macrocephalopod

Not sure what your career goals/plans are and I'm not saying this to rub you the wrong way... But gotta start off and cut your teeth on an institutional desk.

I'd say don't focus on what you can do with 8k right now; and focus what you would do if/when you got allocated 50mil on a desk.

1/2 reminds me that sometimes I need to dream bigger. Honestly still debating the tradeoffs. - other people's money means more capital and sophistication and can get paid for "execution premium"; but heavy stress, and they can outright ban you from cool strats you dig

A jr analyst on an institutional desk will learn in six months what would take you three years of messing around with data on your own. Working on a desk for five years is the perfect preparation for PA trading, if you are still interested in doing that.

Great point. experience bit of that even learning from just 1 person. how's work:life balance for that? optimist in me hopes, it can be self taught. maybe it's naive. I also recognize, for better or for worse, I prefer running own thing vs clocking in for someone else

I lived at the office for about 3 years. 1st yr my role was booking trades, hedging fx risk and doing PnL calcs. Wkends were for creating strats which I'd pitch once a week. After that it's a mix of creating strats, maintenance, etc. Once you get your own book it's even busier.

Looking back, I can't believe how stupid many of my initial pitches were. Same goes for interns/first years who worked for me. If you're working with people who know what they're doing, they'll immediately tell you (or yell at you) why your idea won't work. That's pretty crucial