# Looking for a job in Sydney



## satriani1 (14 August 2014)

Hello,

I'm looking for a job in AU. Maybe some of you could help me or offer me something. I need a visa 457. I think the best for me is to find some proptrading company or hedge fund.

Short story about me:
-> I'm 27 years old, I finished Warsaw School Of Economics (Master degree).
-> I have Investment Advisor Licence (equivalent of CFA - 95% range of knowledge), licensed by Polish Financial Supervision Authority (a 3-step exam).

-> I played poker professionally for 3 years at highest stakes in 2008-2011 (full ring)
-> I invested funds for poker players to play with (it called staking). After investing in over 150 players I had 18% average return (a single deal lasted from 1 day to 3 months). 
-> I built advanced scrypt for poker-bot with high winrate. I was working for 6 months (16hours/day) to do this.

-> 2 years work experience in Asset Management Department (managing mutual funds).
-> I developed a trading systems on derivats which gave positive result for the last 15 years in polish stock market (3 degrees of freedom). It works in Sydney also, but not as well as in polish, norway or other emerging markets.
-> I created a portfolio of companies selected on the basis of Graham’s value investing strategy.

-> I also have invested in bitcoin and other crypto-currencies (like PeerCoin) in early adopters stage.


I know that without any references it will be very hard. So if here is someone who can help i could probably will repay in the future. I know that my english is not on the highest level right now, but after a few months it won't be a problem (now i'm preparing for IELTS exam).

I attach result of my systems which work on capital market. This is the same model without optimization (i take 5$/contract fee in AU)


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## ThingyMajiggy (14 August 2014)

I would say send all the above to the likes or Propex, Aliom Trading etc. which are prop firms in Sydney.

propex.net.au
aliomtrading.com.au


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## kid hustlr (14 August 2014)

Is the poker bot still running?

Need more info on what u want to do. Prop trade? Funds management? Investment banking? Sell side buy side? Company man or entrepreneur? U look like a good hedgeuind candidate but there's not many in syd.


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## kid hustlr (14 August 2014)

that was supposed to be *hedgefund


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## Smurf1976 (14 August 2014)

Does Macquarie employ people like this?

Just a thought, I'm no expert........


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## skyQuake (14 August 2014)

Protip: Go to Singapore or HK.
There's way more funding and taxes are SUBSTANTIALLY lower.


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## pinkboy (14 August 2014)

Can you even get a 457 Visa for this line of work?

Edit:  Yes, it appears you can: http://www.nationalvisas.com.au/employer-visas/eligible-occupations-457/


pinkboy


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## satriani1 (15 August 2014)

ThingyMajiggy said:


> I would say send all the above to the likes or Propex, Aliom Trading etc. which are prop firms in Sydney.
> 
> propex.net.au
> aliomtrading.com.au




Yes, i'm thinking about Propex, i read a lot of good stuff about them.
Aliom Trading looks also very solid.

Do you know anybody from there?




kid hustlr said:


> Is the poker bot still running?
> 
> Need more info on what u want to do. Prop trade? Funds management? Investment banking? Sell side buy side? Company man or entrepreneur? U look like a good hedgeuind candidate but there's not many in syd.




I think that proptrading for emerging market will be the best for me at start. For the first weeks I could learn a lot about local markets and try to develop some new models. But working in hedge fund could be also very good (buy side) - i could do the same at the beggining. Fund Manager and Investment banking - definitely not right now. 

poker bot is off now. sites have been less bot-friendly for last years. if you want to look at graphs or copy of script in .jpg i could send you. (over 15 mln hands, nl10 has winrate 6-9bb/100 9max; >200pages of script A4).



skyQuake said:


> Protip: Go to Singapore or HK.
> There's way more funding and taxes are SUBSTANTIALLY lower.



Now I focus on AU. But thanks for tip.


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## kid hustlr (15 August 2014)

OK from the top:

- The point Skyquake was making is there are lot more hedgefund type entities as well as lot more perceived growth in these areas for the type of work you are looking for. There's just going to be more opportunities there compared with Sydney.

- I think with your background and this industry you just need to be weary how things can be perceived. There was probably a time pre GFC when big banks and Investment Banks etc were happy to 'take a chance' on someone with model building/poker/'X factor' abilities but I think those times are now gone. Things are perceived slightly differently now and knocking on an Investment or big banks door and saying "i  killed it playing poker" just won't do anything for you. I'm speaking from experience. 

The point I'm making is if you were going to look at a fund management/buy side role you have the papers/CFA and experience to back it up so I would frame your approach in that manner and then judge at the time of the interview 'how deep down the rabbit hole' you go with the poker side of things based on the interviewer. You just need to be weary how you frame yourself for a lot of roles because if you get an idiot HR person on the other side of the desk who sees poker on your resume they just think 'punter'. Once again I'm speaking from experience.

- On the other side of the coin you have the prop trading jobs which is definitely a viable option for you. If you are the type of guy who can live on 100% performance based pay and enjoys the lifestyle prop trading entails then an established prop firm (Propex) is the obvious choice. Once again though just be weary how you frame things and have your game plan mapped out going in because truth be told they probably won't care about the CFA and they are going to look at any backtested model with a level of suspicion. That being said you have some really good qualities and I think a prop firm would be silly not to take you on given your history and apparent abilities.

- The reason I like hedge funds as an option is I feel they give you 'some' level of security in that you'd probably be on salary + bonus, you'd have 'some' kind of mandate to trade and a bit of structure. I guess this is personal preference where you lie on the spectrum of risk/security with one end being prop trading gun slinger and the other end being an execution guy at a bank on a salary who tells people hes a trader.


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## jmg86 (15 August 2014)

You will struggle to get a Prop firm to sponsor a 457.  Under the 457 program the employer needs to be paying you a market based salary of at least $53k for the role for you to qualify. Considering prop is a profit share arrangement, i doubt you could satisfy that test. May be wrong though.

"Standard business sponsors are required to pay their overseas workers the market salary rate. The increase to TSMIT means that where the market rate for a position is less than $53 900, the position cannot be nominated under the subclass 457 program."

https://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/increase-income-threshold.htm

You may have to look for a middle-office type roles to get your foot in the door / visa sponsored before you move to the front office.

Market Makers may also be another option and look favorably on the poker etc...


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## kid hustlr (16 August 2014)

jmg86 said:


> Market Makers may also be another option and look favorably on the poker etc...




Forgot these but yeah good point altho I know they target grads.

Obvious ones are 'tibra' and 'optiver'


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## satriani1 (16 August 2014)

Thanks kid_hustlr for this post.


kid hustlr said:


> The point I'm making is if you were going to look at a fund management/buy side role you have the papers/CFA and experience to back it up so I would frame your approach in that manner and then judge at the time of the interview 'how deep down the rabbit hole' you go with the poker side of things based on the interviewer. You just need to be weary how you frame yourself for a lot of roles because if you get an idiot HR person on the other side of the desk who sees poker on your resume they just think 'punter'. Once again I'm speaking from experience.
> 
> - On the other side of the coin you have the prop trading jobs which is definitely a viable option for you. If you are the type of guy who can live on 100% performance based pay and enjoys the lifestyle prop trading entails then an established prop firm (Propex) is the obvious choice. Once again though just be weary how you frame things and have your game plan mapped out going in because truth be told they probably won't care about the CFA and they are going to look at any backtested model with a level of suspicion. That being said you have some really good qualities and I think a prop firm would be silly not to take you on given your history and apparent abilities.
> 
> - The reason I like hedge funds as an option is I feel they give you 'some' level of security in that you'd probably be on salary + bonus, you'd have 'some' kind of mandate to trade and a bit of structure. I guess this is personal preference where you lie on the spectrum of risk/security with one end being prop trading gun slinger and the other end being an execution guy at a bank on a salary who tells people hes a trader.



I made a CV which has a "secure" information about me. I didn't mention about playing poker professionally and making a poker-bot. I think that it is better to give a few words about that in Cover letter with the graphs of the result of my models.
It would be very helpful if you can take a look at this CV and CL. My skype: satriani230
I want to ask you a few more questions on skype, if you don't mind.

According to your post and what jmg86 wrote, hedge funds looks probably better for me at the beginning of sending applications then prop-trading company.

You mean market maker as a animator/ arbitrage / playing of low liquid securities or market maker like a Brokerage House who create a closed forex platform with high spread and swap points (which people called casino). The second one - i don't want to work in this place. The first one - yes, it looks good and also i heard that they have great tools to make money month after month, so my salary is pretty stable and probably I don't need to worry about 457 visa terms (minimum  salary). So the best choice at start are MMs and hedge funds (which ones are the most solid in Sydney?).


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## kid hustlr (16 August 2014)

satriani1 said:


> Thanks kid_hustlr for this post.
> 
> I made a CV which has a "secure" information about me. I didn't mention about playing poker professionally and making a poker-bot. I think that it is better to give a few words about that in Cover letter with the graphs of the result of my models.
> It would be very helpful if you can take a look at this CV and CL. My skype: satriani230
> ...




...


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## satriani1 (19 August 2014)

OK, thanks kid hustlr for information.

Anybody else could help? check my CV / give some names of hedge funds in AU / help to find the best way of looking for a job ?


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