Don, Thanks for the reply. I know as a business owner and particularly a trading firm owner, you must reallly know the business. Plus, being a trader, I almost forgot that. I have nothing agianst anyone at ETG so far they have been gracious and have ofcourse told me of the risks. But as you can agree, its a scary market out there. Especially for those of us who are eager to enter trading, and not sure of the current market future. My goal is simple, find the best for myself and clearly go for learning. I most likely will choose the one with the best training. Dimar
The truth is 70% of the traders will tap out under this market condition, which means if you are offering a salary 70% of the people you hire will take 1500 x 6 then you have to eat whatever losses they generate. The bottomline is either you want it and you will give up everything for a chance, just one chance to prove it to the world that you can do it, or you stay away from this and do your regular 9 to 5's. I had a guy at my office today who graduated from NYU business major, and job market those days seem to be as tough as the stock market as he can not find anything that suits his credential. He was hesitating about whether he should take this path or not, as I showed him records of people who made 900K in 2000, 200K in 2001, down 15K YTD. If your veterans are not performing nearly as well as they did last year, what kind of idiot would provide a salary to newbies? Worldco's philosophy has always been throwing kids into the den of wolves and those that survive will go on to become strong traders. You can glorify whatever training program you have, but everything you can teach is just pure mechanical knowledge, and in reality everyone has to go through the exact same crap regardless of the training program given. In a market that allows no fluke whatsoever, no training program will ease the pain, take some hits and if you don't fall, you may have a chance.
I will carefully ask what do you mean by "these market conditions?" So many think that the "bubble years" were representative of the market, and that we are now in a bad market scenerio. The reality is that the market conditions are almost back to normal, and our people are doing well. It takes good trading skills (as opposed to the "bubble years" where anything you bought went up, thus creating the illusion of good trading) . Our traders have done well in most market conditions (don't get me wrong, it takes time and effort to stay on top of the game), and we are always "adapting" to the changing market conditions. My point is that the "bubble years" are gone (probably forever), so we must trade the markets as they are, and continue to grow in our abitlities to stay profitable.
Of course the bubble years are gone. I don't need you to tell me that, I am still playing the game everyday am I? "Our traders have done well" Give me the cold hard numbers and get off the high horse, how many of your traders are making close to what they made last year at equivalent time frame. I do not know anyone who is making much more than half as much as they did first quarter last year. (Excluding newbies who were unprofitable/breaking even at the time of course) You deserve to get your tongue cut off and burnt if you say your firm is not seeing a serious degradation in overall P&L versus first quarter 2001. And no I don't mean commissions generated, our firm increased the number of seats dramatically too and more heads you have more commissions you get, I am talking about trader's actual performance.
I disagree that market conditions are back to "normal", are you talking about volatility alone???? The "bubble" years involved teenies and before that they were trading 1/8's during the pre-bubble years. and forgive me for saying so but i know too many Bright traders that are getting hacked up!!!!!! i heard all about the "managers meeting," it sounded like a lot of guys were struggling. And if memory serves me correctly, weren't you the one that was trumpeting the return of volatility two weeks ago????
My reference to market conditions is to say that we are in a more "normal" market as opposed to the "bubble years" - both in terms of volatility and volume. And, yes "Bryan" - I did note that we had some increased volatility. We have the benefit of having many "seasoned" traders who adapt to market conditions pretty well, and our new people haven't been "spoiled" by the "glory years" of spriraling prices. With respect to Hitman (which I rarely see returned, by the way), the overall profits to traders are, in fact, down in 2002 (to date), due to decreased overall volume. These facts have motivated us to lower overall fees (still no ECN fees, etc.) to traders. This whole business works when the trader and the firm are truly working together for the greater good. We cannot survive and thrive without profitable traders, and traders cannot be profitable without fair pricing and a strong, viable firm who will be around for a long time. Back to trading!!
It is not that I don't want to give respect, it is just that every time I am "feeling it" as far as respect is concerned, you make some high horse comments that throws me off. I respect you 100% as a trader, but as far as marketing tactics are concerned it is sub-zero.
You're right...I don't really have "marketing tactics" per se' - and I obviously upset people at times. All I do is try to speak openly and honestly (If it were "tactics" I was attempting, people would see a much different approach)...and, I really don't attempt any "high horse" and am sorry if it comes off that way at times. I know that every little thing that we post here is read by the regulators (yours and mine), so I am cautious at times with what I say. - and I really do respect you and your dedication to the business - so, maybe, just maybe you may want to consider that I am simply carrying on a "written" conversation - not attacking all the all the time. I think you do a good service by posting your trades on the board...and I offer you just a small bit of advice (take it or leave it) - you will have your SRO and the Feds come in there asking for you to back up every claim made, every dollar amount posted, and all the rest....."trust me" on this. Good Luck with the Princess!!!
<i>I know that every little thing that we post here is read by the regulators</i> You think? Are they really: competent enough to find this place? non-busy enough to read everything? vindictive enough to care? Have you seen firsthand where regulators come down on a trader using a message board? It just seems so rare. I am not trying to discredit you, but I just think it is an interesting issue that you raise.
With all the pump & dump schemes initiated in chatrooms by 16-year old kids in the past few years, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if regulators watched this board closely. And the fact that there is profitable professional traders that hang out on this board, probably peaks their interest. Ax