Monday, October 27, 2008

But... What do you do?

While I would love to say I spend all my time in fantasy worlds, slaying dragons and righting wrongs, in truth my reality is a little less excting. I work as a corporate trainer for a large, Boston based financial firm. My firm is the second largest clearing firm in the US, and my clients are broker dealers all over the place. This means I get to spend a lot of time away from Boston, training clients new to our platform. When they join us they need to be taught how to open accounts, initiate and monitor trading activity, move money into and out of accounts, and just about anything else you can think of related to the transacting business in the stock market using our systems.

I am a fully licensed broker, holding Series 7, 24, 27, 55 and 63 designations with FINRA, formerly known as the NASD (National Association of Securties Dealers). These licenses allow me to conduct trading activity, open my own broker dealer, act as a market maker, file Focus Reports with FINRA, and be licensed to conduct business in the 50 US states. I've been in the industry for twelve years now, starting as a sales assistant and also acting as firm principal, trading desk manager, and various and sundry other positions prior to joining my current firm. Here I've been a Client Service Manager (serving 20+ clients at a time) and now a trainer.

Now is a truly exciting time to be part of this industry, provided you enjoy rollercoasters. Luckily I do! Even more lucky for me, I work for a very stable company and have little to fear from the current economic crisis other than a rapidly dwindling 401K plan.

1 comment:

Bob Watson said...

Matt,

Glad to hear that you are safe. I have been in and around Boston my whole life until a couple of years ago when I made the "huge" move all the way across the northern border to New Hampshire.

Boston is a great city and I still have not found one that I would rather live by. But I do here the social scene takes getting used to if you are not used to it.

Bob