Finance/Investing ITT

[325i]

My new favorite thread!!! We are currently doing an investment game in my engineering econ class. (investing 100,000 in stocks,(shorts, buy sell options) and commodities.

[freeride53]

freeride53, do you like Excel/math or charts/research? Then maybe. If you like sleep or have hobbies, might look to other fields.

Yeah I'm aite at that stuff. I'm becoming sort of a developmental economics & political econ junkie, after being super captivated by a few of my courses.

I love sleep but haven't gotten a lot of it in the last yr or so.

last fall I interned at a pwm firm 12 hrs/wk, trained for crew team 18 hrs/wk, while gettin' honors in a 16 unit course load.

I don't really sleep. Waking up at 4:45 tmw morn per usual.

Were you ever in the field?

[rwh11385]

Yeah I'm aite at that stuff. I'm becoming sort of a developmental economics & political econ junkie, after being super captivated by a few of my courses.

I love sleep but haven't gotten a lot of it in the last yr or so.

last fall I interned at a pwm firm 12 hrs/wk, trained for crew team 18 hrs/wk, while gettin' honors in a 16 unit course load.

I don't really sleep. Waking up at 4:45 tmw morn per usual.

Were you ever in the field?

You should eat up wonkblog if you don't already.

From what I got from my friends is to be an investment banker, you need to basically develop complex Excel sheets to take data and find advantages... and work 80+ hrs a week. (Like your parents having a spare key to your apartment and doing your laundry for you busy) Not just alright at Excel - but eat, drink, and breath your models. I'm not sure PWM is a good preview of investment banking... maybe get a master's in econ if that's really what you want to do. Or maybe try to find a different application of your interests...

The job market for it has took a big hit:


But most people focus on this... http://www.careers-in-business.com/undergradbyarea.jpg which likely isn't the best way to decide your life plan.


MC Skills / Is it for you?

http://careers-in-business.com/consulting/mcskill.htm

http://careers-in-business.com/consulting/mcyou.htm

Again, Excel powerhouse plus Powerpoint craftsman.

But this show and the book it is based on is fairly accurate:

http://www.sho.com/sho/house-of-lies/home

It's a good way to get a lot of experience in a short amount of time, but a lot of people bail out and seek something else eventually. It's not a bad way to cut your teeth starting out and will provide a lot of learning as well as things to reflect back on and laugh, hopefully while in another industry.


If you are into developmental economics & political econ... do Peace Corps. A lot more meaningful education in it that school and can do a master's later, work in government, a non-profit, or be an analyst focusing on Africa or wherever you go. If you like finance and developmental econ, work in micro-finance or Heifer International, etc.

[325i]

up 3k (investment game for class) by shorting radio shack over the weekend.

[rwh11385]

Waking up at 4:45 tmw morn per usual.

Here's an interesting insight about how that'd be late to work already:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303636404579393131430361274?mg=reno64-wsj

Most Pimco investment professionals arrive at the office around 4:30 a.m.—well before trading opens on Wall Street—and stay until 5 p.m. or later. The firm encourages internal competition, current and former employees say.

On the trading floor, Mr. Gross doesn't like employees speaking with him or making eye contact, especially in the morning, current and former employees say. He prefers silence and at times reprimands those who break it, even if they're discussing investments, these people say.

And how fortune changes and strategies that won in the past don't always yield good results (like buying into silver or gold just before they crashed):


And you are just a few months late to the party. There was a lot of discussion of investment and returns last year and the summer prior including a financial advisor who recently stopped posting here.

[nando]

hehe. I get to work by 4-4:30 at the latest. that's the only time I can get stuff done without interruptions, endless meetings, etc. plus I work 4 days a week but put in 50hrs. I like me some 3 day weekends. :)

I used to spend some of that time on my stocks, but I'm ashamed to say though I just haven't had the energy to devote to investments. other than my 401k, I have everything sitting in cash. At least I was finally able to double my automatic roth/401k contributions to 10% per check.

I wanted to go into finance too, I really enjoyed economics and all the math. I decided to drop out of that in 2007, boy was that ever a lucky decision. I'd likely now have tens of thousands of debt and still be working in retail..

[Farbin Kaiber]

^Read Bill Caswell's AMA on reddit, he says similar, make sure they never see you come in, never see you leave, never speak about personal shit, finish your spreadsheets correctly, a mistake is worse than not doing it at all...

[rwh11385]

^Read Bill Caswell's AMA on reddit, he says similar, make sure they never see you come in, never see you leave, never speak about personal shit, finish your spreadsheets correctly, a mistake is worse than not doing it at all...

Wait, this guy?



Whoa. They're turning it into a movie?

http://xgames.espn.go.com/article/6689040/cubicle-wrc-rallying-hollywood-film-starring-jeremy-renner

Exciting. About as cool as Williams Martini livery yesterday. Thanks dude!

[Farbin Kaiber]

Surely.

I feel bad for the hate he gets out of jealousy. He is living so many people's dreams. I guess it's par for the course though.