Richard Perry, Market Analyst at Hantec Markets and University of Reading alumni, blogs about his return to the university as corporate sponsor of the Finance Society, and gives his tips and advice to students wanting to enter the field of trading.
I recently completed a course of seminars at the University of Reading during which I taught a group of students about some of my experiences of trading. My “Tips to Save You Pips” series gave me a chance to give something back to the university at which I count myself as an alumni, having studied there for my degree all those years ago. Many thanks to Sean Harper, President of the University of Reading’s Finance Society for allowing me to host the seminars and for making us feel so welcome. I found it to be a rewarding experience for myself and hope that the students found it similarly helpful for how they approach their own trading.
About the seminars
- Seminar 1) The Importance of a Trading Strategy – I discussed this seminar the need for a trading plan and a need to look at your trading style to decipher how best you can approach your strategy. I also introduced the vital concept of “Risk Per Trade”.
- Seminar 2) The Benefits of Trade Management – In this seminar I looked at the impact that Emotion Trading can have on your account, whilst also discussing the vital trading security tool that is the “Stop-Loss”.
- Seminar 3) The Perils of Overtrading & Overleverage – A look at some of the ways you can fall into the trap of overtrading and some of the warning signs that can leave you in danger of being overleveraged whilst trading.
- Seminar 4) The 12 Steps of Trading Success – Is my walk through guide of how to approach trading in the correct mindset and ensure that novice traders are prepared as much as they can be when they start out on their trading journey.
As so often can be the case, it can take people time to gain confidence, but certainly towards the end of the series of seminars, as a group, we were having some extremely interesting discussions about financial markets and trading.
My advice to students
With regards to advice on getting into a career in finance, I can only go on my own experiences really.
Here are my top tips to students:
- Internships – Try to apply for internships as soon as possible, work experience is crucial. Clearly a finance related degree would help, but is not vital.
- Courses – Getting factual experience by doing online courses to improve your knowledge base is also important.
- Publications – Try to read some sort of financial publications on a daily/weekly basis – again this will improve your knowledge and understanding.
- Research – Do your research into the organisations that you are applying for as this will clearly help in an interview situation.
- Confidence – Above all though be confident and concise in both applications and interview situations.
I hope that this will help you in your prospective career in finance, and thanks to everyone who attended the seminars – I wish you all the best and good luck for your careers wherever they take you!
The ICMA Centre at University of Reading offers world-ranked undergraduate and postgraduate finance courses. The Centre is home to some of the most extensive dealing room facilities in the world, supported by Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg, and equipped with the latest trading simulation software to give students a practical experience of a trading too floor during their studies. Click here to find out more.
Read the original blog post on Hantec Market’s website.