Bit of a tangent here but I am somewhat fascinated by prop shops. How much leverage do they give and are there minimum levels of starting capital? How is it different to opening a margin account and getting leverage from your broker (e.g IB) except for the environment/atmos of trading alongside other traders? I always figure anyone giving you leverage doesn't do it out of the goodness of their own heart, they are making a % by being a lender of course. Its a question of how flexible they are and what kind of a % they aim to make. And then there's comms of course. Anyway, it sounds like an interesting setting to learn in and I wish you the best of luck. Did you do any trading prior to joining the prop firm?
P&L=-$18 Shares traded=800 Ill post up some pics of trades and observations that I find somewhat important so please check that out in the next posts. So today was a decent day insofar as that I think I am learning and getting a feel for things. One thing that I tried today was to monitor the SPY and QQQ throughout the day. I plotted the S/R for these levels the night before and they were pretty accurate to gauge the market intraday. I've posted a pic of these levels in the link below. As I've been watching the SPY for the past two weeks and have observed other markets over time(last year or so). I think I am developing a little feel for when a move is about to occur and when there is a volume climax and things are reversing. I just looked for some sectors showing relative under/over- performance throughout the day and looked to sell weak stocks in those sectors when the market was breaking down and vice versa. Useful exercise! My last two trades number 3 and 4 are an example of this. Other than that I played off of some levels when I saw something. _____________________________________________ Trade 1: -$2.00 ~8:30 AM CST STLD short: 15.05, stopout=15.11, target- 14.80. This was taken because this stock was in play and it was consolidating under its intra day low. It looked like a good with the trend play. I was stopped out at BE after it returned to my entry and didn't take out a low. It consolidated the rest of the day. Trade 2: $-8.00, 10:00 am CST BRCM Short: 31.43, Stop: 31.51, Target: 31.17 Same type of play here. consolidating below the intraday low with a double top. Target was the lows of the day Trade 3: +$1.00, 11:00 AM CST MRVL Short: Sold=13.26, Stop=13.31 This was a different setup and with no initial target. The SPY and QQQ broke below support and were consolidating under the lows. I looked for under performing sectors. Tech and Semiconductors came to mind. Shorted as MRVL as it was consolidating near lows. Market broke down and Marvl failed to take out lows. Exited position and BE. Trade 4: - $5.00, 12:00 pm CST EXPD Long: bought: 47.65, stop: 47.60, target: 4.90 This was similar to the prior trade. Market made an impulsive move down and started to slow its rate of decline and volume increased on the green candles. Looked for relative out performers. Saw that Consumer discretionary was and saw EXPD hanging around yesterday's high and a support level. Took a long, market rebounded and my stop was taken out by 1 tick and the trade went my way! Came within 1 cent of my target. I learned that I should widen out the stop a bit on some of these trades and that this approach may have some merit.
Well they give you 10 to 1 leverage at first...so if you have a 10k account that gives you 100k of buying power! If you are trading equities, the max leverage you can attain in a retail account is far less. It is a max of 150% of your account if im not mistaken....although I might be wrong. Prop firms make their money mostly from commissions and profit plit and this varies according to your ticket size and what you have negotiated with your respective firm. I did trade a variety of instruments(Futures, forex) while in college, but never got to a point where I was consistent. IMO I think I had a false conception of what discretionary trading truly was about. I think about it as more of a craft similar to a sport or game. Hours and hours of work, observation, participation(trading) and you can get a hang of things. This has been confirmed by talking to and observing other successful traders. Oh well, where is Gann and the holy grail when you need them! LOL
6/20/11 P&L= -25 Shares traded= 1,400 I made 7 trades today. mostly scratches and small losers. Using my trading as a tool to learn. I've been watching the SPY, QQQ, DIA and looking at the price, volume, and momentum....watching all of these in respect to important levels. Overall I feel like I am getting a better feel for these instruments. Today was a day when I called some good moves in the SPY but the resulting trade was a scratch or loser because the derivative stock did not move in the magnitude or direction that the SPY did. Nothing too special to note as of today....I'll post up a chart of a losing trade that I put on towards the end of the day. Citi Trade: -$7.00 Sold: 38.08, Covered: 38.15 Financials were laggards for the day...shorted C as it looked like the SPY was breaking below S and having a possible late day breakdown. False breakout in the SPY and reversed to highs of the day!
One more to note: COST Trade bought: 80.66. Sold 80.69 SPY had broken above a level that i had drawn and it was also the previous intraday high. Based out above the previous S and you can see the volume pattern. with a base with increasing volume. Consumer discretionary was a strong sector and found COSTCO within it. Went long Costco at a solid level. Would have been a good trade had I hung on(hindsight), but the SPY shot off that level while COSTCO just trickled along. I am thinking about trade the SPY outright off these types of trades that I see., instead of finding derivative trades. Any ideas?
Quick question for you. Is anyone training you over there? I mean are you sitting next to a veteran trader or did they just toss you in the water and see if you could swim?