I do agree with bm does not have to be responsible for their trader's success or failure, but they Could Be if they want. many traders trading mlnm in swift makes alot of dough, I would said they could easily make 200-300 k / month (I am been conservative). If i am a guy making only 10k/month, and my bm show me a way to make extra few hundred k. I would said my manager doing a hell of a job. Knowing that in advance the gimmick may not last 4ever, who would said no to quick million dollar . So I do belive a bm have the ability to help their trader in becoming more profitable IF they really want to. bm like madmunny who looks like a decent trader could easily help out trader since he already knew alot about trading. bm who doesnt' know much in trading could also help in many other way. I guess what I am trying to say is that a manager do play big part in a trader's success or failure. if you adopt the thought that ur trader's success/failure has nothing to do with you but themselves. You will still probably makes money, but not as much as you do your best in developed and help out all the trader as hard as you can. Just my 2 cents
as a former swifttrader in the vancouver office (with the occasional stint in toronto) i came to the realization that being a good manager and being a good trader were two very seperate issues. We were fortunate because our manager began his career as a trader and still traded - while at the same time he had the skills and personality to be an effective manager. Certainly I have heard horror stories of "managers from hell" - who have limited involvment in helping their traders progress and ultimately make more money for them. The best environment to work in is one where your peers (or superiors) are smarter than you and willing to teach you. If you have one but not the other...your education will feel incomplete. And thats where managers come in...they are expected to know the business, understand it, and identify the businesses strengths and weaknesses in a snapshot. Because Swiftrade has such a decentralized corporate structure, every branch will be different. Some will focus on miln, some on credit strat. others on momentum trading ; you will have the option to trade whatever style you deem suitable for yourself but at the end of the day the manager isnt there to hold your hand..he is there to guide, help, support and if necessary give a stern slap on the wrist. The business model has its drawbacks - but thats not to take anything away from the managers or the traders they hire. Every company has a few cogs that could do with a bit of oiling and tightning. Doesnt mean the whole wheel is about to fall off. Unfortunately trading is a businees that doesnt respect degrees. You could be a phd in quantitative mechanics and calculate the sqr root of 88,339,412 in a second - doesnt mean you are going to earn a dime going head to head against a market that will always go where the pain is. Conversely the most successful trader we have is a high school grad - what does that mean? That either he is a born trader or the management has some secret holy grail that has been passed onto him as he is one of the few chosen one....no!!! It probably means he was lucky enough to find a job that a)he likes, b) he is good at, and c) he can earn a decent living with. Most imp. he probably had a sharp mind and is willing to go in whatever direction price takes him. Doesnt matter what you trade...commodities, interest rates, fx or equities. Price is price...and while the driving forced behind each market might be different, the skills to do well are essentially the same. I have moved onto an institutional trading desk now - and while i can go on for hrs and hrs i still dont think I will every have it down as to why some traders do well at swiftrade and some dont. I think its a combination of good management, trader commitment, and an attitude that doesnt treat this job like an earn-as-you-go commission based car-salesmanship. Prop trading is a job where you earn what you kill. And that doesnt exemplify any better than at Swiftrade. If you are good at it..you are happy..the management is happy..the kids are happy. If you are not good at it..then as most smart people would do...MOVE ON! it might be a shot to the ego - who gives a damn. I was about to quit by my 2nd month...ended up staying with the company for a year and a half. Probably alot of that had to do with the manager in Vancouver and the rest of the team. And remember Adam Smith's famous last words .." in the long run..everything falls into equilibrium" ..problem is, in the long run we are all dead.
BM's that do cause the downfall of their own branch mainly because of their own ego and placing too much control on their own traders, this actually has a counter effect. There are some horror stories of the BM trading the trainees accounts, or telling them exactly what trades to get in and out of. Or get this one, telling a interviewee, "We don't like to hire University graduates, because they deserve better" "it is unheard of in swifttrade to make over 100k in a month, if you make 10k in a month, you are a very good trader" quoted by a certain BM. (I really don't understand the logic behind this person, dissing your own business just don't sound right) TheShaman
I have to agree, a good bm is the guy who know´s how to lead students into being traders without forcing them to be replicas of himself... otherwise you end up with a scenario where everyone in the branch trades the same stocks with the same strategy... so when one of them goes down they all go down... kind of like putting all your eggs in one basket, not good for buss.
Please note that I dont' mean it's "easy" to make money from trading such method. I am actually agreeing with you that it's a very hard effort for the managers or traders who figure out how to do it. And once they know how it work, their "hard" effort could make them big dough easy, compare to some method you work your butts off and the return just too far off. That's why I said manager do make the different on a trader if they want to.
I've been working with all the BM's for some number of years at Swift they are all constantly learning, as are the traders, in an ever changing world. From the decimalization to the .com bust to new markets to millenium to ECN's being swallowed up - it changes every few months. Then you have new students, new software releases, new office locations - it's a contsantly moving target and an infinite management challenge. Yet they strive to make it a profitable and fun environment for all. Some succeed further than others and over time they have all overcome various challenges. Sure - there are some struggling but this ain't a perfect world. They may not train or work with the trader enough and you maybe have some new traders left dangling due to this - but they learn from it. I've seen it first hand. Trust me.