Getting Started With A Prop Firm

Discussion in 'Prop Firms' started by Sinbin, Jan 9, 2019.

  1. Sinbin

    Sinbin

    One of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever had was with T3. I don’t know if I can even call it an interview.

    My only problem with firms that leverage is the risk upfront. Those places seem better for when I have more experience and don’t need a salary along with bonuses to live.

    Specifically with T3, they scheduled me for a mid-early morning interview around 11am. Got there at 10:45am and no secretary or anyone. I signed in on the lone piece of paper and waited about 45 minutes before someone walked by. I didn’t want to walk through their office and the guy brought me back. Opened up a chart of the SP 500. Talked for 5 minutes about the software and he told me that they would love to bring me on. The most gratifying piece of information from that 5min interview was that T3 used lightspeed haha. After I said maybe, he talked about the leverages for equity (20-1:5K) and futures (5-1:25K). Their “training” is literally a 30min break, each day, to go over textbook language and theory... something you should already know before you even demo trade lol. No body came up to me to help me learn the system or software. I looked around at other people computers and saw that they were barely breaking even. I found some good trades while I was there, but no one would come up to me. I even went up to ask the head trader some questions and he said to either wait until the afternoon seminar or post trading day analysis meeting. I went back to the demo computer and literally made a horrible trade so someone would come up and at least talk to me.

    That’s he problem with firms that leverage. They don’t seem to have as much interest in the trader since their max drawdown is their deposit. TopStep, over the holidays, was marketing resets in their training accounts. Why market failure? I just don’t get it.

    That’s why I am trying my hardest to break into a prop firm with no capital contribution. Not because I’m unwilling or don’t want to put my own capital up, but mainly for the interest of the company-trader relationship.
     
    #21     Jan 10, 2019
  2. Robert Morse

    Robert Morse Sponsor

    This is the format of a JBO based prop from where your money is first loss. You would not be an employee but a type of capital partners and get a K1. They generate revenues from marking up execution fees and charging for training. You sound like you are looking for a traditional prop firm model or an allocation from a hedge fund.
     
    #22     Jan 10, 2019
    dealmaker likes this.
  3. Sinbin

    Sinbin

    Traditional prop is my main focus. I really liked FNYS. They were one of the only ones to say get some experience and some partners may have interest rather than my educational background isn’t sufficient. Most places I’ve been to like my strategy... I am just so surprised at the educational bias. Never realized it. Although I think the mindset is dry, I would be a hypocrite to say I wouldn’t discount/degrade non-target applicants if I were offering up capital to traders. I don’t mean that in the way that it sounds, but I would most likely push for them.
     
    #23     Jan 10, 2019
  4. What are you hoping that someone will show you a magic method?? Maybe you can get an alumni like someone suggested but hoping to get into a prop firm with no money and your not a quant is slim. Earn2trade is probably your best bet it’s only 350 you can get a discount for your first try. You would have a max dd of $2500. The other option is to save up money the learning will be in doing. You need to at least see if the same methods work with cash first if your that confident in your demo results

     
    #24     Jan 10, 2019
  5. Sinbin

    Sinbin

    Depends on your definition of magic method lol. I don’t want someone to do the work for me, obviously, but a mentor would go a long way. As I’ve stated earlier, I can’t say whether my demo correlates or not. I don’t think it was all luck, but again, demos may be standardized for futures, but the PnL may not be the same and so on.

    I will look more into TopStep, Earn2Trade, and some of those firms. For some reason I just don’t trust the business model (mainly TopStep). Thank you for the advice!
     
    #25     Jan 10, 2019
  6. I would stay away from TST and Oneup you have to day trade with them. Look at earn2trade as a way to further test with added emotion. it’s a one time fee the restrictions are more realistic to a small account and you can swing with restrictions you have to make a trade so many days of the 2 month period
     
    #26     Jan 10, 2019
  7. Sinbin

    Sinbin

    Awesome! Again, thank you for the advice. I appreciate it.
     
    #27     Jan 10, 2019
  8. GregV

    GregV

    I believe that David Tepper graduated from Carnegie-Mellon.
     
    #28     Jan 12, 2019
    CME Observer likes this.
  9. Sinbin

    Sinbin

    Mr. Tepper got his undergraduate degree from Pitt while his masters or PhD (idk which he got) was at Carnegie-Mellon.
     
    #29     Jan 12, 2019
    dealmaker likes this.
  10. Appears you’re correct, but it was an MBA.
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Tepper
     
    #30     Jan 12, 2019
    dealmaker likes this.