please share your experience as trader at swift trade... I am starting trading as career, is swiftrade is right place to start from
I worked in swifttrade out of the London Office. I have some positives and negatives. Positives are the place is pretty cool inside, except the office is right next to an unemployment agency so you get alot of people outside the building. The computers they use are from 1999 with huge clunky monitors. Being that the computers are slow and old, they take forever to load up. When I first started I thought this was a joke, it is obvious that the firm is tight on there money. The best trader only had one flat screen....the funny thing is they were all about the flat screens....that meant only one thing, NO MONEY!! They hired anyone and everyone...and if you could operate a mouse and the keyboard you could work in the London Office. The branch Manager is named Brad. He was (still is) a self proclaimed trader. Brad is a good teacher and if he isnt loosing money he will help you lose more money, so dont look for any help at the london office and your probably stuck on your own learning the markets, which is fine because it is a great way to start when you are new. I remember the first week and brad was teaching us the theory portion, this guy claimed he was making $1000 to 3000 a day, which for some "good"prop traders is normal or even under, but this guy was still working at swift, and he mentioned that "if he could do more after hours work and strategize he could but his wife was working nights, so he had to look after his kids" Yet he is still making 1000 to 3000 a day?? I have been trading the markets for almost 8 years, and I am still learning, but I grind my way thru enough to cover some bills, but I have learned alot and like anything I am progressively improving. I decided to try swift trade and the prop scene, I was turned off. If you are new to trading its a positive, try learn as much as possible.....and then move on. Learn your style, develop your type of trading, and dont let a prop firm mold your trading strategy. The trading scene isnt always about entereing and exiting a trade within minutes, this is a no brainer approach and it doesnt exercise your brain and help you understand what exactly your buying and why you are buying it. It does however give you experience, and that is a plus. Also, At swift I believe you are a contract worker so you will be stuck with a fairly large bill at the end of the year if you are a poor money manager. The software at swift is TERRIBLE, I mean terrible!! My best analogy.....imagine your still in university and the community computer that all the guys use in your house that you share. When you go and load it up it has so much freaking junk on it, it takes about 20 minutes to load up and when it does load up you click on the explorer icon and you see the hour glass for about another 10 minutes.......seriously its brutal. My trading station at home is sharp and fast! and yes I have flat screens lol...that I picked up at future shop for 199$. Oh and here is a good one, the connection will just drop!! so you could be trading and then the connection is dropped. So if your trading a volatile stock and you have 1000 shares at lets say 17$ and the connection drops, your stuck. If the connection comes back online and the stock is now 15.20$ guess what...your down and out...and swifttrade takes it out of your pay. Some guy at the office had 10,000 shares at the office and this happened, except his dropped 4 dollars because of the a news release concerning the companies objectives. Ya guess what....And you can't say see ya later I quit, they will come after you! they will only discard the money if its 500 or less. BEWARE on this.... Its funny because Brad didnt elaborate on this poriton of the business, just how much money he wasnt making. This guy has websites out on trading strategies...that he teaches to people, and he charges an arm and a leg. Good traders dont stay with swift. My advice, stay away from the London Branch, make sure you take everything in when you are learning the markets, dont discard something just because someone doesnt use it. Learn about the companies that your trading.!!