Guys, From all I have seen, it looks you can become a propietary trader with firms like http://www.worldco.com, http://www.etgtrade.com but only trading stocks. Are there firms around that offer this possibility for trading the E-mini's ? Regards, ex-virgin(raped by a market maker)
I'm not aware of any that specifically cater to e-mini traders, but there is a firm called Aberdeen Atlanta ( http://www.aberdeenatlanta.com )that trades the S&P futures full contract. They are, of course, located in Atlanta, GA..I'm not aware of any others in other locations. I looked over their site and it seems like it would be difficult to get on with them. They take 14 traders per year and seem to only want recent college grads with no outside responsibilities (like a family). You start as a trainee and are paid $27,000 per year (although the trainee period is 9 months, so this would be prorated) Then you move on to "associate" where the pay is slightly higher ($36,000 per year) and are then reviewed every 3 months until you do well enough to make "partner" where you get a $50k annual draw against profits. At that point you get 10% of any profits you make trading with firm capital. By stock firm standards this is a pathetic payout, but with the leverage of futures it could be decent. It looks like it would be a minimum of 2 yrs before you get any profit sharing, so you would have to eat Ramen noodles for a long time. All in all it doesn't look like a good deal, I think you could do better striking out on your own. I would like to see futures firms too, but mainly for the atmosphere of trading side by side with good traders, not the leverage. That is probably why you don't see any rooms like that. Futures are already highly leveraged, the S&P is about 13 to 1, so its already similar to proprietary stock firm margins. Kirk
You should only look in Chicago and New York - as futures is very regional and exchange oriented. The idea of prop trader is different and mostly is oriented to programs trading, basket trading (basket versus futures arb, options)
http://www.ghco.com They just opened an office in NYC this past spring. They were recruiting for a group this summer.