Thanks Marketsurfer, I'm actually in contact with WTS in NYC, a friend of mine runs a group there. Thanks for the Boston tip, though.
I know many guys pulling in at least 7 figures in this market. Every market offers opportunity but obviously what worked in 2007-2009 probably doesn't work today -- I know what I was doing back then would blow me up today. The key is to be able to identify opportunity and adapt to it quicker than your competitors. The only constant in the markets is the constant rate of change -- something...imo...that is incredibly important to measure. What is the market doing today relative to yesterday? The day before that? And that? Not something that should be ignored.
No offense but everybody was making bank in 2005 & 2006, its a completely different ball game now. If you are relocatable there are Private Equity, Venture Capital and even some Hedge Fund jobs here in the SF Bay area, though your MBA better be from Stanford or another top notch school. If you are going to trade your own money, my recommendation is ECHOtrade. Established firm, clears through ML, no hustles of any kind, no training i.e. not for rookies, low commissions, and pays out 100%. 2nd choice Bright Trading. Best of luck.
If you are a hick from Pgh, went to a crappy school, went to a law school not MBA or finance how did you make your connections? Tough Pgh has a lot of old money families and a few billionaires from Forbes list Cuban, Druckenmiller, Hillman, Tepper etc..
Not necessarily true. 2005 and 2006 was somewhat similar to today. 2007 to 2008 was insane and then 2009 began to revert back to what 2005 and 2006 were like but with much more volatility that eventually subsided. If I were to look for an element in a trader that would lead me to believe he or she would be successful going forward it would be experience in radically different time frames and market conditions. I'm not sure the OP has all of that but if he has it in only one of those time frames/market conditions he is a very teachable prospect assuming the professor has the missing element -- experience. That being said, the student is always the weakest link but I think the OP has the characteristics to make it in this business based on what he's written on this tread. Naturally, that would be only the 1st step in the selection process. My next question would be an inquiry into the OP's quantitative background. Not necessarily to see if he is well versed in Stats/Programming but to see if the candidate is capable of learning and applying such a science. Quantitative analysis is highly relevant in today's market due to a variety of factors. Like trading, there is no holy grail in finding who will or will not be successful in trading. The element of judgment is useful in any worthy profession.
In 2005 & 2006 prop traders & independent traders' role was as liquidity providers and marketmakers, day trading was king and even automated trading was rare amongst the prop & independent trader set and you could scalp without much risk because there were only a handful of HFTs and average Joe Schmo had a healthy brokerage account, you could pick their pockets. Today there are 900 HFTs, scalping is much harder; you will have to hold a lot longer and hold smaller lot sizes otherwise you are HFT bait, you are not providing liquidity, making markets and looking at orders in Level II or DOM is meaningless back then you could get infront of big orders, today with subpennying that's impossible most prop & independent traders have to swing trade to really make a living ( yes, there are always exceptions). There are some similarities i.e. both markets are going up but the market structure has changed, its a lot harder...
I trade futures exclusively so I don't feel the effect from HFT in the equity markets even though I'm active in those markets but only as an investor. Scalping the futures markets is still a viable strategy.