Does anyone know if there are professional proprietary trading firms like Bright Trading, Echotrade, etc. in Europe? I´m looking for European firms or branches of US firms.
this is by no means to be regarded as a recommendation in any way ... just a url www.actior.de regards wild
Looks like a retail firm to me. I am not sure but I think Blackwood trading has an office in London, it's a retail firm but they have proprietary traders. Correction: they no longer have a branch in the UK. Anyway this is not a true professional firm. I would think in Europe, trading firms don't have the commission business model of the US prop firms, they may also be more derivatives oriented. Use the search function , somebody posted a few url of options and futures firms, like Optiver.
Here is the thread url, several firms are mentioned at the end Optiver, Mac Futures : http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3101&perpage=6&pagenumber=1
Carl Kliem maintains some offices in Germany, but i heard overall conditions are rather unfavourable (like with other trading offices, it are much more trading offices than prop firms, but i do not know any real prop firm at least in Germany)
As far as I know pro firms in the sense that firms like Bright etc do not exist in London. We do have day trading firms, but because UK stocks have 0.5% stamp duty, they trade USA stocks. So they trade between 2.30pm and 9.15pm, and provide "lunch" at 5pm!!! Really there is no cost/leverage advantage to trading privately from home though. The other thing I was told (which really smacks of the nanny state we have here!) was that if I was going to get an exchange membership on, say, the cme - so I could trade globex at home for cheap fees on even my own account, I would also have to register with our own UK Financial Services Authority - an overtly expensive and burocratic process. Ridiculous, but then you also suffer with pathetic government rulings designed to save you from yourself! Liberal democracies - don't you just love 'em!
We had a "boutique" office in London a few years back, and are presently looking into a couple of places in Europe. I hope to have some solid news over the next few months.
Don, I might be interested in this, but from what I understand the regulations required to become a pro trader even on US markets based in the UK is extremely onerous. And of course, it is very hard to get to work (as a daytrader!) in the US for a UK citizen. So catch 22 for me! I did actually email you asking about such matters a couple of months ago, but got no reply. What kind of clothes do you sell at your "boutique" by the way?
Sorry if you did not receive a reply. I recall inquiries from the UK, but when I replied the emails were sent back undelivered. We have had several "Brits" trading with us in the U.S., but I am not sure of their resident status. "Clothing optional" at our boutiques...