How to Become a Professional Stock Trader

Professional stock traders can either be self-employed or work for a financial institution. This article focuses on working for a large financial institution because it's a corporate career path as opposed to a form of self-employment. Institutions that hire professional traders include hedge funds, investment banks, mutual funds and sometimes even commercial banks or insurance companies. Traders tend to work "bankers hours" because their schedules follow market hours.

Instructions

1. Apply for internships during your senior year of college. Many financial institutions only recruit directly from school. If you're already out of school, consider going to business school for an MBA.

2. Get as many offers as possible. Don't stop interviewing until you have three or four offers available. Your first job in trading will change your career path forever. Working for the more prestigious firms earlier in your career will allow you to advance faster.

3. Get licensed. As a trader at a financial institution, you will need to be licensed with FINRA. The Series 7 license will let you trade publicly traded securities such as stocks, bonds and options. You can only get licensed once you are hired by a firm.

4. Be prepared for a lot of training. During your first few weeks at the firm you've been hired, you'll go through a lot of trading education. Each firm and each trading desk will have different strategies and objectives for their trades.

References

• Yale on Trading Careers
• Mergers and Inquisitions - Wall street career advice