Career as a Stockbroker
Discussion
I need help from any Stockbrokers/Investment Advisors out there.
How and what do I need to become qualified in this field? What course would I need to undertake? Which qualifications would you recommend?
Any info including website links or people to speak to would be really gratefully recieved.
How and what do I need to become qualified in this field? What course would I need to undertake? Which qualifications would you recommend?
Any info including website links or people to speak to would be really gratefully recieved.
There are lots of different types of brokers in the market and you probably don't need any qualifications to do most of the jobs. A broker generally puts market buyers in touch with market sellers. For some broking jobs you don't even need to be FSA registered. What you do need is the ability to get on with people, rhinoceros thick skin, good connections, and a lot of luck. Some brains wouldn't go amiss either.
Any job in the City is going to be very hard to get for a year or so. Most of the young people get in either through friends in the market, rare job applications, via a back/middle office role, or straight from university.
A financial advisor generally means somebody who helps individuals invest their own money. A private banker or wealth manager is a posh financial advisor.
A trader makes bets with his company's money.
How old are you? Tell me where you got the idea of the job you want to do and I'll tell you which area of the markets you are talking about. Was it Boiler Room, Wall Street, American Psycho?
Any job in the City is going to be very hard to get for a year or so. Most of the young people get in either through friends in the market, rare job applications, via a back/middle office role, or straight from university.
A financial advisor generally means somebody who helps individuals invest their own money. A private banker or wealth manager is a posh financial advisor.
A trader makes bets with his company's money.
How old are you? Tell me where you got the idea of the job you want to do and I'll tell you which area of the markets you are talking about. Was it Boiler Room, Wall Street, American Psycho?
Edited by nsa on Monday 2nd February 22:49
Personally, I'd steer clear of going into broking. In my opinion, the number of brokers will fall markedly over the next 5-7 years. Why do people use brokers? For two main reasons - firstly, to be able to place orders on exchanges, and secondly, to get orders executed at the best price. Both of these are possible with direct market access solutions offered by many investment banks and brokerage firms, with which clients can place orders online, and those orders will be executed electronically using finely tuned algorithms designed to get the client the best price for that type of order. With no manual intervention required orders are executed faster and cheaper, with benefits to both clients and brokerages.
If you do want to get into broking, it can be pretty high pressure and brutal. The financial rewards can be relatively good (but not the best in the financial sector), although the most recent news suggests the bonus era at investment banks is over, at least in the short term, and there's a good chance that it'll be a long time before we see the sort of incomes we've seen over the last decade. Brokers generally make a very significant portion of the income with bonuses.
Other options are sales roles at investment banks/wealth managers (coming up with products to solve clients problems and pitching to them), structuring roles (creating structured products to solve a given problem - more maths based), trading (either on behalf of clients, or proprietary trading with a company's own money), wealth management roles where you advise high net worth individuals of investment opportunities, or normal financial advisor (advising normal people about things like pensions, funds, ISAs etc)
If you do want to get into broking, it can be pretty high pressure and brutal. The financial rewards can be relatively good (but not the best in the financial sector), although the most recent news suggests the bonus era at investment banks is over, at least in the short term, and there's a good chance that it'll be a long time before we see the sort of incomes we've seen over the last decade. Brokers generally make a very significant portion of the income with bonuses.
Other options are sales roles at investment banks/wealth managers (coming up with products to solve clients problems and pitching to them), structuring roles (creating structured products to solve a given problem - more maths based), trading (either on behalf of clients, or proprietary trading with a company's own money), wealth management roles where you advise high net worth individuals of investment opportunities, or normal financial advisor (advising normal people about things like pensions, funds, ISAs etc)
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