I trade THROUGH a prop firm, I do not work FOR a prop firm. Therefore they do not tell me when to trade and what hours to trade or how much to make or not to make. You have to see the difference in THROUGH and FOR above
Sure...our traders put up some $$, and then use our $$ to trade with. Since it generally takes $500K- Several $Million to engage in good, working strategies (pairs, M&A, automated openings, making markets, etc.), this allows our traders to "use" (not "abuse") our money for these and other strategies. They are all independent, come and go as they please (most want to trade from home these days)....receive a K-1 for taxes "triple net" - and are exempt from Self-Employment taxes. They keep 100% of their trading profits, and are responsible for any losses...just like running any other business. (rather than continue the "commercial" LOL - feel free to call to chat...702.739.1393).. All the best, Don
Don, thank you for your explanation about the independent traders at your firm. Now my next question is for optioncoach. I notice you mention that you trade through a prop firm. I guess base on your screen name you trade options. If you do, is it possible to trade options for a living like daytraders trade stocks every day?
We "allow" some option trading, but others may specialize in options trading. My brother and I spent 10 years on the options trading floors back when we found a good "edge" trading them. There is pretty sophisticated competition from the options market makers and the upstairs groups. I'm sure others will give you a couple of names. Don
You can trade options for a living but in my opinion they are not for daytrading. I trade options month to month on the indexes with credit spreads. For daytrading, I use futures on the indexes which is much better suited for daytrading. Combining the two I am able to trade for a living but I would not say that one could daytrade options the way one can daytrade stocks. People can scalp stocks for dimes while options slippage and less than 1.00 deltas means you will not get the same movement in the options as you do with the stocks.
I want to said thank you to everyone in this post for your input. I learned a few things here. For example, be careful of who is giving advice on trading full time for a living, be in sync with the market everyday even on days that no trading takes place. Also, the two options available for prop firms traders, one is an employee and the other is an independent. I understand the employee route but the independent option will need further research on my part to understand how it works.
If you go employee route, watch out for contract limitations... you don't want to get locked into a 5 year contract, become profitable in a year, then end up giving them a big chunk of your profits for the next 4 years, all the time thinking to yourself "I could keep 100% of what I'm making if it weren't for this !@#$^&* long-term contract!" Cash
"I trade THROUGH a prop firm, I do not work FOR a prop firm. Therefore they do not tell me when to trade and what hours to trade or how much to make or not to make. You have to see the difference in THROUGH and FOR above." Optioncoach, I was reading one of the ET post that mention a charge for holding overnight positions. Now if you purchase 1,000 shares of XYZ stock with protective puts to hedge the position and you want to hold this position for a few weeks or moths will you still need to pay the overnight position charge even if your position is hedge with the puts at your firm?