positiveOne step closer to the sim.
It’s been around a month since my class started as trainees in Positive Equity. For the moment we have no pressure of chasing targets or P/L, so we can be more relaxed than is usually expected on a job. I suppose it will become a bit harder soon when we finish the first stages of training and move on to the simulation, when we start to measure our performance on a daily basis. For now we are still focused on building foundations, learning basics stuff about trading the markets, reading books such as Market Wizards, Reminiscence of a stock operator and a Futures and Options theory book (It’s a real fun read)
Even though few people in our group had some previous experience we all had to start from the beginning. What are futures contracts, where are they traded, what are the big markets, what could move them, etc. Lately we have been doing a lot of research and learning how to make a proper report on our various research projects.
That leaning pile of books I mentioned on previous entry is becoming thinner.
When I look back, I can see that a lot of initial work is behind us already. Four books read specific chapters From out Futures and Options, learned a lot about the most traded markets and reading the charts. For anyone who is considering applying for a job at Proprietary Trading firm, I recommend a book called One Good Trade, by Mike Bellafiore. It shares tons of advice that is proving very accurate on it’s like to be a part of modern prop trading firm.
A few times during the week we even play some video games with our boss. I know! I can’t believe I’m even writing this; it’s mostly to just relax and spend time with the person training us in. He tries to tie some training thing into it but I think he just likes to abuse us on the screen.
Top tip for future trainees who might read this: make headphones your first investment. In the first month or two you will most certainly have a ton of reading to do.Headsets will help with some noise reduction. As you can imagine it’s not easy to read while on a busy trading desk.
After a month I can say that we are settled in, learning a lot about the basics and getting ready for the next big step, simulation.