I recently started proprietary trading and would love to know if I am getting a reasonable deal. I put no money down and am not held accountable for any losses. I get a strictly 60% payout and pay a ticket charge or $17.50 each way. I trade an average of 500 shares for 8 round trips a day. I am currently gross positive although the tickets are killing me. Am I getting a decent deal by industry standards? Making sense of all this by weeding through the run arounds and so forth are somewhat challenging considering the nature of the biz. If you may have ANY suggestions for me I would mucho appreciate them. I am a great trader that is starting to comeback outta the ticket charge hole.
The ticket charges would be the final straw for me. You can perform a search on the boards and find out plenty of information. You can literally spend hours and hours doing research. I did. Do your research, ask questions, make phone calls, and visit some firms. The extra work will pay off. Especially in this market.
If you get ten 100 share partials,do you pay 17.50 for each of the ten partials,for a total of $175.00? If you do,i'd find a firm that only charges per share like .01 or less.
At least you put up no money. The ticket charge is ridiculous. If you are in NYC, email Hitman at te_bai@hotmail.com and I am sure he would offer something much better. If you are not in NYC, search for "trader" at monster.com or try to find trading firms in your area in the yahoo yellow pages. It never hurts to just call and ask if they are seeking traders. (But pleez pleez pleeez don't call during market hours. )
I don't know of any prop firms that are hiring right now. You'd obviously be better off trading prop at Shony or Worldco- but good luck getting in the door...
Try this....50 trades per day, paying an excess of 12.50 (minimum ) per trade. 625.00 per day x 20 days = $12,500 per month in excess fees (you'll never see this, although you may earn it). So, you need to overcome a $12,500 per month deficit....Kinda of like teeing up with Tiger Woods and spotting him 10 strokes. Then you give away 40% of what's left.... So, assuming you could make $20,000 per month, you end up with a couple of grand after taxes, and the firm gets the rest... All this in lieu of putting up a few bucks...which you would make back in a few weeks if you did well. And if you don't do well, you're gone anyway.... There are much better deals out there. Don
Are you sure you're not paying commissions on a per share basis? If you trade 100 shares, is that a $17.50 charge? That's insane!!! I think you mean 1.7 cents per share which is a little high but fair if it includes SEC taxes, ECNs, etc.
Then there is always the case you could have 60% of nothing .... (flat or negative month).....in that case it doesnt really matter what % cut is yours it only matters that you didnt put up any money.....but $17.50 is way to much and you are gross positive..