Say goodbye to the dream

[Daliman]

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All,

Just as an FYI, here's the sort of upside opportunity for those who get to the top of this field:

SAC Capital, Stephen Cohen

Last year he reportedly made about a billion dollars.

There was an excellent WSJ or NYT profile of him a month or two ago.

He manages somewhere in the neighborhood of $10B. Some of his funds he takes management fees of up to 3% and takes up to 35% of the profits. His last $2B fund he waived the management fee and took 50% of the profits.

This guy of course is a superstar and few people will ever have the consistent success he has had that has allowed him to grow his funds to this scale. A more typical arrangement is someone taking a 1-2% management fee and then 20-30% of the profits. So, even if you aren't quite Stephen Cohen, but can get people to invest $50M in your fund and can make a 20% return for them, that's a pretty nice payday to get you started. There are tons of smart guys in this business who have managed to put together funds of a few hundred million at a pretty young age.

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jesus christ 1 billion isn't an income it's a GDP. what do they even do with that much money?

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This kinda investment sounds a lot like the hedge fund Ed thorp and Michael Milken were involved in that I read about in "Fortune's formula". They can make tons by leveraging, but if "disaster" strikes,(which is about every 7 years or so...) everything goes for pennies on the dollar. It may not be, but NO ONE is worth that kind of $$$, and anyone paying those kinds of fees should have his head examined.

[iversonian]

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The obvious answer is that markets open in the morning... You get there before they open to do some research. So if you trade natural gas, you would read about middle eastern politics, look at weather reports, etc... Many of the companies also have morning meetings where they go over strategy and such. Then the markets open and close at 2:30 if you do certain commodities and at 4pm (they open at 9:30am). After you close, you go over stuff to make sure stuff went okay, maybe plan a bit for the next day, then leave. I think the more senior you are, the later you can show up (I think some people get to work just before 8am).

Someone who actually knows the world can get into this more.

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How many of these legendary 14 hours are actually downtime? You know, schmoozing by the coffee machine, two hour lunches with "clients", watching the 4th quarter of the Knicks game while waiting for dinner to get there, another hour for dinner, etc?

[MDMA]

This thread makes me feel bitter about not actually using my intelligence (I assume I have some) for something more..

I really like your take on life Jason, and I envy you for having this chance "thrown" at you, as well as your previous success as a poker player.

I am sure you will live a very fulfilled life; you constantly seek intellectual challenges and just does not get lazy being "satisfied" with just being wealthy (and yes being "poker wealthy" is in no way even to be compared to being wealthy in business, I'm just saying Jason probably has enough money to never have to work again, although perhaps not enough to live a super-extravagant life spending [censored] each year)

I sincerely wish you good luck, and man, this has got me thinking about my own life, and what the [censored] I'm supposed to do with it.

Great post, and great discussion (particularly lap and Diablo), although it did got me depressed [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Johan

[jojo11]

I'm surprised www.efinancialcareers.com hasn't been mentioned. It's a great resource for anyone looking to enter the field. Check out the day in the life section and the salary section for ACCURATE info.

[iversonian]

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As far as the OP, I'm sure he will be successful as long as whatever market he is trading in goes up. How many Wall Street folks were laid off in 2001?

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And when the market picks up, are they first in line to get rehired? Or are they considered washed up and their Wall Street careers over?

[N 82 50 24]

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my blog sucks

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that's cause you shouldn't have your own, you should do it on y site www.destinyboy.com that way you don't have to force al lot of entries of low quality, just do it once in a while along with others and have just the best

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how many people post on your site? and is there any way to know who is posting?

[IHateCats]

I think we'll have to wait and see what happens with FT/Stars/Bodog & whether the Feds turn up the heat on them before we can say either way. I think it's fair to say that it isn't dead yet but it's been shot a few times and that sucking chest wound doesn't look very good.

[highhustla]

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Look at this way, there have to be some private cash poker games on Wall Street that are incredibly juicy.

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yeah u betta not be sayin goodbye nigga!

[El Diablo]

Dali,

"NO ONE is worth that kind of $$$, and anyone paying those kinds of fees should have his head examined."

WSJ: "SAC Capital Management LP, Mr. Cohen's largest and oldest fund, launched in 1992, has generated an average annual return to investors of 43.5%, after he takes a sizable cut of profits."

That's why he gets those fees.

[fish2plus2]

He return 43.5% annually after fees! Holy [censored]! Can anyone invest with him or do you need millions?