I like your post except for one thing. You mention algos. Then in the very next sentence you mention there are no rules for making money.
You know what I meant, some traders use algos exclusively, some are discretionary, some use both, my point was there are no steadfast rules to make money. I know of an original "Turtle Trader", a not so famous one, happens to be a son of my Mom's first prima, that only uses algos to get into the trade and manually exits, go figure, he has an average 25% return over 20 years. PS: He re wrote his rules a few times since the turtle days!
I trade for J.P. Morgan Securities. I'm on the Euro-Bond desk. JPM encourages us to post on message boards catering to illiterate retail day traders. Plus, even though I make a little more than a grand a day in compensation, I'd rather type anonymous messages than dine at nice restaurants and spend time with the choice looking girlfriend that my 340k in comp landed me. In fact I look upon making it big as the well earned chance to hang out for endless hours sparring with make believe "colleagues" on Elite Trader.
First, they are a majority of "Brokers" on the floor on Wallstreet...not traders. The majority of Traders are in Chicago...."locals" who use their own money to take their risk or pool money and start a group, who owns seats on the Merc, Cboe, Cboe, etc. There are plenty of "Day trading" firms in NYC as in many other cities. However, Wallstreet is a "Brokers" arena with Handhelds and the move from post to post.....Very few "Locals" if any...just one big SCHLEPROCK CNBC Circus ring.....that is what WALLSTREET as far as the "FLoor" is.
Many here are probably stuck in their 4x4 box making cold calls, but, that's a whole lot better than people who just give up.
there are more traders still in the back of chris henrys fiancees truck right now than baller nyc traders on et, ever.
What are you looking for a job? What do you think we are? If we were cooks we'd be on Rachel Ray blog. wtf??