Hello, any opinions on Opus Atlanta's Trainee program? Would this be a good place for a novice trader? Not sure of the length of program, but do know there's no salary, but a percentage on trading profits. I've hear both positive and negative working for prop firms in general. Any advice on the pros and cons for this particular company would be appreciated. Thank you
No. Its not a good place. Its also not an awful place. Its very typical. Nine out of ten arent there after twelve mos. Rates are on the high side. Take it if you cant find anything else with a more quantitative emphasis and a salary. Atl is a.great town though.
Looked at trading there a long time ago when I was starting out. I didn't because of personality conflicts with the head trainer. I wouldn't recommend that firm.
It's a good firm because: - You don't have to deposit any capital. - You receive a small monthly draw to help pay for some living expenses. - You are encouraged to put on size. - Great Buckhead location in a very nice office building. The downside is that equities prop trading is a very tough business. There's a huge turnover in this industry and judging by Opus the few profitable traders generally make their money in the pre-mkt or after hours. Management does want you to trade throughout the day tough. Their commissions are very high but it's a fine place since there's no deposit and you receive a small draw. My honest opinion is that it is too difficult to extract money from the markets on a daily basis. There are outlier traders that do so but idk if it's skill or just the laws of probability (out of thousands a few will make $ by chance alone). Maybe Pareto's principle is at work. A lot of guys stay in the game at risk of blowing up (tripling down to break even on a trade) and haven't faced the reaper yet. The problem with prop trading is that you're expected to trade all the time and golden opportunities don't come so frequently. Opus is a great place to learn about the markets but discretionary trading in such liquid assets as equities and some futures (ES, Crude, Gold, etc) will make you a dinosaur on Wall Street. Buyside trading in equities, especially without computers, is a fool's game. Then again it's just an opinion.
+ 1 I had the exact same experience. I received a callback after they reviewed my questionnaire. The guy that called me back (I think his name was Dan?) seemed like a real prick. Never gave them another thought after that.