None of the prop shops I know tell you what to trade or care what you trade as long as you are a volume trader and do not expose the firm to huge risks. So if you are with the right prop shop, you are not being trained by anyone to do or not do anything or be a mindless monkey. Maybe the online job site that has all the monkeys in its advertising with the one guy complaining he works with monkeys is where you worked lol
I have to agree no prop firm care a rat,s ass to what u trade and how you trade as long as your under the risk management and u r doing volume that all they care Cause u make your own decision and hope fully u should know the risk your taking while trading. Yes a lot of pll who fail either they bad mouth (95% ) As long as the prop firm has a decent software and will give you your money back as soon as you leave or decide to quit ether should not be a problem Good luck any way and keep us posted who you have joined
Never been there, never done that. Just sit in my shop with other MIT, Stanford, Carnegie grads printing $ with the aid of a few very hi-end custom workstations.
Bright, Assent ,Trinity Capital Partners, Echo are all great firms. Depends what your looking for training, tech support, software low commission deals or firms that pay on time .
Whoa...take it easy with the name dropping. Congratulations on your degree from one of those fine institutions. That being said, you don't need a 1600 on your SAT's to get rich trading. There are some extremely good traders at prop shops...and I know they didn't all go to "Fill in the Blank" University.
MIT, Stanford..... Carnegie? Would have been better if you went with U of Chicago or Cal Tech for the last one...
Yes, I am at Hold. The only problem I ever had with them is, when I first started there, I was promised a trainer, and I got one. But....he moved away about a month in and I was never given a new one (despite many attempts to find one). I struggled on my own for awhile until I made the decision to join a group within Hold where I got a new mentor who is a fantastic trader. Made a huge difference. Other than that, Hold is fine for me. I am sure some others have had bad experiences just like I am sure every firm on the street will have a few unsatisfied traders. I guess it comes with the territory of a shady business to begin with
The fact that you put Carnegie tells me: A) That you went there, but not to the others, and B) You're just another computer guy who thinks computers and math and all of that stuff holds the secret sauce to trading. Yea, so a quant invented pair trading. That's one guy out of a million who've tried to crack the market. That fact that you can't accurately calculate the probability of your own failure in pursuing that crap makes it obvious why you've failed.
Interesting post, Steve. I've heard it before from others, but why is prop trading considered a shady business in general? Any specific reasons that lead you to this mental image?
It's shady because any a-hole can open an LLC and an account with a Broker Dealer and invite traders to buy into his LLC. Since the owners has the A Shares, there is nothing to prevent him from either completely failiing on the risk management or flat out stealing the money. Also, let's recognize that trader is a hard business. Which is easier: To trade or to sit in your office and force an army of people to churn all day and rack up commission charges? The incentives of firm owners are completely misaligned with the traders, but it's just like anything in life - most people are dishonest and those that aren't are either stupid or in it for the long-run. Finding the latter is obviously the hard part.