Proprietary Trading

You're a trader at Goldman Sachs. You sit on their trading floor. Think: insanely high-end casino. You're trading Goldman's capital on behalf of Goldman. You are not a broker. You are not a friend of clients. You are not a friend of anyone other than the people who run Goldman. They've given you $500 million to turn into $700 million by the end of the year with reasonably low risk taken. So...go do that.

If you do, and you make for them "excess returns" of a few hundred mil as a prop trader, you'll get a sweet bonus for yourself. Make $100 mil "above and beyond" for the partnership, and you'll expect an 8-figure bonus. Start with a PhD in math or stats from Stanford or MIT. You'll at least get an interview.