18:35
market so um a lot of times companies
00:18:38
will just fire the whole desk rather
00:18:39
than move you to another desk it depends
00:18:41
on the culture of the company but a lot
00:18:42
of places will do that and it makes
00:18:43
sense because they reason that you're
00:18:45
kind of expecting bigger bonuses now and
00:18:47
you might have like trading habits from
00:18:49
Trading that particular product where if
00:18:51
they move you to a new desk like those
00:18:53
those same things don't hold and they
00:18:54
want to just you know get some young kid
00:18:57
out of MIT and underpay him for the
00:18:59
first few years and that kid's going to
00:19:01
pick up the new product anyways and so
00:19:02
they can give him smaller bonuses in the
00:19:04
meantime whereas you're expecting big
00:19:06
bonuses by then so there's a lot of
00:19:07
reasons why trading firms will just fire
00:19:09
you but you know usually you have like a
00:19:11
run it's like being a being like on a
00:19:12
sports contract like as a pro athlete
00:19:14
you'll have like a good run and then and
00:19:16
then it can just end immediately and
00:19:17
people know this so that's why they'll
00:19:19
they'll do an MBA they'll in the back of
00:19:21
mind they know okay when my trading
00:19:22
career ends I'll just go pivot to do an
00:19:24
MBA um and then pivot to another part of
00:19:26
Finance like Investment Banking um and
00:19:29
and it's also I think why like Asian
00:19:31
parents like push their kids into being
00:19:32
a doctor lawyer engineer but they don't
00:19:34
in include Trader because there's so
00:19:36
much variance in the trader Trader comp
00:19:38
and the trader career that they don't
00:19:40
they don't like the instability of it um
00:19:43
so yeah and for me in particular like I
00:19:45
I chose trading um I I liked being a
00:19:48
Trader but um that that that situation
00:19:51
happened to me like I I was most of my
00:19:52
money I went four years in a row maybe
00:19:54
making like 500% returns which is
00:19:56
awesome and um most of my was like this
00:20:00
Market making strategy where I would
00:20:01
pretty much like there was this big
00:20:03
whale like dumb money whale that would
00:20:04
come into the market and splash around
00:20:05
and just like I would basically hunt
00:20:07
them down every day like Moby Dick and
00:20:08
just like he was just uh making these
00:20:11
inefficient trades and like reaching for
00:20:13
things and I just constantly be fading
00:20:15
him and like scraping like thousands of
00:20:16
dollars off of him every day and um that
00:20:18
was like my whole strategy just kind of
00:20:20
like you know exploiting this this
00:20:23
Trader this this whale um and he was in
00:20:26
the market splashing around for years
00:20:28
and um
00:20:29
you know one day he just he just went
00:20:31
away I don't know if he blew out or he
00:20:32
he retired or quit but um yeah like my
00:20:35
profits dropped by maybe like 80% once
00:20:37
that once that whale left the market and
00:20:40
um it sucks because I I was actually on
00:20:42
my way to trying to trade on my own
00:20:44
instead of getting 20% as a cut I was
00:20:46
going to get 50% and have a backer um
00:20:50
and I was working through that in the
00:20:51
background and everything and then and
00:20:53
then this whale went away and so I was
00:20:56
like ah now my profits aren't even worth
00:20:57
it so that's when I kind of kind of
00:20:58
pivoted into more Quant Quant researcher
00:21:00
type stuff partially because I didn't
00:21:02
like the kind of instability of of uh
00:21:05
not knowing whether my strategy was
00:21:07
going to continue making money whereas
00:21:08
Quant stuff is very transferable right
00:21:10
you could be a data scientist in big
00:21:11
Tech a lot of people need quants so um
00:21:14
you know that's that's a more
00:21:15
transferable skill set but certainly for
00:21:17
like Trader the transferability is a
00:21:19
concern and and so even though you can
00:21:21
get big bonuses it's it's definitely a
00:21:23
con the fact that your skill set isn't
00:21:25
necessarily going to be transferable um
00:21:27
and last con stress people get yelled at
00:21:30
it's a high highflying fast-paced
00:21:33
Dynamic environment and you know Fortune
00:21:35
fortunes are being made and lost and a
00:21:37
lot of people you know they yell at you
00:21:39
they scream you know Partners will yell
00:21:41
and um a lot of people can't handle that
00:21:43
it's a very like stressful environment
00:21:45
um and that's not always like that it's
00:21:46
usually just calm and you know there's
00:21:48
not much happening but when things are
00:21:50
going crazy um yeah things get people
00:21:53
start screaming and yelling and um yeah
00:21:56
it's not for everybody but it's
00:21:57
definitely a con because you know it
00:21:59
it's anxiety inducing so yeah I think
00:22:02
that's my my list here so um you know
00:22:05
hopefully uh you learn something if you
00:22:07
if you want to try to break in the prop
00:22:08
trading uh uh you know I have a patreon
00:22:11
going to plug the patreon I have a
00:22:13
Discord in the patreon where you know I
00:22:15
have a career chat room where you know I
00:22:17
can help you learn about the industry
00:22:19
and how to break into it so do consider
00:22:21
that all right well thanks a lot see you
00:22:23
bye
