structural advantages such as building infrastructure (fiber) at a location closest to the exchange to get lowest latency so they can frontrun, etc. sure, retail traders can also spread. long september, short december futures on bitmex. but you know that's not what i was talking about. the inst stat arb we usually refer to involves huge amounts of capital in places where the edges are usually too small for it to be worth much for retail traders' capital, requires infrastructure to attain the highest speeds. and honestly, even inst stat arb in the crypto space is losing its edge these days...there just isn't enough liquidity now. most ppl on this forum aren't posting to one day get hired at a prop/hedge/bb as a "Trader." most ppl on here have a primary job and are doing this on the side or are doing retail trading full-time, which is very respectable on its own right. no, it is not gambling. retail trading is not automatically < institutional trading. more and more technologies have become available to retail traders at a much lower price than before that, imo, has given saavy retail traders plenty of tools to gain transparency into the market. honestly, just keep grinding. this profession does not have a prescribed curriculum like law or medicine or engineering. no one worth his salt is going to give away his secrets. and there is no one answer to the markets which means there are tons of ways to approach it. the good thing is, unlike many other professions, how you do it doesn't matter since we have a single, objective, unquestionable metric we measure each others' success by: PnL. keep reading, watching youtube videos, asking questions on trading forums like this, studying the charts, reviewing your trades, joining a trading group where you can bounce off ideas, experimenting with different strategies, questioning your assumptions, etc etc. the internet truly is the single greatest invention b/c as long as you've got the will and smarts, everything is within your grasp. your job is merely to sift through the bullshit (and there is a LOT of it) and pick up the gems. i know this wasn't very helpful but at some point, you'll understand why i wrote what i did. in the mean time, focus more on not losing money and managing risk rather than making money. one common theme you'll see in trading is that while all traders have wildly different ways of making money, they all share a common theme when it comes to losses. sometimes, understanding the ways not to lose money is more important than learning how to extract money from the markets.
Thanks for the reply. I want to do this full time since I have more capital available to me so I will add once I get good. I guess in the end joining a prop firm won’t necessarily make you a better retail trader. And it was really helpful cuz now I know I am going along the right path. One more question I have if you don’t mind is about the various instruments available for trading. For example, if you are doing crypto trading you are mostly limited to mean reversion, directional plays, correlation plays and some scalping. If you are trading options you can implement strategies using iron condors, straddles etc. So, as a trader is it better idea to focus on many instruments or just 1 - like only crypto or only equities?
get to know other markets/instruments. as you know, crypto has been in a bear market for a while. now, volatility is shit. hard to make profits trading in the current crypto market. that's why there are dumbasses jacking up the leverage slider on bitmex b/c they're trying to make profits on a tiny move in light of the low volatility. these guys eventually all get liquidated. it is good to take this time to get to know another market, whether that be in forex, equities, futures, futures options, or equity options. and each instrument within each market has different characteristics that take quite a while to learn. focus on one (this should take over a year at least) and then move onto the next. learning all the intricacies of a certain market in addition to all the intricacies of a certain instrument in that certain market takes a long time, esp if crypto is your first and only market. this way, when one market is undergoing low volatility, you can trade other markets that may have higher volatility.
The successful prop model that used to make good traders was always hard to find. Now it is nearly dead. The barriers to entry were low, the potential reward was high. That being said, if you have your wits about you, it is probably still a direction worth pursuing IF you are lacking qualifications that could get you into a legitimate trading firm. There are traders making money at prop shops, but you better have a good "bullshit filter." Making money on your own as a retail trader should be your last resort. Not impossible, but the least chance of success. Best of luck!
Actually, I do not lack qualifications. I have a undergrad and masters in software engineering followed by 2 years of work exp in good software firms. But I do not want to join a traditional 9-5 trading or investment management firm where I will spend my time doing fundamental research. I already do long term investment on the side by myself and do pretty well (I understand we are in a bull market so take with a grain of salt). My only goal now is to make consistent income through 'trading' rather than investing since I already know the ropes of investing. The curriculum for investing is very straight forward and anyone can learn it. With trading, since people lose their edge quickly, they are not ready to reveal as easily what the common strategies are so its hard to get an idea on how to get good at it. Can you elaborate? So prop trading experience would be detrimental to being a good retail trader? The only reason I considered prop is so that I can quit after a few months to a year and use the strategies I learn on my own account.
most of what novice learns at the sources available to public (books, methods, ideas, systems) he eventually (if he will survive to that eventuality) will have to unlearn - they are detrimental to his development as trader, because all of them are half-baked by someone who at their best were just the half-traders as for the props - their strategies are good for them (they milking their traders) but not for the trader and as I read this forum , i see its full with the people whose head is full of shit, but its not their own shit its the shit they were taught, that they learn from somebody, which is going against what they see and feel in real trading...
Okay so if working at a prop shop is not the best way to learn trading and neither is reading books etc, what is the best and fastest way to get good at trading?