Yes. basically insider information.. One of the best attributes for a trader to have to work for a hedge fund.. Sounds shady. It is.. There was a article written about SAC (Steven Cohen's famous fund) and they basically said SAC pays insitutions TONS of money to get the information FIRST b/4 anyone else, and that was their main edge.. (not necessarily "insider info" but they made sure they were trading on it b/4 anyone else was.. (this isnt my opinion, this was in the article) Also, alot of hedge funds want traders who "have connections" on the street as far as "information" goes. I was asked that blatantly in 2 interviews I had. One for a self employed broker on the floor on the NYSE (who made a living front running info, and getting "tips" from specialist friends) and another by a hedge fund that specified in biotech.. I think (and I could be wrong) that alof of it is detailed statistics on behavior that get used for trading..
Best advice out there to this day Jack (that I have run across).. Your ideas (and Spyders teaching) of cycles, and velocities, volume dry ups, opened my eyes to alot of concepts..
This is a nice simple and convenient chart that can be used as the day goes by to verify how front running news and price indicators works. An illustrated view (77 page document) of a day (Monday) unfolding using this is "Putting the Pieces Together". I snagged about 30 pics of how the batting order of prechosen stocks (the day before, Sunday). All the trades are "called" in the write up. This approach shows how over a few days 10% per turn is achieved. When it is optimized about 100 turns per year @ 10% average is the result. As you can see from the read their is no aspect that arouses the SEC's interest except the money velocity of the accounts. They may not adjust to it but they know it is a result of itirative refinement of TA.
HAHAHAHAHAHA A half hour before THREE sets of extremely strong numbers on Friday,some "anonymous" player sells 100,000 bunds going into the afternoon. Bunds drops 100 points. Do me a favor.The Exchange aren't even going to investigate because they "didn't see anything wrong". WAKE UP.
First I like to say...all of you people here are extermely knowledgable. I m glad to be learning Second I like to mention that I am not talking about anything illegal or shady here. And I m not talking about some specific hedge fund technique that they use to keep clients. Although all this info were great to know. I m merely talking about faster news gain and the ability to react to that news when trading. I m sure large banks and firms get alot of news and info as fast as possible, but does that give them any advantage over us? And I like to emphasize this for forex trading espically. Also what about better technology and software...how much advantage does that give them. Excuse me for my lack of comparision...basically I ask, when you have two warriors, one who has a crappy sword (individual traders/prop traders) and one who has a great sword (large firm/bank traders), . How much advantage does one have over the other when both have equal skills. thanks also please elaborate on Dr. Sean's idea of trader getting best tech, and best research...thanks
Yes, they have more info, but unless you are a trader who "trades the news" it doesnt really matter IMO.. Crappy sword works fine b/c you arent fighting directly with the great sword.... Its kind of an apples and oranges arguement unless you plan on moving millions of dollars like the "great sword".. you get in and out of positions faster.. You are a nimble fighter who excels (ideally) on quick and accurate movements.. The great sword doesnt have that nimbleness b/c its too damn big and slow... I guess it all depends on how you want to trade the markets.. I dont give a rats ass about "news..." I dont even watch CNBC, since its 90% crap anyway.. let the price action tell what is happening.
The banks have a massive advantage in software, much faster and IT to customize it. The 'programming skills' are mainly for algo, stat stuff, not TA - anything beyond basic TA is a rarity. There is a news advantage being better connected and closer to the rumor mill, but not as much of an advantage as is often suggested. There are black outs on securites prior to research releases which often physically inhibit trading those tickers right in the execution system. The OP mentioned teaching methods in the question. IMHO this is where the ib's have the monster advantage. A professional atmoshpere, formal training and mentoring, capitalization and accountability - very hard to replicate outside a big firm and probably why trader success rates are often much over 50% in ib's as opposed to 10% in the retail space. Whatever advantages they have though, doesn't mean there isn't room for everyone. The mistaken attitude is that you have to trade against them. Likes been suggested before, look for the signatures and trade with them.
Hi , you mentioned that they dont really deal with TA . Here is an emphasis on my question. Given the fact we use a lot of TA and FA, how much more USEFUL info can we learn from these guys if we were to work at their large firms? thanks also you mention their trianning is a huge advantage...I was wondering if such trainning can be related to our type of trading style, which is short-term trading...thanks