Skip navigation

Foreign Exchange Departments at Banks

or Register to post new content in the forum

 

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Aug 3, 2005 3:43 am

Hello,

I trade foreign currencies personally, and I have 2 years left in university. Does anyone know anything about the Foreign Exchange Trader's at firms, who get's hired, is it right out of college, what do they major in, any information would be helpful. Is FX trading more lucrative trading stocks. I thought that being a stockbroker would be a good way to get my foot in the door, and maybe later i would go into the FX trading feild...of course then i would lose my clients. Any information and thoughts would be great.

-Nick

Aug 3, 2005 4:35 am

www.phlx.com

Aug 3, 2005 7:33 am

Insomnia.  Can’t sleep.  Going to be a rough day…


Currency trading is a pressure-cooker job and not for everyone.  Yeah,
you trade personally–but you aren’t doing it 30+ hours a week.


I don’t know much about currency trading other than what I’ve heard. 
Someone I know had a sibling who worked in currency trading for a
while.  The money is very good.



In the investment industry there has been a movement in the last 10
years away from putting a firm’s own capital at risk and more toward
just handling trades.  So don’t expect a firm to give you millions
of dollars to speculate with. 



I know they come from varied backgrounds.  Of course a solid
understanding of Finance and Economics will be beneficial.  I do
not think being a retail stockbroker will be a good way to get your
foot in the door at all.  It is entirely different.



Most Wall Street firms have traders, salesman, traders/salesman,
institutional salesman, etc.  I don’t know how that is structured
in trading.  I don’t know if they have salesman at all.



My guess would be that it would be wise for you to try to get an
internship somewhere.   Starting out you’ll likely be a floor
flunky or assistant trader.  Call some companies and see if anyone
will talk to you.



If you are looking to get into something lucrative, consider derivative sales.