positiveIf you have not studied business or finance in college, then futures trading can still be a great career for you. I studied engineering in college and was pleasantly surprised by the number of successful futures traders in the office who were from a similar background to me.
People from science/engineering courses should consider trading futures as a career because…..
1. You can deal with numbers
Trading is one big numbers game. After all that calculus and horrible linear algebra you did in college, you have proved you have the number skills needed for this career. A lot of these maths are extremely abstract and it is hard to see exactly how they relate to real life. But if you apply some of your skills in this area to the markets, the solution to your equation will be a big pile of cash!! (not making any promises, terms and conditions apply, always ask your pharmacist).
2. You’ve got the work ethic!
If you got through a science/engineering degree and preferably got good scores too, then it is clear you’ve shown you’re willing to put in the graft in order to get the rewards. I think this is the number one quality someone must have to succeed in trading: good work ethic. However if you just copied your lab results off the guys on the next bench then it doesn’t count! Shame on you!
3. Innovation skills
In engineering we are constantly thrown with the buzz word “innovation”. In trading, and particularly in Positive, this has real meaning. We are always looking for the next big idea that can help us out perform the competitors. If you are good at problem solving then you will most likely have some good skills for trading. You might even need to make friends with your old nemesis MATLAB, yep, you can’t escape it. You can run but you can’t hide.
4. Team skills
Everyone knows we work better when we work together. That sounds extremely soppy and like something from a tidy towns advert, but it’s the truth! If you have experience working in teams on a project in college then you have yet another attribute we’re looking for, (real teams, not the ones where one guy does all the work and every one else just gets him/her to send on the report!)
So that’s it, you’ve no excuse! Take my word for it that an engineering/science grad is just as likely to get accepted as a trainee here as anyone else. But be warned, if you thought you worked hard in college, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Follow the link here to start your career in the markets!