I wonder what Retails lack? I am mainly a value investor, about 5 trades a week. Most short term trades are profitable, but still make most of my money by buy and hold. Bad fills don't really bother me very much. But I like flat rate for penny stocks.
if you're a buy and holder retail lacks nothing. but if you only day trade your stocks it could be huge. some guys on here getting 20-50 million of intrady buying power it appears. with retail you'd need 5 million or more in your account.
At a prop shop, you'll get virtually unlimited capital and dirt cheap commissions. If you're only making 5 trades a week, I guess the low commissions aren't that big of a deal.
for me commions are very important. sometimes, i trade for only 2% - I consider this day trading. like I traded a lot of IIP at 0.50 level, buy 10,000 shares at 0.5 and sell them at 0.51. What if I bought them, but unable to sell them? I just hold them, because it was my long term buy pick. Flat commion will make this possible as on lowtrades, amertrade and etrade. - the only 3 brokers give flat rate fee. I maybe only use 2% of my total investment day trading, mainly for killing time. I hate buying powers, if I am on 20% margin, I am so afraid of margin calls and high interest rate like 8%. I always do better without any margin, any short, any option. I feel penny stocks are way better in term of return/risk vs option's return/risk. As long as a good research is done on the company, gain is almost a sure thing. So far, my worst year is 60% gain, on no margin, no short, no option, just pure stock long. I know a few investors doing better than I, but my numbers are within the top. I am mainly value investing looking for growth and following events. I have a friend trading Asian Fixed Income in a pro trade firm on salary. But he never wants to tell me how much he makes. I am not sure if it is too low to be shamed, or too high that he wants to hide. May I ask how much you guys make a year in term of $ and %? Is 60%/year doable in day trading over long time?