I Wanna Be a Pro!

How do you learn to trade like a hedge fund or an investments professional?

If you ask me, I'd probably say, "Not by confining myself to books about finance or to professors who have a lot of knowledge on the subject but unfortunately barely have any practical experience in the field of investing, taking losses, doing international deals or building a business from ground up." There are a few good professors who have excellent corporate experience, but most of it is confined to seasonal consulting, and rarely does it involve having worked as a successful trader at an investment bank, or having built a $10 million dollar company, starting with almost nothing.

Take swimming as an example if you will. A person might learn about the different styles of swimming, its mechanics and models, its physics and biology, from breathing techniques to butterfly bounces, by reading books and watching films. However he would most likely drown if jumps into deep water unless he has had proper coaching and practical training.

The same applies to dealing with investments, money and start-ups. You need coaches and mentors. You need trainers. You need to supplement your theory with the real world sessions inside the swimming pool.

But how are you suppsed to meet such coaches and pros? It's difficult to even get a chance to talk to or meet such people. I attended an ivy league school and can therefore easily call some alumni who work on the Street. They are nice and try to be very helpful. But they wouldn't coach me about the real world, about what they really do, how they make money (really make money), and what I can do to learn to invest or trade. Those skills are hard to get. Most of those I call may themselves be struggling to acquire those skills, quite frankly. And it's not their job to teach others. I am thankful enough I can call them to ask their help with an information interview or other such things.

There are some opportunities, however. Such an opportunity for me was a summer program I took in Switzerland, called Swiss Finance Academy. During the lectures the instructors, who were seasoned executives, traders or investors, shared their practical know-how and insider knowledge which they had gathered through many years of work. I benefitted from thousands of pages of customized materials and models.

The summer program by Swiss Finance Academy was a very insightful and rewarding experience that simply stands out in my professional development as an investor. I now work in a front office job at a major investments firm.