I'm doing a little bit of research here and I would like for some of our London ETers to jump in here and provide some info. What is the prop firm situation in London. More particularly, prop firms that specialize in derivatives. I want to see what kind of potential there is to expanding into the London market. So I want to know what is out there now and if there are guys over there that would be interested in trading prop derivatives. I'm all ears!
I don't know anything about them except the infos available in their site, but they seem to be popular place to trade, 144 traders on one floor with 6 LCDs/trader. www.refcotradingservices.com Now belong to marathon asset management
I'm not looking for a place to trade. I'm looking to expand my operation into London. I suspect there is a huge void in that market for a firm like ours, but I would like for that to be confirmed by guys over there who are a little closer to the situation. I know there are countless number of "arcades" over there that charge 2k to 6k a month to lease a space and want their traders to scalp futures all day long and generate commissions. I'm looking for firms that trade US equity and index options as well as European equity and index options along with futures that are more long term oriented. Not daytrading shops. The idea would also be to back guys with consistent track records and to incubate hedge funds in house.
Usually T1 lines, hardware, bloomberg terminal, proprietary software of some sort, and of course desk space. Of course I think this is ridiculous, not defending it. Which is why I think there is a opening there for a niche market like ours.
Put aside everything, except bloomberg for which around $1700 retail user, what they pay for large group supply? Is there a way for Bloomberg news and fundamental data (how fast you get the insider news after official 48hour report) distributable through some kind of software? If $2k is mainly for like of BB terminal, i don't see any value for their active traders? Imagine you even breakeven in your trading year end, you are still down $24,000
Try as high as 72k. And to add insult to injury, London ain't the cheapest place to live in the world. I think there is a huge opportunity there. Still have more research to do.
Currency Trading is King in London, look into that, there must be some trading floors or institutions that would be looking for people.
No, they are a dime a dozen there. I have no interest in being a fx bucket shop over there. That is my point. All the arcades over there cater to fx guys and futures scalpers. I want to go after the option guys. This has to be an untapped market there. We want to be a boutique operation.
So far the responses I have received via PM have been very positive. Thank you everyone for your feedback. I will do some more research. It looks like there is a huge opportunity there.