Agree and disagree with this statement FuturesTrader71. Firms such as GHCO make huge amounts of money financing mediocre traders who do decent amounts of round turns per day and on an after cost basis generally break even at worst and make small amounts at best. A trader such as this could do 3000 turns a day on which GHCO could take up to â¬600. This figure taken across 60-80 prop traders adds up to a lot of money. Of course the real money is in the profit split but taking on a group of 10-12 new prop traders on a training basis will probably yeild 2 good traders, 6 average traders and a few failures. The 6 average will be those who do turns and don't lose money and yield decent profits for the firm because of the commissions they generate. Good traders will always generate good money for the firm in profit splits but GHCO also make money from lesser beings.
They are a reputable company that has been in The futures business for 20 years. However, I do not care if they are offering caviar omelettes and free BJ's from hot models for lunch, DO NOT sign a non compete clause unless you really understand the ramifications of breaking it! You are better off taking a cash advance from relatives or Visa and learning to trade slowly on your own.
I agree with you in the situation where a prop firm charges its traders commission. This isn't the best business model for futures prop. That was my point. Most props do charge a commission on top of ridiculously high desk fees, equipment fees, required use of bloomberg, phone fees, etc. Imposing all of these burdens on the traders and then not letting them get out of their contract for 4 years is the reason why many of these big firms fail. This is almost like a welfare dependency system. Because they make money on commissions, many firms provide what is called "training" that isn't worth anything. It is all about formalities and if a guy can cover his draw, commission and costs, then they are fine with it. This is why they always want you to trade more. In futures, however, this business model yields peanuts compared to proper training and reducing costs to the traders. It is, on the other hand, the easiest path to making a quick small buck.
I agree 100%. Small chickens do shit too. GHCO makes loads of cash from comm.s etc and I bet that the bulk of their profits come from this business and not from good traders. They CAN and DO sue people even in London. They also have deep pockets so can chase you and drag things out in court to ruin your trading and make you spend shitloads on lawyers. It keeps their good traders too scared to even think of leaving. Does it sound like good business sense hell no, but its what they do and in reality its the ONLY way they know how to be. They have a business model which has made them money and they THINK that they are right. Is it a normal deal, like hell. The deal is pathetic but there will always be someone desperate enough for a low salary who is overly enthusiastic and can be roped in by them. Stay away that deal is NOT an employment offer but institutionalised slavery and should be illegal. It disgusts me that they can still get away with what they do. Plus just look at the legal threats issued by them on this site alone, and all the censorship on these boards. With the comments made here alone I am suprised that they haven't declared a legal fatwa on us all. Usually their lawyers have threads like this deleted after an hour or so. Sometimes after a few minutes. Stay away at all costs.
I received an offer from them about a year ago in NYC. It was $30,000 with a $5,000 cost of living adjustment, so $35,000 total. I'm assuming they split comp. into salary and COLA so that they can give you a percentage raise the following year on a lower salary. Also, it was a 5 yr contract. Believe me, I stayed the hell away.
I know a lot of the managment guys there and they have always struck me as very honest, ethical and upfront people. I know a lot of guys who have had 10 + year relationships with them who are very happy. That said there have been a number of people here on ET who have worked for them and left unhappy, but personally I do not know anyone who that has been the case for. The people I know have been happy, and my impression of the top people at the firm has been very good. Thats just my two cents. Brandon
If you know people who have been happy with them for 10 years then they are either suckers or they trade their own accounts because there is NO WAY that any trader I know worth their salt would accept the crappy deals so often talked about here. I am of course sure that the management are very happy, so they don't count as happy workers. You say that they are ethical, well how could that possibly be true when they are offering the kind of deals they do. They are exploiting people with deals like that and to call that sort of modern day slavery ethical is absurd, plus what about the censorship and legal threats; is that ethical? Censorship and threats (legal or other) are generally associated with violent dictatorships and police states not with genuine employers. They don't want to employ you they want to OWN YOU MIND, BODY AND SOUL. And paying them off if you want to leave, yeah that is what pimps and sex traffikers call fair and ethical, work off the debt or cough up loads of your own dough to buy yourself out of slavery. NO legitimate business would ask you to sign a contract agreeing to pay back 36 months of earnings if you leave. In my opinion the very fact that they have offered such a stinking deal makes them extremely unethical and should be a good insight into their true intentions and attitudes to you as a worker. Lets face it to offer someone a deal like that you have to hold them in contempt first. Stay away people. There are so many good deals and good firms around that you don't have to sell your life away at such a low cost. Plus the fact that every time their name is mentioned an army of critics surface should tell you something also. People who have actually worked there regularly bash their reputation on this site and yet very rarely does any current or former trader of theirs who was an employee say anything remotely positive. Just do a search of past threads and you will see that the general consensus is very negative indeed.