Ok so I am working as a Trader at a Black Box hedge fund. My job is to monitor the black box and occasionally adjust the parameters. I do very little actual by-hand trading. The job pays relatively ok especially for my age and experience level, and I have learned a good deal about trading and the hedge fund business (I have been in the market since I was 18 years old and I am 25 now.) Also the people and atmosphere here are pleasant. This is the good part. The bad part is that the hours are long, the work can be extremely boring especially during slow trading times and there is not a lot of room for me to grow since the only strategies they trade here are automated and I am not much of a programmer, so even if I had a strategy I canât test it or even connect to our API. In a year or 2, if an opportunity doesnât present itself at this firm I would like to be somewhere else, and preferably do something more entrepreneurial although stay in the trading environment if possible. I have been a prop trader before, and although I find it interesting I do not think I want to do that nor do I know if I can succeed as one. One of the things I would like to do is to have my own trading company and have traders trade under me (not actually trading myself) I donât know how realistic this is. So I wanted to ask the people here what opportunities there are out there as far as running your own business and progressing forward.
What kind of returns is this fund getting with their black boxes? Also, you want to get into the trading business on your own...do you have the capital? What would be your contribution to this 'new' enterprise then?
The fund is getting excellent returns. The strategy is not very scalable but it is profitable almost daily. They are very careful about disclosing #s so out of paranoia I will say that the fund is making enough money to pay all the employees and keep the owners making lots of money although they do work very hard. My contribution to the new business would be obviously money, access to a few good programmers, access to a few good traders, insight into a few black box strategies and tricks that make things a lot easier. Thatâs pretty much it. This is why I am asking for ideas.
Just curious to know how long you were a prop trader, who you traded with and why you decided not to pursue that career path?
I was in Genesis for about 2 month, didnt get any training and learned almost nothing. Basicly they said " Go trade and if you make money we will give you more buying power" they didnt teach me a single strategy. They were also only trading NASDAQ stocks which I feel are very difficult to daytrade by hand. Perhaps if I started off trading NYSE it would be different. w I find trading myself to be nurve . Automated trading is a different story.
Master718, I have been trading for three years and I have been consistently profitable for the last 9 months. I have a small account but would love to trade for you if you are serious about opening a business. Let me know.
Thanx Jond. But as I wrote in my initial message I will probably have to work for another year or 2 to get enough money together. Besides why not trade though the many prop shops that are already available.