for those of you who are looking for raw statistics, broadway trading bravely publicizes (though it looks like they may have stopped in july) the profitability of their traders. you can look pretty deep into their numbers (they do not seem that impressive). i think that it's important to mention that they actually employ and provide capital (and are not merely a glorified brokerage firm like most others). they do not require any money down and pay a modest salary. the owners wrote electronic day traders secrets I and II, which for some reason, people have ripped on these boards. http://www.broadwaytrading.com/99-00/july01.cfm (be sure to scroll down and clink on the links to look at the yearly stats)
their % of profitable traders has clearly dipped in in 2001, but before that, in a different type of market, they were pretty respectable. i have respect for broadway, the owners, and some of their traders that i have read about.
excellent comments all around, guys. The other comment of note went like: "I wanted to know how the others traded, so I can trade against them"; "I didn't ask because I wanted to speculate, not joining a prop firm"; "I wanted these prop firms to expose themselves to the light of public day"... Candletrader, your motives are SUSpect here! Either these are exercises in waists of time, or valid, useful searches for enlightenment. Climbing Mount Nataka (Tora, Tora, Tora!) must be done with pure motives, Gaijin!!!, else the spirits of those gone before will avenge themselves upon you. So, here goes that avenging: .. get real or get lost... .. distractions are the prime, no PRIME reason why serious traders, wanna-beees and those making a valid attempt FAIL. ..too many persons in search of a valid moderation of the trading tides get wipped out. NO ONE has unlimited capital to try again, again and again. No ONE has unlimited time to waist on 8 pages of posts, comments and clarifications of one's original post, just because someone else exposed the stupidity or falicy or humor or jest in one's reply. Trading would be far more successful with firms like Gene W's, Don B's and other very serious owners. I wish I had run across these guys instead of the quacks at OnSite Trading (now defunct, and now absorbed by AB Watley). Those characters have caused, allowed, or facilitated the demise of so many serious traders. The movie Wall Street said something to the effect of: "its a wonder how a fool ever got together with his money in the first place". Let's turn that expression around, and invert its meaning and apply it to Onsite... "there's always a firm ready to seperate a worker from his opportunities".. Notice that the "fool" is best reserved for the firm and not the customer. Donny B's firm and honest replies, and now, active participation in these discussion boards is what seperates these fool firms from real firms. If your objective was to identify legitimate firms from quiet firms, then you've succeeded. I will clean things up here for your reputation, by suggesting that, upon clarification (4th time) yet again, that this is what your original question was designed to solicit as an answer. Protrader was more than right, you're original comments/questions were not hitting the target of your desired answer. Might I recommend either more honesty with your REAL question or more direct questioning of these panels. How did that commercial say: "all right, let's let Trader Z get back in the markets"...
I like to look at overall "staying power" when asked about profitabliity percentages as well. As our base has grown, we have more and more of the "very successful" traders in the offices...and this helps the new people become successful (and really helps them make it through the first rough year). I actually checked on a couple of the more established firms and asked them if they found the same to be true, and 2 responded yes, and one said that since they franchise, the numbers were a bit "skewed." It does make sense that when you have profitable traders in each office that the newer people will do better. The percentage has grown in part from the changing market conditions, which as most of you know, help the traders who react to volatility.