Does CQF help one in becoming a trader? Any path or previous postings one can point me to.Thanks

The most direct route to a trading position is via an MBA program. A pretty sizable percentage of traders also make it via a stint in product control. As surprising as it may seem, most traders (even those trading exotics) don't have a particularly strong quantitative background. When trading, an intutitive\pragmatic understanding of pricing and risk is often a lot more valuable than an indepth theoretical understanding, which is probably why more traders originate from product control than quant research.

This is totally bullshit

QuoteOriginally posted by: YldTarnThis is totally bullshittough to hear if you've spend years and countless dollars studying, but true.

QuoteOriginally posted by: StatTraderQuoteOriginally posted by: YldTarnThis is totally bullshittough to hear if you've spend years and countless dollars studying, but true.I've been working on IR exotic desk for quite a while and never see any product control guys who can make this move. Exotic risks are far from intuition in many cases - it depends on too many details - how you calibrate models, how you do risk rotations, how you deal with noises. All good exotic traders understand this very well. In my bank, all the big guys on exotic side spent certain time as quants before but never as product controllers. StatTrader: are you working on this industry?

QuoteOriginally posted by: YldTarnQuoteOriginally posted by: StatTraderQuoteOriginally posted by: YldTarnThis is totally bullshittough to hear if you've spend years and countless dollars studying, but true.I've been working on IR exotic desk for quite a while and never see any product control guys who can make this move. Exotic risks are far from intuition in many cases - it depends on too many details - how you calibrate models, how you do risk rotations, how you deal with noises. All good exotic traders understand this very well. In my bank, all the big guys on exotic side spent certain time as quants before but never as product controllers. StatTrader: are you working on this industry?Of course I work in the industry otherwise I wouldn't have posted an opinion. I've seen many product control guys make the move on both IR and credit deriv desks. At one firm, product control was virtually a training ground for would be traders. Granted, its been a while since I worked on an exotics desk (I'm currently an algo trader) and maybe times have changed, but from what I hear, product control is still a viable route into trading.

What is "product control"? Is it production support?In my firm, I have seen that many of the people who are in production support have become traders (Program Traders, to be specific).It might be because for Program Traders, attention to detail, hard work and perseverance are more important than risk management or any quantitative knowledge.

Product Control (PC) produce the P&L (+ P&L attribution) for the Traders. As a result they tend to get a good insight into how the Traders work and build up a rappore accordingly. PC can also include independent price testing and month end type work. Hence, most of them (if not all) have accounting backgrounds.I have seen a few collegues use this route to go into Trading (but it was a hard slog!).

Then, what is a better route? Also PC is trade support correct? If not, how does trade support differ from PC?

I would not class PC as Trade Support. Trade Support is more to do with the day-to-day running of the desk and supporting the Traders directly. PC is more like being the accountant to the Trader. Hence, you need to produce their P&L (very efficiently) on a daily basis, perform month end reconcilations for your collegues in Finance and perform price testing to ensure that the book is not totally mis-marked.As a result you are in the direct firing line if the Trader is unhappy with his / her P&L, even if what you are reporting is correct to the best of your knowledge(!)

So would Trade Support be a better route? Since you are supporting the traders in their daily activities, i'm assuming this will allow you to understand what they are doing and why they are doing it... also do you need an accounting background for PC? Or would a good knowledge about various products and a good math bg suffice?

Either route is about building a rapport with the Traders and showing them what you can do, couldn't say which is best. I agree with YldTarn that this approach is probably not best for Exotics Trading.....

Never underestimate the power of building a rapport with people to get you places. I agree with the PC comment. Many times have I seen good traders come up through the middle office. I have a half dozen colleagues now running desks, or in the case of one a division, who began their career as a P&L analyst!! Exotics is maybe a harder sell but not impossible.

Just to add some context to this thread, the guys I know that made it spent 3+ years slogging it out in PC (and 3 years before that qualifying for their Chartered Accountant Exams straight out after Uni) to make it on to the floor.And they all seem to be Spread Betting Gurus

A mate of mine got onto the desk from PC within 18 months, joined straight from uni at 21 and is now trading at 23.