I believe he's talking about a firm trading floor not an exchange floor LOL. But the PORNEX might fly if you can get rid of all the spyware and crap.
I was kidding on the porn part, just picking up on an earlier poster. Most of the HUGE firms have their own trading floors, they're not exchanges but whole huge floors with rows of trades/sales people. ( institutional sales not retail brokers)
I knew I liked this place. Two of the great loves of my life-porn and trading all in one place! WOO-HOO! Now, seriously. I am not a seasoned trader by any stretch. Let me explain what I am looking for. I would like to find a trading firm that has an affiliate program. Something I could invest in, get trained and open an office. I have equity market experience, just on the retail brokerage side. I also have 10 years of multi-unit management experience, so I was hoping to merge the two and run a profitable business. I am willing to pay my dues and get trained and make the investment required, I'm just having difficulty figuring out where to begin. The Swift model was very interesting, but they aren't U.S. bound anytime soon. Same with Title. I got a call from VCM, but I haven't read anything good on those guys. So who's left? Should you just pick a firm, trade remotely, get good and bring on underlings (is that possible)? Form a sub-LLC? Subscribe to good trading software and learn it well then bring on new traders? I just don't know. I appreciate all those who have chimed in thus far, and any additional input will be appreciated.
It really depends on how much capital you have to put into this, what products you want to trade and whether you're going to go after order flow business or just be a straight prop shop.
I researched this subject for myself and I think first you need to tell everyone what you specifically want your firm to accomplish: i.e. start a prop desk that trades emini nasdaq on CME, you need a CME floor broker and then technology and operations. There is a more efficient corporate structure with higher sunken costs that will benefit certain methods. If you'd like to discuss more just PM me as I am working on something similar and willing to share. I've also worked on starting BDs and similar, not an easy task. Good luck
ill step in and save the day. look into ASSENT. they have a model like this where u get a sub llc. and if u open one in a city where thre is none it could wrk. but no one is going to train traders and send them to u. that's your job. but if u are posting to a msg board about how to open a prop or even get the names. your dream will never happen unless u got money to burn and headaches of time.
Thank you for your helpful suggestion, I'll look into them later tonight. I have no problem training the traders, I just need someone to train me and my trainer. As to the amount of money I have, there is currently a budget of $250-$300K for technology, build-out of the office, software, etc. I would like to start with 15-25 traders and work that up to 50 or so. Perhaps my error is in not contacting more props on my own, but I have checked several sites and very few advertise the opportunity to open an office. Please, feel free to keep the conversation going!
What products are you looking to trade and what kind of trading capital are you going to be starting with. Those are the real keys, the budget for hard/software and physical plant are meaningless without knowing what products you plan on trading and what kind of size capital you're working with. For example you mention 15 or more traders, that may be fine if say youâre only trading futures and youâre not carrying much is anything over night, you might even be able to get away with a million in working / trading capital. If youâre looking at being more then a day trade or scalp shop ( which takes guys who are very seasoned and skilled at that) then you need capital to attract any significant established trading talent, even if theyâre going to train a bunch of neophytes. Lets also not forget that the learning curve in all products can be steep and expensive.