5x5 (five by five), you and the boys at SCH, if you're making $150,000 per day must be doing some serious size and swinging some big derricks at the docks (shipping analogy for longshoremen). if that's the case, then you have your success to praise you. Pershaps those who have responded to your posts are not worthy of your lofty company
i don't trade for them as for profitability big days like those are only in a bull market in a choppy market they loose money for half a year at a time but when a good market returns they make back what they lost as for size if you could take 5 points out of the market a day on 100 shares you could do it on 30k shares also most other big firms have traders that make that type of money market makers and specialists make more then that but allot of those traders have been around for ten or more years
Schonfeld is an excellent firm to learn how to trade. I traded there for four years and I believe that, while the payout is certainly not competitive, the SIZE and TRAINING are second to none. My class spent 6 weeks (8am-4pm) learning the mindset necessary to NOT BLOW UP, and about 4 months before anyone was allowed to trade more than 300 shares. So, you have to accept the fact that you will probably not make any kind of appreciable income during your first year. That said, Schonfeld is, IMHO, WAY ahead of the pack when it comes to risk management and training. Let's face it, you probably aren't going to make money your first year trading anyway, and if you do make money year 1 at any firm, you are quite likely to be overconfident and undertrained. While Schonfeld is certainly not the perfect firm, and I left for a better deal, I know from experience that their training works and you will NEVER feel pressured about your losses (that's good Risk Management for you). You will starve year 1, but you will also have every opportunity to grow. Their largest traders are working 40-50K share positions, and I suppose that payout is, in some sense, relative to the size you can trade (i.e. would you rather be on 100% payout and trading 4000 shares or 50% payout trading 30,000 shares). All in all, a top-notch opportunity IF you can get in, and, more importantly, IF you can go 12-18 months with no expectation of income. P.S. 1) When they are looking, they are looking for aggressive but trainable and intelligent yet malleable individuals. 2) Only a few (maybe 25 of 750) traders are capable of making 150K/day. Most profitable and well-trained traders there trade 5-10K share positions. 3) Schonfeld is a VERY good environment, but there are several firms nipping at their heels (Worldco comes to mind). Schonfeld is NOT simply a winning lottery ticket, but rather an opportunity to LEARN in an environment that is very focused on TEACHING fundamentals of short-term trading. Their risk management, while occasionally restrictive, also helps protect you from blowing yourself up early in the game (a common problem in LLC's).
It sounds like the perfect place for a guy that wants to get trained properly. What exactly do they teach? Scalping, momentum, etc. ??? Do they concentrate mostly on listed, Nasdaq, or both??? X