Hitman: You said it only took you 2.5 weeks to get your S7? How/what did you study to pass in such a short period of time? Any suggestions???
proptrader, i was lucky enough to get my co. pay for it and train me, i took a 2 month training course, we used Pass Perfect series 7 adn 63 books, man if you live in florida let me know and i'll give them to ya, if not, well look for them, it even comes with a program that simulates s7 testing enviroment, its pretty damn close to the questions that were on the test. let me tell ya,it was stresfull stuff, but i got a 82, you need 70 to pass. i think if you study the books and youre not a complete idiot - you'll pass. just study and the quizes help out a lot. good luck.
Andrasnm: When the firm is giving you trading capital and a high payout rate they HAVE TO make their money off commissions. I don't think anyone at my firm get rebate's, I wonder what's the industry rate. As far as overhead, this morning a very good trader (she is absolutely exceptional, less than one year's trading up $500K+) started the day off with a $500 deficit with her bullets, and it paid huge dividends. You get what you pay for. Proptrader: You don't need training classes to pass something like S7. Get a book, any book, cram, and you will pass. At the time I had a lot of bad emotions so I really put my effort into cramming. I was working full time but every night I would cram 4-6 hour's worth of it. In 10 days I finished that monster manual and in 7 days I went through the 700 practice questions, the 18th day I took the exam and passed the test with a 74. Brutal exam, (6 hours) I would never ever want to take it again, but at the time I already gave my IT group an ahead notification (to give myself additional pressure, so basically if I don't pass that exam I would be out of a job for 30 days as I wait for the reschedule). If you want it, you will get it, at least 99% of the things in life . . .
Klaorman, I often get overfilled the other direction, but with bullets, it is seldom a problem. Blasting gets me as many shares as I can get, I don't often look for a certain amount of shares. When I want it, I want it. Hitman, Thank you, but the 200K on commisions is actually a sour note to me, because at customer rates, that would almost be in half. What is that saying, hindsight is 20/20. Eugene, I only scalp, so I don't know much about spreads or pairs. Airspeed, With all of your assumptions, that trader whould be on equal footing with in house traders except, and I feel that this is a huge advantage of going in house, Example: when Traders yell out that they are selling the crap out of Ciena, and you know that they will push it, the at home trader doesn't know to get on for the ride, and when he realizes it, he can't get any stock.
Hitman, Speaking of this exceptional trader, why don't you get into her head, understand what she's thinking when she trades. What she does, when she does it, and why. In other words, MODEL her thought processes, behaviour, skills as closely as you can in an attempt to equal her results. Find out what she does, and do it. (And of course, report back here everything you learn tradeRX
This post will be off topic, but I guess it is a good way to illustrate how playing on a good team is a big advantage. TraderRX: First of all, while she answers my questions she doesn't really call stuff out, so there is no way to follow her step by step lol. She is extremely consistent, with 1 down day a month. And she is not the scalper type, she trades some really fast movers like AGN, CRA, DNA, LH, GS, etc . . . She pulls multiple points off those stocks consistently. She pyramids into her positions and she can handle 5000 shares in a stock like CRA (if you trade NYSE, you will have respect for that, the specialist in that stock is TOUGH). She is very patient, holds through wiggles and pullbacks. She trades a basket of 50 stocks and does news and daily candlesticks for them. That said, of all of her qualities, the biggest asset she has is her tape reading skill. I have been completely stunned by the way she gets in and out near top/bottoms. She doesn't rely on chart much, just a plain candlestick chart with not even moving averages. The basis of her strategy is the same as mine, trade stocks based on futures/sector index moves. The tape reading is the difference. Two days ago, we were both shorting brokers on a XBD sell-off, futures/XBD both were coming straight down, GS had a big ASK at .91 and a big BID at .90, and I was short off the figure, I asked her if she is shorting GS (one of her favorite stocks) and she said she just covered it, the specialist was hitting the BID like crazy! Sure enough, it was all fake, he was gathering shares there and next thing I know I stopped out for a loss in the trade. Put it this way, if we both are in a trade and I get out first, there is more money to be made, if she gets out first I would be the one holding the bag. This happens EVERY SINGLE trade we do together, plain amazing. What amazes me even more is the way she gets out of her positions. Sometimes, it feels like she doesn't even care about her positions, letting them run and sitting through wiggles, sometimes, it feels like she moves with the speed of a bullet, covering her short at precisely the climax print after a long down trend . . . flipping her position ar precise levels. It makes my jaw drop the way she exit her positions, sometimes sitting through half a point to full point shakeout's . . . She pulled off 9 points off LH on one day. I guess it is because she is really familar with her stocks and can trade with total confidence, her all time best was 31K in one day and she pulled 18K off AGN, and anyone else on my team who have ever attempted to trade that stock lost money in it . . . she has a great eye for traps, consistently shorts fake morning gap-up's, like this morning I thought there will be another energy reversal, when I asked her she said she didn't trade energy today, sure enough it was choppy, I finished with +$60 on the day thanks to focusing on energy sectors and missing the XBD's, SOX's, and DRG's . . . That's EXCEPTIONAL, a word I do not give very lightly, like making 12K on a light volume Friday before memorial weekend, like being a top 25 trader at this firm in less than a year . . . The word exceptional would be an understatement . . .
Forget getting into her head. Is she single??? You might consider getting married and getting into her bank account. ; ) Just some light humor...
She is married to a law school student, ouch, talk about a couple for bringing home the green stuff . . .
Hitman Thanks for sharing your experiences. I have not traded at a pro firm before and this was an eye openner.