We are a group of traders in China. And right now most of us are in Swifttrade, title trading or hold brothers. And some of us have the idea of starting a new prop firm to save on our commission or increase our payout (or both). I just want to know how difficult it is and how much the daily overhead opertion cost is. Thus we can see whether it's worth the effort or not. From what I understand, we just need to find a broker dealer and put some deposit (Can we get leverage of 40:1 or more?). What else do we need to do? Your reply is highly appreciated.
Please let me know how I can join your company I am looking to join a firm rite now and am willing to put down $30,000 Or if you need help myabe I can help you start a company in New York City for chinese traders Thank you
Interesting...I was thinking about starting a trading partnership in hong kong or macau that trades US stock. Currently, I am a swing trader trading equity and option. I use Tradestation platform which gives you 4:1 leverage. My idea was to start up a LLC based in Hong Kong or Macau. I believe this will help on tax as in Hong Kong, I believe there are no capital gain taxes. Not sure about macau or mainland china. If anybody know, please reply....
I heard a lot of bad comments about Swifttrade. But it can pass the test of time and still be there while many other prop shops have vaporised!
Bad comments are usually about their payout that its kinda low, and their software could be better. But there is a reason why they are still around because of the low payout they have enough money left over for proper compliance, and regulatory issues. Also they can withstand drawdowns and manage risk properly. So SEC dosn't shut them down like TUCO and the likes. Some people are under impression you send money to the broker they give you unlimited leverage you get a software and if you are an owner of Prop company. They forget that strategies goe bad, partners start loosing money fights ensure and companies like that collapse. And you go from makig good living at swift trader title or the like to working at McDonalds in few months. I seen that happen before way too many times.
Opening your own prop firm is not that hard. Contact any of the big USA firms and they can set you up. Also, for those of you who are at Swift or Title or WTS, you can contact the firms directly to get an 80% payout. Opening your own brand new company takes millions of dollars in deposit for risk capital. Unless you are willing to take your company big time and have 100's of traders working for your company, I would not bother. Your easiest is to open up with another company your own office. You can also trade on your own and keep 100% of the money you make but you have to deposit more money. Good luck!
Thanks to everyone who replied or PMed me. Actually the situation is like this: Since there are many traders in China (us included) who are not too happy with swifttrade, hold brothers etc., we figure there should be better firms than that. And we may contribute. Right now we are looking to either start a new prop firm (of course we need to find some investors, and it will be a huge project) or alternatively, we may find an existing firm which is currently in the U.S. or Canada and has the intention to expand into China to compete with swift trade, hold brothers etc. We are going to be responsible for sales and customer support in China. We can do sales because we are dealing with Chinese people and we can also do customer service (it's cheaper in China than in the U.S.). But the operation still needs to stay in the U.S. or Canada, this way we can save a lot of time without starting from the scratch. So if you are a middle man, you probably can not offer rates competitive enough for our purpose. But if you are a firm with the same business model as swift trade (or intend so) and wants to expand into China, we may offer some help.
Do some deeper investigating in the Prop forum and there is one thread that points out all the expeneses related to starting a prop desk. It's a great read... From what I remember, there are many overlooked expenses that come with such business venture. Please post the link if you find it
And i want to start one in India. so lets make this a global corporation with operations in china, NYC and India.