What would Jesus Do?

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mni

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In my quest of a new job, I face a difficult choice. I ask myself: what would JC do? But Jesus was a carpenter, so I might as well just ask you guys what you would do. Here is my story:

I started 2 years ago as a reconciler at an asset management company. After passing level 1, I got moved to the trading desk. Since it is a buy side shop, the portfolio managers are the real traders. My job is simple and boring: I execute trades all day based on the trade sheets that portfolio managers write. I have been trying to leverage my new position to get junior trader or at least a traders assistant role. It has been almost two month and still no luck.

Here comes my questions: should I take a middle office role at a more recognized firm such as Bear or Morgan and work my way up? I am sure it is much more difficult at a larger firm, but the upside is obviously bigger there as well. It seems that I can get an offer in those positions fairly easily. Or should I give it more time to stick with my original plan.

Thanks.
 
I think Jesus was into things similar to distressed debt. He was looking at souls that had gone bad and to most people looked irredeemable, but he was picking through them looking for the little gems that could be saved. Then he'd short some Pharisees or something to remain appropriately hedged.

Then he outsourced to Peter and others, who occasionally used different valuation models.

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As to your issue, my sense is that you may have a better shot at finding a junior trader job if you keep pounding the pavement. Two months into a job search doesn't really sound like all that much, even if it feels like a long time. The competition to get out of the middle office at a big place is likely to be very fierce - at least where you are you can try to focus your trading techniques as part of your job.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Monday, July 23, 2007 at 10:58AM by bchadwick.
 
pretty sure he didnt think the alternate investment market for souls (islam) would one day be so mainstream.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Monday, July 23, 2007 at 11:55AM by Dsylexic.
 
Anyone has good suggestions on how to best present my case as a mere order taker?

Will passing level 2 help me? Passing level 1 does not help at all. Most companies rather hire someone with a year or 2 experience over an cfa 2 candidate, i think. I start to see the connectedness between religion and false hope of passing cfa exam will lead to better job propects.
 
"pretty sure he didnt think the alternate investment market for souls (islam) would one day be so mainstream."

So I take it that real estates, private equity, ETF, hedge funds, MBS, ABS, CDO, etc, etc, are by definition, Islam.

Maybe the question is: what would mohamed do?
 
Maybe Ol' Mo is long volatility...

I imagine Jesus would be heavily shorting commodities. If you can feed 5,000 with a few loaves of bread, that could really screw up your crush spreads.

Also He's probably short precious metals, to monetize the treasure that awaits him in the Kingdom of Heaven.
 
mni Wrote:
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> I start to see the
> connectedness between religion and false hope of
> passing cfa exam will lead to better job propects.


I've been preaching and come to terms with this strong possiblity from the very beginning. However, most CFA hopefuls seem to have blind faith and are atheist with respect to this belief.
 
OMG, what have I done? This is supposed to be a serious question. Anyone please pitch in your suggestions how to MNI can find a real trader job, before I lose all hope and turn to religion.
 
The closest we have to traders in the Bible are moneylenders and Jesus didn't treat them particularly well. Jesus would say that you should give up your possessions, get a sackcloth, and follow him.
 
We did have Abram and Lot, who managed to bargain God down from requiring 50 honest men to 10 honest men to spare Sodom and Gommorah. Of course, there weren't even 10 there, so God exercised His option to blow things away. Somehow it seems appropriate that God is a derivatives trader.
 
sn8eye Wrote:
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> "pretty sure he didnt think the alternate
> investment market for souls (islam) would one day
> be so mainstream."
>
> So I take it that real estates, private equity,
> ETF, hedge funds, MBS, ABS, CDO, etc, etc, are by
> definition, Islam.
>
> Maybe the question is: what would mohamed do?

Don't ask him......all of his funds seem to blow up.
 
To try and answer the serious question
(although I enjoyed the biblical trading references)

I would stay on the desk and keep looking for a Jr. Trading position
Keep getting your way through the CFA levels.
level 1 does not really score you to many points, Level 2 is by far the worst of all three
I myself am awaiting L3 results

Switching to the middle office will only help you of you end up in performance or attribution.

If you want trading, keep plugging along and stay as close to the desk as possible. If you do that, you will eventually get what you want.

I will say that it may take a few months
If you go to anything else the first question out of the gate will be if you want to trade why did you go to the middle office?
 
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