I am thinking about taking my trading to the next level. I have been throwing down some good numbers this past year trading the NQ and ES. I have a few friends and family that want to put up money and have me trade it for them. The IB Universal account won't work because unless I am a RIA I can't charge a management fee. I don't think the CTA route will work either, even though I have my series 3 & 7 because I believe the FCM would charge a higher RT commision because of the risk involved. I may be wrong on this one though. I am a scalper and trade about 100 RT a day, so commision is everthing. Right now paying 3.5 RT. I want to incorporate under the ECM rule have 5 -10 people invest. I will trade the account and take 50% of the profits. I will also be putting in my own money as well. Any ideas?
As far as I know an ecm cannot trade outside money. The program was designed for proprietary trading firms that do MUCH more volume than what you cited. For example a typical account under the average firm's ecm probably trades 5-10k contracts per day. Aside from that, part of thr approval requires purchasing (I believe 2) cme memberships. The whole investment would cost you around 2 million. You are not a candidate. I would try advantage futures or have a sit down with your broker and negotiate a better rate or tell him you'll go elsewhere. Who is your broker now?
why not lease a seat if the math works out to your advantage? Here is an example of the numbers for leasing vs. owning a seat. http://velocityfutures.com/pdf/leaseorbuy.pdf
I am clearing with Global Futures. Despite mixed reviews here on ET I am very happy with them and feel no need to move unless I can get a better deal than 3.5 RT on avrerage vol of 1500-2000 cars per month. Any suggestions? I did the math and and IOM seat lease will work. I used to lease a GEM seat 2 years ago and did about 2000 cars/ month but nearlly blew out. If anyone has ever traded the er2 you will understand why. Now I just trade NQ and ES and have been booking consistent profits day in and day out for an entire year. I don't have a huge account, only 20k but have been averaging about 500/week with small drawdowns. I have a few friends and family that want to put up money each and let me trade it. That is why I thought the ECM might be a good legal structure to incorporate and trade their money plus mine and have maybee have a capital base of 100-200K. I can then trade as usual, give them their share of the profits and I go from making 500/week to 1-1.5K a week. That is just what I am thinking about. My Girlfriend just liqidated her entire investment portfolio 85K and told me to do what ever the hell I want with it. My best friend said he can give me 25K and if he looses it no big deal. So I have a 150K in cap here and am looking for a legal way to manage it and make money at the same time. At the same time I am still a licenced broker, affiliated with a majaor broker/dealer and do not want to mess that up. Honestlly, I am a bad broker because my sales skills suck, but I am a good Trader because I am making money. I want to trade, that is it period.