We all want to build wealth and live comfortably. The question is how do you do it.
Across the world, the cost of living is getting higher and higher making it hard to understand how anyone is able to get ahead. But for many, the answer is simple. The financial markets. Truth is the market is full of opportunities and not just for the rich, but for everyone. And you may be surprised to know that making money in the market isn’t all that hard. By learning the same strategies that professional traders use to read the market, you too, can learn to build a strong portfolio over time.
We’ve taken the insight and knowledge from over 200 books and 10,000 hours of professional trading experience and distilled it down into a series of fun bite-sized tutorials that will teach you the trading skills necessary to start building your long-term wealth.
This series is divided into five categories.
First, the basics of trading and investing where you’ll learn the different ways you can build wealth in the market.
Second, riding the big market cycles where you’ll learn how to catch the big moves in the markets.
Third, the ABCs of stock valuation to help you select the best stocks to trade.
Fourth, behavioral analysis and market timing where you’ll learn a repeatable method that professional traders use to read the market.
And finally, making your first trade where you’ll put all your new knowledge to use.
So, what do you say?
Ready to take your first step towards building some wealth?
There are five main career paths in the trading and fund management industry, and each one rewards a different skill set: sales and trading at an investment bank, proprietary (prop) trading at a private fund, fund management, research analysis, and brokerage or dealing. Sales and trading and prop trading are for people who want to take and manage positions. Research analysis suits strong writers and thinkers who would rather not pull the trigger themselves. Brokerage and dealing is execution-led and sales-driven. Fund management sits at the top and usually needs experience and a track record before anyone hands you capital. Pay is structured differently in each: a salary, a commission, profit-sharing, or some blend. If you are deciding which one to aim for, the honest first question is not “which pays most”, it is “which job do I actually want to do all day”, because the day-to-day work is very different across these five.
Here is what each role is, who it suits, and how you get paid.
What are the main career paths in trading?
Most jobs in the industry fall into one of five buckets. They sit on a spectrum: at one end you are executing other people’s orders, at the other you are running your own book or someone else’s capital. The further along that spectrum you go, the more the pay shifts from a stable salary toward performance-based profit-sharing, and the more the risk shifts onto you.
Further along the spectrum, pay shifts from salary to profit-sharing and risk shifts onto you.
Role
What you do
Who it suits
How you get paid
Barrier to entry
Sales and Trading (S&T)
Make markets and take client orders at an investment bank
Top academics, bank-track candidates
Salary plus bonus
Very high (degree, stellar grades, often prior bank experience)
Proprietary trading
Trade the firm’s own money, usually at a private prop fund
Risk-tolerant traders who thrive under pressure
Small allowance plus profit-share (often 30 to 80 percent)
High selection, high turnover
Fund management
Run a larger, often longer-horizon book against a benchmark
Experienced traders with a track record
Base (management fee) plus profit-share
Highest (needs a proven record)
Research analyst
Analyse securities and write buy/sell/hold opinions
Strong analysts and writers who dislike position stress
Salary, paid well at banks
Moderate (analytical and writing skills)
Brokerage and dealing
Execute orders for clients as a dealer or remisier
People who are sales-led and client-facing
Base salary plus sales commission
Lower (less analysis required)
The rest of this guide walks through each role in turn.
Sales and Trading (S&T)
Sales and trading is one of the core functions of an investment bank. It covers the buying and selling of securities and other financial instruments, both for the bank itself and on behalf of its clients.
It splits into two halves. Traders make markets: they buy and sell products mainly to facilitate clients’ activity, aiming to earn a small incremental amount on each trade. The sales side is the bank’s sales force, whose job is to call on institutional and high-net-worth investors, suggest trading ideas, and take orders. The sales desk passes those orders to the appropriate trading desk, which prices and executes them, or structures a new product to fit a specific need.
These roles are highly paid and highly coveted, which is exactly why they are hard to come by, especially when banks freeze headcount for front-office roles. The basic requirements are usually a degree plus stellar academic achievements, and previous experience working in a bank improves your chances.
Proprietary trading
Proprietary trading (often shortened to “prop trading”) is when a firm trades stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, their derivatives, or other instruments with the firm’s own money, rather than its clients’ money, to make a profit for itself. Prop desks use a range of strategies (index arbitrage, statistical arbitrage, merger arbitrage, fundamental analysis, volatility arbitrage, global macro) much like a hedge fund.
Banks used to run this function in-house, but that number has been declining. Most of the hiring now comes from private prop funds. These funds tend to hire experienced traders to trade the firm’s capital, though many run training programs to groom new traders.
Do note that the selection is stringent and the turnover rate is high; it is not an easy environment to thrive in. Remuneration is usually profit-sharing (commonly 30 to 80 percent) with only a small allowance, so you should have at least a year of savings to live on during the learning phase. Strategies vary, but many involve shorter-timeframe trading with high-leverage products such as futures and options.
Fund management
Fund management typically requires more experience and a track record, and you are expected to have advanced knowledge of trading before anyone hands you the capital. Products vary widely, and strategies are usually flexible, depending on the discretion the fund gives you. Because the capital base is larger, strategies often lean toward longer holding periods. There is usually a benchmark and drawdown limits to work within, and pay is a combination of a base salary (the management fee) plus profit-sharing.
The classic example is a hedge fund: an investment fund that can undertake a wider range of activities than other funds, but is generally only open to certain investor types specified by regulators (institutions like pension funds, university endowments and foundations, or high-net-worth individuals). Hedge funds invest across a diverse range of assets, most commonly liquid securities on public markets, and use techniques such as short selling and leverage.
Research analyst
A research analyst (also called a financial analyst, securities analyst, equity analyst, or investment analyst) performs financial analysis for external or internal clients as the core of the job. These roles are offered by banks, brokerage firms, and some independent research houses.
They suit people with good analytical and writing skills who enjoy research and analysis but do not like the stress of executing trades and holding positions. Writing reports and notes expressing opinions is always part of a “sell-side” (brokerage) analyst’s job, and is often not required of “buy-side” (investment firm) analysts. Analysts traditionally lean on fundamental analysis, though technical chart analysis and tactical reads of the market are also routine. At the end of an assessment, an analyst usually issues a rating recommending an action: buy, sell, or hold. Depending on experience, these jobs pay quite well at banks and financial institutions.
Brokerage and dealing
Brokerage and dealing roles come in several forms: an in-house dealer for a retail brokerage, a dealer for an institutional brokerage, or an independent remisier (a self-employed broker who trades on clients’ behalf under a brokerage’s licence).
A brokerage firm is a financial institution that facilitates the buying and selling of securities between buyer and seller, serving a clientele of investors who trade public stocks and other securities through the firm’s agents. A full-service brokerage does more than carry out trades; its staff research the markets to provide recommendations.
These roles require less analysis and trading skill than the others, because you are mainly executing orders for clients, though clients may lean on your input for their decisions. Remuneration is typically a base salary plus a sales commission if you hit certain targets.
So which path should you pick?
Personally, I would not start from the salary. Start from the work. A research analyst and a prop trader can earn similar money over a career, but their days look nothing alike: one reads and writes all day with no open positions, the other is sitting in front of live risk. Pick the day you can do for ten years, not the title that sounds best at a dinner party.
One more thing worth saying plainly. A role at a fund or a bank is not the only way to trade for a living, and it is not even the most accessible one. Many people now build a trading track record on their own capital first, then use that record as the thing that opens these doors, instead of waiting for a door to open. A firm can hand you a desk and a risk limit; it cannot hand you the judgment, the discipline, or the emotional control to use them well. That part you build yourself, and it is the same part whether you trade your own account or someone else’s. That is the human edge, and no employer and no algorithm supplies it for you.
FAQ
What are the highest-paying jobs in trading?
Sales and trading at an investment bank and successful proprietary trading or fund management tend to pay the most, because pay there is tied to performance through bonuses and profit-sharing. The trade-off is that these roles also carry the highest barrier to entry and, in prop trading and fund management, the most income risk.
Do you need a degree to become a trader?
For sales and trading at an investment bank, yes, usually a degree with strong academic results, and often prior bank experience. Proprietary trading and brokerage roles can be more open to candidates who can demonstrate skill or a track record, though selection is still tough and turnover is high.
What is the difference between proprietary trading and fund management?
Prop trading means trading the firm’s own money, often on shorter timeframes with leverage, paid mostly through profit-sharing. Fund management means running a larger, often longer-horizon book of investors’ capital against a benchmark and drawdown limits, paid through a base (management fee) plus profit-sharing.
What does a research analyst do?
A research analyst studies securities and the market, writes reports expressing an opinion, and issues a rating to buy, sell, or hold. It suits strong analysts and writers who prefer analysis to the stress of taking and holding positions.
What is a remisier?
A remisier is an independent, self-employed broker who introduces clients and executes their trades under a brokerage’s licence, earning commission on the business they bring in rather than a full salary.
Whichever path you are aiming for, the foundation is the same: a method you can actually execute, and the discipline to stick to it. If you want the full picture of how I think about trading as a skill rather than a job title, read the pillar: The Beginner’s Guide to Trading.
Want a method you can run on your own capital first? Grab the free 15-Minute Swing Trading Starter Kit. It is the exact routine I use to scan once a day and trade any market in 15 minutes, the kind of track record that opens the doors above.
About the author. Spencer Li is The 15-Minute Trader and the founder of Synapse Trading. He is a Certified Financial Technician (CFTe) with 15+ years of trading, run from 70+ countries. He holds a B.Acc and B.BM from SMU. Every trade he takes is public, dated, losses left in. He teaches low-risk swing trading in 15 minutes a day, one system for any market.
Education, not financial advice. Synapse Trading is not licensed by MAS to advise on investment products. Trading carries risk of loss; past performance is not indicative of future results.
https://synapsetrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/career-paths-for-the-trading-fund-management-professional-card.webp6301200Spencer Lihttps://synapsetrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/synapse-logo-horizontal-light.pngSpencer Li2014-06-16 21:48:362026-10-22 13:35:10Career Paths for the Trading & Fund Management Professional
The Best Trading and Investing Books: My Reading List After 200+ Books
Last updated: 29 August 2026 · By Spencer Li, CFTe
The best trading and investing books are the ones that teach you the foundations: market structure, technical analysis, fundamentals, and trading psychology. After reading 200+ of them, the short answer is that no book makes you a profitable trader, and the right ten will save you a lot of wasted years. If you are learning on your own, the highest-value categories are technical analysis (Murphy, Edwards and Magee, Nison), market psychology (Douglas, Lefevre, Schwager’s Market Wizards), and a couple of classics on price action and risk (Al Brooks, Gerald Loeb). Read the foundations before you risk real money. But here is the honest part most book lists skip: even if you finish every book on this page, it is unlikely you will trade well from books alone. The rest is paid for at the market, or learned from someone who has already done it.
Below is the full list, grouped so you can find your starting point, plus the ten I would hand a beginner first.
Do trading books actually make you profitable?
No, and I want to be honest about that before you spend a year reading.
Trading for real is very different from textbook examples. If you are new, you will feel the gap the moment you start. The chart in the book is clean, labelled, and already over. The chart in front of you is live, noisy, and asking you to act before you are sure.
Books give you the vocabulary and the map. They do not give you “market feel,” real applied price action, behavioural analysis, or trading psychology under live pressure. Those are not on any page. You pay for them in one of two ways: tuition to the market (real money, real losses, the only teacher that bills you), or time with a trader who already has the skill and will guide you.
Do note that paper trading and demo trading do not count here. They feel like practice, but they remove the one variable that matters, which is the fear of losing real money. That fear is the whole lesson.
So why read at all? Because the books are the bare minimum. Skipping them does not save you the tuition fee, it just raises it. Investing in your education is a small price to pay to avoid the expensive mistakes everyone else is making in real time.
The 10 books I would give a beginner first
If the full list below feels overwhelming, start here. These cover the four foundations (technical, fundamental, psychology, and the trader’s mindset) without drowning you.
#
Book
Author
Why it earns the spot
1
Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets
John J. Murphy
The standard reference for charting. If you read one TA book, read this.
2
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Edwin Lefevre
The oldest trading lessons, still the truest. A story, not a manual.
3
Trading in the Zone
Mark Douglas
The book on probabilistic thinking and trader psychology.
4
Japanese Candlesticks Charting Techniques
Steve Nison
The source on candlesticks, from the man who brought them west.
5
Technical Analysis of Stock Trends
Edwards and Magee
The original chart-pattern bible. Dated, foundational, worth it.
6
The New Market Wizards
Jack D. Schwager
Interviews with great traders. You learn there is no one right way.
7
Trading for a Living
Alexander Elder
Mind, method, and money management, in one accessible package.
8
Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar
Al Brooks
Hard going, but the deep end of applied price action.
9
One Up on Wall Street
Peter Lynch
The friendliest entry to fundamentals and stock picking.
10
The Battle for Investment Survival
Gerald M. Loeb
Old, short, and brutal on the one thing that matters: keeping your capital.
Read these first. The rest of the list is where you go deeper once you know which direction pulls you.
The full reading list, grouped by what it teaches
Here are the better books among the 200+ I have read, sorted into categories so you can pick by need instead of reading top to bottom. If you are serious about self-study, work through the foundations before you put real money in. That is what I did when I started.
Economics and fundamentals
The Secrets of Economic Indicators, Bernard Baumohl
The Trader’s Guide to Key Economic Indicators, Richard Yamarone
The Pocketbook of Economic Indicators, Manual Jesus-Backus
International Economics, Paul R. Krugman
Freakonomics, Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt
The Undercover Economist, Tim Harford
One Up on Wall Street, Peter Lynch and John Rothchild
How to Make Money in Stocks, William O’Neil
The Alchemy of Finance, George Soros
Hot Commodities, Jim Rogers
Investment Biker, Jim Rogers
Trader Vic: Methods of a Wall Street Master, Victor Sperandeo
Technical analysis (the core)
Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets, John J. Murphy
Intermarket Technical Analysis, John J. Murphy
Technical Analysis of Stock Trends, Robert D. Edwards and John Magee
Technical Analysis from A to Z, Steve Achelis
Technical Analysis: The Complete Resource for Financial Market Technicians, Charles Kirkpatrick and Julie Dahlquist
Technical Analysis Explained, Martin Pring
The Visual Investor, Martin Pring
Martin Pring on Price Patterns, Martin Pring
Technical Analysis Power Tools for Active Investors, Gerald Appel
Technical Analysis Demystified, Constance Brown
All About Technical Analysis, Constance Brown
Technical Analysis for the Trading Professional, Constance Brown
Fibonacci Analysis, Constance Brown
Breakthroughs in Technical Analysis, David Keller
New Concepts in Technical Trading Systems, J. Welles Wilder
Candlesticks, price, and volume
Japanese Candlesticks Charting Techniques, Steve Nison
The Candlestick Course, Steve Nison
Beyond Candlesticks, Steve Nison
Candlestick Charting Explained, Gregory L. Morris
The Secret Code of Japanese Candlesticks, Felipe Tudela
Candlestick and Pivot Point Trading Triggers, John L. Person
Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar, Al Brooks
Timing the Trade, Tom O’Brien
The Secret Science of Price and Volume, Timothy Ord
Indicators, systems, and quant
Bollinger on Bollinger Bands, John Bollinger
Understanding RSI, Edward Dobson and Roger Reimer
Mastering the Trade, John Carter
New Trading Systems and Methods, Perry Kaufman
Dynamic Trading, Robert C. Miner
High Probability Trading Strategies, Robert C. Miner
Quantitative Trading Systems, Howard B. Bandy
Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management, Ludwig Chincarini and Daehwan Kim
Pairs Trading: Quantitative Methods and Analysis, Ganapathy Vidyamurthy
Technical Traders Guide to Computer Analysis of Futures Markets, Charles Le Beau and David Lucas
Expert Advisor Programming, Andrew Young
Trend following and swing trading
Trend Following, Michael W. Covel
Trend Commandments, Michael W. Covel
The Complete Turtle Trader, Michael W. Covel
Way of the Turtle, Curtis Faith
Inside the Mind of the Turtles, Curtis Faith
How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market, Nicolas Darvas
The Master Swing Trader, Alan Farley
Trend Trading, Daryl Guppy
Snapshot Trading, Daryl Guppy
Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets, Stan Weinstein
Entries and Exits, Alexander Elder
Trading for a Living, Alexander Elder
Come Into My Trading Room, Alexander Elder
Sell and Sell Short, Alexander Elder
Elliott Wave, Gann, and cycles
The Elliott Wave Principle, A. J. Frost and Robert Prechter
R. N. Elliott’s Masterworks, R. N. Elliott and Robert Prechter
Truth of the Stock Tape and Wall Street Stock Selector, W. D. Gann
45 Years in Wall Street, W. D. Gann
New Stock Trend Detector, W. D. Gann
How to Make Profits in Commodities, W. D. Gann
The W.D. Gann Method of Trading, Gerald Marisch
Fibonacci and Gann Applications in Financial Markets, George MacLean
Integrated Pitchfork Analysis, Mircea Dologa
Future Trend from Past Cycles, Brian Millard
Ichimoku, Market Profile, and Point and Figure
Ichimoku Charts: An Introduction to Ichimoku Kinko Clouds, Nicole Elliott
Cloud Charts: Trading Success with the Ichimoku Technique, David Linton
Steidlmayer on Markets: Trading with Market Profile, J. Peter Steidlmayer and Steven Hawkins
The Definitive Guide to Point and Figure, Jeremy Du Plessis
The Wyckoff and tape-reading classics
Studies in Tape Reading, Richard D. Wyckoff
Stock Market Technique No. 1, Richard D. Wyckoff
Stock Market Technique No. 2, Richard D. Wyckoff
Wall Street Ventures and Adventures Through 40 Years, Richard D. Wyckoff
How I Trade and Invest in Stocks and Bonds, Richard D. Wyckoff
Dow Theory for the 21st Century, Jack Schannep
How to Trade in Stocks, Jesse Livermore
Trade Like Jesse Livermore, Richard Smitten
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Edwin Lefevre
Trading psychology and behaviour
Trading in the Zone, Mark Douglas
The Disciplined Trader, Mark Douglas
Investment Psychology Explained, Martin Pring
Beyond Greed and Fear, Hersh Shefrin
Irrational Exuberance, Robert J. Shiller
Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Trading Rules That Work, Jason Alan Jankovsky
Wizards, war stories, and markets at large
Market Wizards / The New Market Wizards / Stock Market Wizards, Jack D. Schwager
Millionaire Traders, Kathy Lien and Boris Schlossberg
The Battle for Investment Survival, Gerald M. Loeb
The Education of a Speculator, Victor Niederhoffer
Practical Speculation, Victor Niederhoffer and Laurel Kenner
Liar’s Poker, Michael Lewis
The Wall Street Waltz, Kenneth L. Fisher
The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas L. Friedman
The World Is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman
Forex specific
Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market, Kathy Lien
Bird Watching in Lion Country, Dirk du Toit
This list grows. I keep adding as I read, so if there is a good book that is not here, tell me in the comments.
How should a beginner read this list?
Do not read it top to bottom. That is the slow road, and most of these books overlap.
Personally, I would do it like this. Start with the ten above to build a base across all four foundations. Then pick the one category that matches how you want to trade (price action, trend following, fundamentals, or systems) and read deep in that lane. Read the psychology books last, because they only make sense once you have felt the emotions they describe. Reading Mark Douglas before you have lost real money is like reading about heartbreak before your first relationship. The words are there, the meaning is not.
Read the ten foundation books, go deep in one lane, and save psychology for last.
And keep a journal alongside the reading. A concept you wrote down after it cost you money sticks far better than one you highlighted in a book.
Where the human edge comes in
Here is the part the reading list cannot give you. You can feed all 200 of these books to an AI tomorrow, and it will summarise every framework in seconds. What it will not do is sit in the trade with you while the position moves against you, hold your size when you want to revenge-trade, or tell you that the clean setup in the book is not the messy thing on your screen right now. The knowledge in these books is becoming free. The judgment, discipline, and psychology to apply it under live pressure is the part that stays scarce, and it is the part you pay tuition for. The books are the easy half. The trader you become while reading them is the hard half.
FAQ
What is the single best book for a beginner trader?
For pure trading, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre, because the lessons are timeless and it reads as a story. For technical analysis specifically, John Murphy’s Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets is the standard reference.
Can you learn to trade from books alone?
No. Books teach the foundations, the vocabulary, and the frameworks, but not market feel, applied price action, or real trading psychology under pressure. Those are learned by trading real money or by being guided by an experienced trader. Reading is necessary but not sufficient.
Is paper trading or demo trading useful for learning?
It is of limited use because it removes the fear of losing real money, which is the central emotion you need to learn to manage. It can help you learn a platform’s mechanics, but it does not build the psychological skill that real money does.
How many trading books should I read before risking real money?
Read enough to cover the four foundations: technical analysis, fundamentals, trading systems, and psychology. The ten-book shortlist above is a reasonable minimum. Treat it as the floor, not a guarantee of success.
What is the best book on trading psychology?
Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas is the most cited for probabilistic thinking and discipline. Read it after you have some live experience, so the concepts have something real to attach to.
That is the list. If you only take one thing from this page, take this: the books are the bare minimum, and the real lessons are still waiting for you at the market. Read, then go pay your tuition with your eyes open.
Want a shortcut past the 200-book pile? Grab the free 15-Minute Swing Trading Starter Kit. It is the exact routine I use to scan once a day and trade any market in 15 minutes, distilled from everything on this list.
About the author. Spencer Li is The 15-Minute Trader and the founder of Synapse Trading. He is a Certified Financial Technician (CFTe) with 15+ years of trading, run from 70+ countries. He holds a B.Acc and B.BM from SMU. Every trade he takes is public, dated, losses left in. He teaches low-risk swing trading in 15 minutes a day, one system for any market.
Education, not financial advice. Synapse Trading is not licensed by MAS to advise on investment products. Trading carries risk of loss; past performance is not indicative of future results.
https://synapsetrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/my-reading-list-top-trading-investing-books-i-have-read-over-the-years-card.webp6301200Spencer Lihttps://synapsetrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/synapse-logo-horizontal-light.pngSpencer Li2012-12-05 06:19:462026-10-22 13:35:12My Reading List – Top Trading & Investing Books I have Read Over the Years (Updated 2019)
This is an essential skill required by every aspiring trader. All professional traders definitely know this, for it forms the basis of many setups, and can mean the difference between breezing on the right side of the market, or clenching your fists in anger as the market goes against you.
I am referring to the ability to tell the state of the market.
Besides behavioral analysis, there are some simple price action guidelines that we can use to accurately determine the state of the market. This is important for obvious reasons.
There are 2 basic states of the market – trend or range. As the market shifts between these 2 states, it creates many trading opportunities in the form of setups.
Newbies who attempt to trade by memorising setups while ignoring the underlying structure of the market are heading for the proverbial iceberg. That said, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
This video should provide you an idea of how prices move, and if I have a chance to share more in upcoming seminars next year, I will show how these transitions give rise to the different trading setups that we teach during our training programs.
https://synapsetrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/trend-vs-range-an-essential-skill-for-every-professional-trader-card.webp6301200Spencer Lihttps://synapsetrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/synapse-logo-horizontal-light.pngSpencer Li2012-12-04 22:45:072026-09-05 07:58:18Understanding Trend vs. Range Market State Transitions
Last updated: 1 October 2026 · By Spencer Li, CFTe
How to Write a Resume for a Trading or Finance Job
A resume that lands a trading or finance interview is one single-sided page, cleanly formatted, with only your best and most relevant achievements on it. A hiring manager spends a few seconds scanning each one, so your job is to make those seconds count: lead with what makes you stand out, cut everything that does not, and never let the good material get buried under filler. The point of the page is not to tell your life story. It is to earn one thing, an interview. Below is the exact checklist I used to get into the industry, and the same one I now use when I look through other people’s resumes.
Let me walk through what to keep, what to cut, and why each rule exists.
What is a resume actually for?
A resume (your one-page career summary) exists to give a future employer or headhunter a quick glimpse of your achievements and skill sets. That is the whole job. The purpose is to stand out enough to win an interview, nothing more.
That framing changes how you build it. You are not documenting everything you have ever done. You are choosing the few things that make a busy person, with a tall pile of other resumes, decide you are worth a conversation.
After looking through many resumes myself and talking to many employers, I have a pretty clear idea of what they look for and what gets a resume tossed. Here are my personal guidelines.
The rules: what to keep and what to cut
Rule
Do this
Avoid this
Length
One single-sided page
Two pages, no one scans them
Formatting
A decent, clean template
Ugly formatting, it gets tossed before it is read
Photo
Optional, but if used, a professional portrait
A webcam selfie
Personal data
Name, address, mobile, email
Birthday, height, weight, race or religion, horoscope, next-of-kin, favourite colour
Email address
One that resembles your name
cute_boi88@gmail.com and friends
Content
Only your best, most relevant material
An autobiography of every experience
Structure
Clear categories and dated entries
A wall of undifferentiated text
Now the reasoning behind each one.
Keep it to one single-sided page
Employers have piles of resumes to look at. They will spend only a few seconds scanning yours to decide if you are worth a shot. They do not have time to scan two pages. One page forces you to choose your best material, which is exactly the discipline you want.
Keep your resume to one page and put your best material first; a second page goes unread.
Use a decent template
A resume with ugly formatting may get tossed before it gets read. You do not need anything fancy. You need clean, readable, and professional. Presentation is the first signal an employer gets about how you work.
Treat the photo as optional
A photo is optional. If you include one, make sure it is a professionally taken portrait shot, not one snapped on your webcam. A bad photo hurts you more than no photo.
Provide relevant data, and nothing more
Relevant data includes your name, address, mobile number, and email address. Irrelevant data includes your birthday, height, weight, race or religion, horoscope, next-of-kin, and favourite colour. Leave the irrelevant stuff out. It eats space and signals that you do not know what matters.
Use a professional-sounding email address
School email addresses are fine. For a personal address, use one that resembles your name, for example john_tanxx@gmail.com, instead of something like cute_boi88@gmail.com. You get the idea. It is a small thing, and small things are exactly what a first impression is made of.
Put in only the best stuff
Given the space limit, and the few seconds of attention your resume will get, you want to make sure they read the good stuff. Do not dilute it and bury it under less important experiences. This is not an autobiography, so you do not need every single thing you have been through. Write only what is relevant to the job, and what might let you stand out. Hint: no one really cares about the medal you won in primary or secondary school.
Categorise your experiences
Group things so the reader’s eye can move fast. Common categories include:
Education
Awards and Honours
Leadership and Activities
Professional Certifications
Skills and Interests
Date everything, and elaborate briefly
Include the time periods for each work and education entry. After each work experience, add two or three bullet points describing what you did and what you achieved. Keep them short. The achievement matters more than the description, so where you can, show a result, not just a duty.
Why this matters more in trading and finance
Trading and finance desks read a lot of resumes, and they are reading for signal under time pressure. That is, in a small way, the same skill the job itself rewards: filtering a flood of information down to the few things that actually matter, and acting on them fast. A resume that buries its best line under a wall of irrelevant detail tells a hiring manager exactly how you would handle a noisy market. A clean one-pager that leads with your strongest, most relevant result tells them the opposite.
A template can make your resume look tidy in a second. It cannot supply the judgment to decide which two achievements earn a spot on the page and which ten do not. That choice is yours, and it is the part that actually gets you in the room.
If you have additional tips of your own, add them in the comments below. Good luck.
FAQ
How long should a finance or trading resume be?
One single-sided page. Hiring managers spend only seconds per resume, so a second page usually goes unread. One page also forces you to keep only your best material.
Do I need a photo on my resume?
A photo is optional. If you include one, use a professionally taken portrait, not a webcam shot. A poor photo does more harm than no photo at all.
What personal details should I leave off my resume?
Leave off your birthday, height, weight, race or religion, horoscope, next-of-kin, and favourite colour. Keep only your name, address, mobile number, and email address.
What sections should a resume have?
Common, employer-friendly categories are Education, Awards and Honours, Leadership and Activities, Professional Certifications, and Skills and Interests. Date every work and education entry, and add two or three bullet points of achievement under each role.
Does the email address on my resume matter?
Yes. Use an address that resembles your name (for example john_tanxx@gmail.com). An unprofessional handle is a small detail, but first impressions are built from small details.
Got a resume tip that earned you an interview? Share it in the comments.
Want a system you can actually run? Grab the free 15-Minute Swing Trading Starter Kit. It is the exact routine I use to scan once a day and trade any market in 15 minutes.
About the author. Spencer Li is The 15-Minute Trader and the founder of Synapse Trading. He is a Certified Financial Technician (CFTe) with 15+ years of trading, run from 70+ countries. He holds a B.Acc and B.BM from SMU. Every trade he takes is public, dated, losses left in. He teaches low-risk swing trading in 15 minutes a day, one system for any market.
Education, not financial advice. Synapse Trading is not licensed by MAS to advise on investment products. Trading carries risk of loss; past performance is not indicative of future results.
https://synapsetrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/tips-for-your-resume-how-i-managed-to-land-a-job-with-the-big-boys-card.webp6301200Spencer Lihttps://synapsetrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/synapse-logo-horizontal-light.pngSpencer Li2012-10-13 21:51:282026-10-22 13:35:14Tips for your Resume: How I Managed to Land a Job With the Big Boys
