Hi everybody, I have been daytrading US stocks for 6 years now for living. My trading is based on news, quarterly results, broker research, sympathy plays on news etc - basically anything that has potential to act as a catalyst to induce actual buying/selling interest by traders, hedgies, funds. Being a relatively small fish I'm able to interpret the new information and open my position before most of the heavyweights react. Also, I try to find opportunities where the retail crowd does not fully understand the importance of the information in the pre-market/afterhours trading to open my position and close it after the market opens for regular hours trading. I start my day at about 4am ET with going through all the significant press releases, newssites, broker research etc to locate trading opportunities. Depending on the day, sometimes there are only a few, sometimes up to ten set-ups I dig deeper into, read background information etc. I pick the ones I like the most and try to get fills. Depending on the stock, sometimes I'm able to get in and out during pre-market, other times, if not able to get the size I want in the pre-market, I try to get shares during the first few minutes after the open. Most of the trades play out (or prove themselves wrong) in the first 15-30 minutes of regular hours trading and that's when I close the positions. After that it is mostly waiting game for me - scanning through all the news, comments, research etc to find something to act on. See something, take position, wait for the information to spread and bigger guns to react and get out. Things usually get rather slow around the noon and sometimes I take time off until 3pm not to die of boredom. Things pick up after the close, especially during the earnings season - I'm trying to go through all the news to find something interesting, also listening to the quarterly conference calls of some firms I know better. This might have been a bit too long introduction, but I wanted to give you an idea of what my trading style looks like. I have been trying to focus more and more on the situations that are scalable for larger size as well and most of the trades can be (and are) done with 5-figure amount of shares. Recent years have been decent for me with low-6-figure profits in 2008/2009 and close to mid-6-figure profit in 2010. I have been thinking of how to take the numbers up to 7 figures a year and what my options could be going forward. Of course, I could just keep on doing what I do, grow organically and be happy with that.. Or maybe there is an opportunity to ante up and get to another level. So I started wondering, if I were to join a prop shop/hedge fund, what could I reasonably expect? Looking around the web I see prop shops offering mainly trading account with $100k of buying power and shiny charts and little else. Of course, that is not what I would be looking for. Are there any that provide: * decent buying power, say $2-3M. Of course not right from the beginning but after proving myself * company of knowledgeable, seasoned traders to discuss ideas with * trouble-free environment where all the little, annoying things are taken care of - computer issues, paperwork, etc * different news sources, from briefing to bloomberg and everything in between * access to broker research - first call or similar, maybe even being able to talk to some sales traders Are there any prop shops that provide anything like this? Or is this available only at the hedge funds? And what would be the chances of somebody with my trading style getting into a shop like this?
Came back to this thread hoping it would have attracted some replies. Well... good anyway to read first hand experience of traders succeeding in day trading. hope you find some leads !
Have you tried applying for a job at www.daytraderjobs.com I began trading prop from a firm there. Uusually with a good track record you can get a job with buying power. I brought my 2 year track record to my interview and began trading a month later. Good luck
Go to Kershner Trading...... Have in house techs and software developers. As well as trade support, news support and all the back end. Top traders have access to 20-30mill in buying power. If you can prove your past earnings then your in.