so, like, as a private trader with my own forex account, I could go to a bank and say, "Look at my numbers," then they'd mulitiply my trading account size by, say, 100-times? is this what banks do?
CKid, Usually you will work for a salary and a bonus. you need to make x amount a year as soon as you reach that you start earning your bonus as a percentage over x so say you need to make $10million 'to earn a salary'. Then you earn 25% of every cent you make over $10 million. so make $20million and you get a bonus of $2,5 million. Thats just one method of payment. Of course if you agree on lower salary you can insist on higher % at lower threshold etc. Every trader should negotiate what they feel comfortable with. Remember at a bank you will always use their money and none of your own. Some prop firms will want you to put some of your own money in as well. I don't know about other firms but I have no other admin work or any other duties but to make money by trading forex all day long. Skalpz, no they won't just increase your size - they will put you in line with their existing junior traders but most probably on the smallest size they can handle so you can prove yourself first. Of course if they came to you that changes things a bit... Go well and enjoy your trading today.
There is a difference between flow traders and prop traders. Flow traders are the guys working for commish and spreads. Prop traders at the banks are betting firm capital to make returns. You wanna be the prop trader not the flow guy. Regardless both require the informational edge so you tend to talk a whole lot throughout the day. To me that better than sitting in from of a comp with my eyes glued to charts looking at swiggly lines .
TradeSA, Nice to read your reply, may I ask you how to land a job like what you are doing now? Many Thanks!
I used to be in risk management overseeing many traders on various markets, our bank was taken over by a bigger one and I decided to leave the bank to trade on my own account. I gave that as reason for resigning and the new bank offered me a position to trade for them. not having to use my own funds and getting a salary while effectively new in the trading game was what decided me to stay with the new bank. what has helped as well was my masters degree in mathematical statistics. the rest is history.
I only know of one Forex Prop Shop...are there others? Some prop firms will want you to put some of your own money in as well.
I don't know any prop firms electric. haven't even known about these forums until recently. got the 'have to put up some of your own cash" from previous traders i worked with who has actually traded with "institutions" where they had to bring some of their own cash into it as well. i don't know the institutional prop firms at all.
Hi TradeSA, A few questions: 1) Why then does the bank need "pure traders" if they are not consistently profitable? 2) Do traders get paid or in any way compensated if they incur losses for the year? What about if they are profitable, do they get a cut of the profit or do they also have a salary? 3) Isn't it much easier if one becomes a dealer-type of trader who can use the client's orders as some sort of buffer for their losses whilst they also try to place some trades on their own? In short, why do people want to become pure traders? 4) Are all bank traders short term traders? Are there any traders that go for longer term trading? Which type of trading is encouraged by the bank and what is the typical number of trades done by traders per day or per month? What is the size of a typical trade? Thanks
lot of q's! pure traders provide liquidity both to the market and to their own internal different desks. it might be that an options desk needs to hedge and your posi can help them. so instead of going to the market they trade with you. the bank also like the idea of creating money without using clients. its like magic... no profits = no bonus but you earn a monthly salary. no bank will keep you on for a long period if you don't show some profits at some point or provide some other service to your company. dealers get paid less than traders and rarely get a proper bonus. banks have both short and long term traders. i would say mostly long term and they tend to be the ones sticking around for longer time at a bank. trading size depends on your own risk tolerance. short termers generally smaller than long termers. i trade $5million posis a day while our longer term traders VERY seldom take a single posi below $10million and then they increase proprtionally up to $100 million over time. (as the trend persists). also remember you can buy 10 euro and sell 10 cable effectively showing a very small usd position and thus playing the eurgbp cross they can take larger than even their position risk limits. kind of a loophole at our bank (and elsewhere) at the moment as they only limit usd positions. stupid i know but your P&L will stop a large loss occuring even if your usd position is very small.