A former colleague of mine moved from IT to trading. He traded for an IB before setting up his own shop with a couple of guys. Now he does HFT from his home. He seems to be doing very well financially. Any idea?
If he told you hes trading HFT from home, he's feeding you a bunch of BS. You need a pretty big bank roll( at least a few hundred thousand dollars) and big electronic infrastructure just to get the foot in the door. Your friend is f**king with you..
He's probably not doing true HFT. But with medium-high frequency doing hundreds of trades / day - some of the randomness cancels out and you can have high % profitable days and shorter periods of drawdown. Still pretty cool stuff. But like anything else, it is very hard to find an edge in that space.
don't most HFT firms make profits? these guys are front running orders from institutions all day long
don't most HFT firms make profits? these guys are front running orders from institutions all day long
I love the answers to threads like this... Why can't his friend have a Colo box at an exchange and work from home? Would that not be "trading from home"? The honest answer is that the space is very crowded and extremely competitive. Edges come and go quickly and most make OK money but nothing crazy. If there is an opportunity to make big money its going to be a short window and then its gone. There is also cost of living and lifestyle. If you work from home and live in a cheap area then it can be deceiving. Why don't you just be rude and ask him?