ITT: Ask a professional options trader anything. I'll start with a few common ones:

>What kind of proof would I give?
>physics undergrad
>can't imagine simple proof of employment

What kind of proof could I give of my employment that won’t give away my identity?

>larps as an options trader
How dull

Any piece of paper work with name hidden?

Can a sperg with massive social dysfunctions ever become a trader?

Do you use algos or meat traders?

Not worth it.

Yeah if you’re smart. To get a place in a trading firm you’ll need a solid degree and great problem solving skills. To go it alone will be a lot harder and most of the information you find on the web will be wrong.

A bit of both I guess. There are algos doing trades rapidly, but there’s a trader behind the wheel, if you will.

I never did good in school, will never be able to get a degree.

If you're interested in reading

buy MCO, it's mooning beginning of march

What makes you say that?

I get my bonus soon so might dump some extra into crypto.

How advanced is the mathematics involved?

Is it based on pricing options better than the market and hedging the underlying or is it based on advanced forecasting models?

Can your strategies be automated?

>How advanced is the mathematics involved?

The mathematics that traders do on a daily basis is usually not that advanced. Basic modeling in excel of various problems is as much as it gets.

But the mathematics behind our models is pretty advanced. Think proprietary alternatives to black Scholes.

There are no forecasting models.

Everything hat can be automated is automated, but I don’t see the trader making decisions behind the wheel being automated any time soon. The game is too complex. There is one form (timber hill) who were an automated options trading firm and they recently shut down.

How'd you go from physics to trading?

t. Has a B.S. in physics

I applied straight after undergrad to a bunch of trading firms. I had no prior knowledge of trading.

When will the stock market cease to exist, the market exist because of history, but with block chain why would we need a "stock market" with market makers "madoff" with their profits.
I would see the future as wagecucks are forced to contribute 5%-25% of any earnings into a personal social fund for pension etc.
So you expect to have a job after the next banking crash?
How soon is that going to happen after the XIV wreck.

Whenever the market crashes, or when volatility explodes, or when stuff like the XIV crash, we make money.

People love to sell these things happening. If a market crash is a 2% event, lots of people like selling it for 1%.
It makes them money month after month until it doesn’t. We usually take the other side of those trades.

>professional trader
>be 24
>physics undergrad

So you’ve been a trader for what 22 months?

Something like that.

How did you get into trading, where did you learn? How did your background apply to your job? I'm a graduate in physics and I'm interested in how you started the jorney to options trading.

I went straight from my undergrad to applying to several trading companies. I got accepted to a few. I knew very little about trading beforehand, despite trading so much about trading and wanting to be a trader. There is just so much misinformation out there that will lose you money. That includes basically all the technical analysis you read, most stuff on biz, almost everything on reddit/r/trading and most books.

Everything I learned was basically at the company.

The maths I use when trading is a lot less advanced than what I did in my degree, and a lot more practical, but I definitely find the physics background useful.

Despite reading so much about trading*

200k a year is not a lot. Why not do trading on your own as opposed to on behalf on a company?

What country are you in?

dirty jew

Hi there, I started reading books that focus solely on FA, would you say that these books are worth reading and give good information? Ive been reading Graham, Books on Buffet, Lynch, Random Walk Down Wall Street. I want to work at a firm in the future possibly, but i'm studying a meme degree (poli sci, considering switching to economics) How much did your firm care about your physics degree?

That's interesting, can you describe which trading firms did you apply for, and how the selection process went? I may be unironically looking into that myself. How old were you when you started in the company? 22? Is it a stressful job?

Your view on forex?

>200k a year is not a lot

He's 24. By the time he's 34 he'll be rolling in money.

>When will the stock market cease to exist, the market exist because of history, but with block chain why would we need a "stock market" with market makers "madoff" with their profits.
screencapped for demonstrating the retardation on Veeky Forums

I am happy to be earning 200k at my age. Trading on my own would not be nearly as profitable without much more capital available to me.

They seem worth reading for long term investment strategies. I also recommend fooled by randomness, that book is a really good book if you want to see a traders mindset.

I think my physics degree was a big advantage. Economics would be a lot better than poli sci from an employers POV.

Yeah I started at 22.

I applied to all the banks, as well as several trading firms like Jane Street, Two Sigma, Susquehanna, DRW etc.

I got accepted into one in the latter group (not necessarily listed). I started at 22. I don’t personally find it stressful most of the time though occasionally it is.

You won’t make money trading forex.

I had a book - Automated Option Trading by Sergey Izraylevich. Is this close to what stuff u do? Any good books u can recommend pls? Success to you.

Last question from the physics graduate. Did you have an outstanding CV / academic record when you applied for those companies?

Why is trading forex not profitable? What do you recommend to get into for a 21 year old bachelor student trying to become a trader

What country are you in?

I'm a physics PhD student making $8k a year without health insurance or any benefit whatsoever. Ask me anything.

>I get my bonus soon
I get mine this week. I wonder if the start of bonus season is a good time to buy as people might dump some fiat into crypto?

not him but if you want to work as a trader and not just trade your own money, I don't think fucking around with pennies is going to really impress anyone. most firms would rather hire someone with the mathematics chops they can teach their own proprietary strategies, rather than hire someone who is essentially a free agent that only knows their own random-ass strategy. Just like if you want to go the IB route you're not gonna get hired there by just trading your own money, unless you're a one-in-a-million standout

what's your exit strategy?

I taught myself how to trade stocks and options, and I'm creating some software to sell on the internet.

The bachelor student again, im currently trading forex making small profits (200-500$ a week). Started out 1 month ago scalping the shit out of the market stressing everytime I put in a trade. Wish trading was less stressfull and Im looking for a less stressfull way of trading.

Haven’t read it. If you summarize what it’s about I can tell you.

It was pretty good yeah. Ivy League, good grades. No charity stuff or exceptional extra curricular stuff though. I think the problem solving ability in interviews is just as/more important

Forex is the most liquid market in the world. It trades over 5 trillion dollars a day on average. There are smart people all over the world looking at it and trading it. People at banks and other firms with huge amounts of capital, intellect and studies at their disposal.

Why do you think you can beat them? Just think about it. Suppose there was some TA indicator, lets call it ABC. The lower it goes, the more evidence that the pair will go up. The higher it is, the more evidence that the pair will go down. Like all those indicators you read about.

If it actually worked, what would happen? Whenever it went below 30 day, people would start buying it. It would start spiking up as soon as it hit 30, removing the opportunity. So people start buying as soon as it hits 35 to get in ahead of the 30 buyers. But then everybody starts doing that, so you need to buy at 40. Ultimately due to the huge liquidity in forex the markets become efficient and there is no money to be made.

US

If you're in the US, why did you use the word "maths"? No one uses that term here.

have you ever considered leaving because the sector encourages unhealthy behavior?

pic related; it basically convinced me to not work as quant

yeah desu i don't think from the perspective of getting hired on that's going to be a great way to do it

i can't think of that many people who made it big off amateur trading. i guess there's michael burry but he's a value investor

What unhealthy behavior? I don’t really think there’s much unhealthy behavior desu though I don’t know what that book alleges.

If you could develop some bot to trade crypto, what algos, equations and models would you use?

I Dont want to be hired as a trader, I want to have financial freedom as a trader. Not aiming to make millions of dollars, 5k$ each month would be enough to earn me my freedom.

That would be great. But how will you do it? How will you get an edge over the market place?

No idea, thats Why im kinda asking around. Is forex the right market for financial freedom?

Just trade some fucking options. Find some good traders from your country on Twitter and read what they are talking about. Also look at the composition of some major stock funds and see what the managers are up to.

Fuck algorithms and fuck pompous certified traders, you'll make money by learning from other experienced traders and by trying out your own strategies.

dude you post this everyday. gtfo

...

How do you guys identify a trend change? E,g, going from bullish in Dec to bearish, then back to bullish after the spike low? Is that something that is left to each trader or does the firm put out guidance for how you should trade?

Are you allowed to trade your own account with the info you get?

are you bored? im fucking over finance. money isn't everything?

for a novice trader, can you point me towards the right path if most of the retail stuff is wrong?

also what are these firms looking for? I have an Engineering degree and I want to get into trading. Currently trading my own money and being barely profitable

What would you recommend for someone who wants to learn to trade?

>dude just trade volatility bro
>100% success rate ezpz

Ok einstein, i'll bite. How do you predict when these high vol events occur so you can place your straddles or strangles or whatever? These strategies won't work unless its really high vol and those are practically black swans which cant be predicted unless you're extremely lucky

We don’t try to identify such trends and generally don’t care.

Nope.

We don’t predict when they happen, we just know they happen x% of the time and if someone wants to sell them for better odds we are happy to take them on.

How do you decide what kind of trades to make? Is it all data driven? E.g on Tuesday when you go in, how will you determine which new positions to take?

For the most part, we interact with orders. If you go to buy or sell an option, those quotes you see? They’re our quotes.

Sometimes well also put on bets based on events and what not

Unless you're a massive sperg/skizo like myself you won't be able to save your money, you'll go spend it like a stupid person on women, partying and other useless hedonistic activities.

And just think about it. How much of that 200k a year does he spend on bills and food? Probably AT LEAST 50%. So that's 100k IF he can even save it. It takes 10 YEARS to make that into a million, assuming he makes no mistake during those 10 years which is almost unthinkable.

I can sort of confirm this, a friend of mine makes 3x what I make but our net worth is the same because he just spends the excess money into useless shit.

>need to be mentally handicapped to save money
boy it's not that hard to not spend money, you just don't spend it

I mean you must have no interest in sex/social life. Most people can figure out what they need to do but their emotions prevent them from doing it.

Look at all those rich guys like Warren Buffett. Either they're snakes who cheat the law and do insider trading to get rich or they're on the autistic spectrum and don't spend their money on partying or other crap

I save 2.5k a month. So yeah it will take a while to become a millionaire with this income. Fortunately though salaries rise pretty steeply and if I continue along this path I’ll make half a million a year within a few years.

>I mean you must have no interest in sex/social life.
>you have to spend 100k annually in order to live and also have a social life
where tf u live b?

>I save 2.5k a month
>$200k a year plus healthcare, food and retirement
>I save 2.5k a month

So you have 30k at the end of a year. That's literally nothing.

it looks like you don't know what the word "literally" means user

but yes HV15bKfu sucks at saving his money

Well to be honest I live on disability payments and have 3500 usd saved up from 5 years of saving. But I also have to spend around 90-99% of the little money I do get

I have to pay taxes, rent etc.

Also, I expect to earn more in the future so why live like a pauper?

is this a shitpost

i guess so
but as a college student i can't imagine how much lifestyle creep would be required to go from spending 20k a year to spending like 5-6 times that

I never understood people with the "live by today" mentality. Intelligence creates foresight. Niggers are unable to think ahead so they live by the now, it's because of their low iq.

You're never going to be very rich if you spend your money now. And it's not difficult to save. Just fast, avoid social contact and get used to it.

>Just fast, avoid social contact and get used to it.
i still don't get it
why do you need to avoid social contact to save money

putting it into meme Veeky Forums shitcoins lol nice

This was supposed to be a thread where an options wizard taught us about the market. Ended up being a thread where we have to teach the retard basic personal finance.

How can you be intelligent and not understand it? You spend money to impress or to facilitate social interaction. In other words, on parties, clothes, fancy cars, etc.

Would you buy a fancy car if only you ever got to see it?

Saving is just deferring wealth from today to tomorrow. Why do that aggressively when I will have more money in a few years anyway

>thinking you need parties, nice clothes, or a fancy car to have social interaction

>I will have more money in a few years anyways
tell me where you found the crystal ball user

Because you can't invest what you don't have. And you don't NEED any of these things. What motivates you to get rich? The prospect of never having to work again, and a better life.
But what do you REALLY need? You need financial security.
You just have to treat yourself like a robot that can be manipulated and then you'll see how easy it really is to get ahead.

Vice versa, you attend parties, buy fancy clothes and cars FOR OTHER PEOPLE. So when you eliminate other people suddenly the "need" for these things disappear as well.

I mean if you give the animal the carrot on the stick then all you's got is a stick and no carrot and the animal won't transport you anymore

>Vice versa, you attend parties, buy fancy clothes and cars FOR OTHER PEOPLE. So when you eliminate other people suddenly the "need" for these things disappear as well.
>thinking you need to buy expensive things for other people to have social interaction
user you haven't been outside in a while have you? i'm sorry

I literally have schizophrenia so no

aight take it from me, a (mostly) well adjusted human bean, you don't need to spend that much money to have social interaction

It depends on who you go out with, once I went on a date with a rich spoiled girl and she literally held her laugh when I told her what car I owned. It's not even trashy car or anything, just a regular one.

You don't NEED versus WHEN you do it's only for social interaction. Socializing will drain your money, it's psychological. Take it from a Grand Wizard.

I looked through the thread and didn't see this, but did you go to a great school OP? I always thought it would have been cool to trade options, but it didn't happen for me unfortunately. Might try applying for some banks and trading firms because the job I'm currently in is not what I want to be doing for the rest of my life, but I went to a very small school and I'm shit at writing resumes.