TCA Markets

Discussion in 'Prop Firms' started by willfond, Nov 10, 2008.

  1. willfond

    willfond

    This is a prop firm based in the UK and has a remote trading program for guys in the US. I'm very new to the forum, and of course, the field of trading...Wondering which place has the best training program...TCA's cost about $6000 (watch the video on their website)...The way I see it, I could spend anywhere from 2k to 6k on training from somewhere and maybe learn a thing or two, or just waste the money trying to figure out profitable strategies and probably lose all or most of it. I've only read a few books, but am interested in learning more.

    Will I be better off shelling out $$ to a firm to try to learn something, or keep it and learn how to lose it before learning how to maintain and profit?
     
  2. Its £2995 at the minute as far as I know. Some companies are charging that for a weekends training in the UK. Thats not to say TCA is better but if youre going to throw 3k away it would appear to at least give you a better chance of success especially as they are providing you with some decent software.

    Everything you do in trading involves a risk, even buying training or software systems, as most of it is useless.
     
  3. I've heard some bad things about that outfit,do yourself a favour and do plenty more homework.
     
  4. Me too, which is why I havnt signed up with them. I still may do but the criticism has to be taken into account. As I said its always a risk when you purchase something trading related as a lot of vendors are crooks and there isnt really a way to know in advance.
     
  5. JustinFX

    JustinFX

    I was curious and made conntact with them last year. I personally think they are a scam simply because of the way they replied in comparison to other companies that I tried contacting such as Tudor Investments, First New York, or Graham Capital.

    Here is a copy of the emails that we exchanged.


    Hello

    Just wondering do you have a number and time that I can contact you on before sending you P/L sheets and CV etc..

    I am a very good chartist and a lot of experince trading futures and forex. Hotspot, Currenex, X trader platforms etc..

    But would like to find out more about your organisation.

    Answer-

    Thanks for your interest in trading with TCA Markets.

    It may be helpful for you to review the recent updates we made to the “experienced traders” section of our website. We had not put a formal structure in place for remotely backing more experienced traders until very recently.

    Please take a look at the following link: www.tcamarkets.com/experienced-traders.php and if this structure sounds like it could work for you, please contact me, or apply via the website and we can discuss in more detail.

    Regards

    Remote Trader Team
    TCA Markets, 4th Floor, 25 Copthall Avenue,
    London EC2R 7BP




    My answer -

    Sounds like you want to be paid for the privilge of trading! My trades are in the region of 10 lots. My last trades on euro future (commodity) was 21,000 to 54,000 in three days! I'm looking for bigger a/c's to trade which I think is not what you are offering.

    I am currently on vacation and return to Germany in about two weeks. Could send you statements then if you are looking for a slightly larger trader. Have been trading forex and futures since 2002. Stocks and shares sionce 1998. I also do charts on a daily basis with 80% hit rate.


    His answer-

    Thanks for your message.

    I'm sure you already pay desk or subscription fee's for your trading software at the present time. We ask new remote traders to cover these costs directly for the first few months, rather than deducting them from the trading account for a number of reasons, but primarily, because it will filter out people who cannot really trade at the level we are interested in,
    and will deter people from faking trading statements just to get a "free" funded trading account & software set, which would ultimately leave us in the hole for both losses and software lease fee's when these sort of traders eventually fail.

    If you take a look at the account parameters, you’ll see that we have a procedure in place to scale traders up to work with clip sizes of 1000 contracts in the bund, stoxx and ES.

    Everyone has to start somewhere when they begin a relationship with a new firm, but no prop firm that employs careful risk management is going to get an unknown trader started trading in the outrights with big clip sizes and
    risk them blowing up before we even know what they are capable of (or not), especially when they will not be located in our office where we can keep a slightly closer eye on what they are doing in the early stages.

    Rather than asking an experienced trader to show us what they can do on the simulator, we’d prefer to get them going with some small size and take it from there.

    I hope this makes sense, thank you for your interest.

    Regards




    My thoughts!

    They didn't even want to see my profit and loss sheet! Thats the first thing that a prop company will want to see is your profit and loss sheet, not your trading a/c statements, simply your profit and loss sheet!.

    The second thing with this company is that they if you pay to trade and you only trade one lot, you probably might just cover the costs each month!

    Its all a bit strange to me - I think they are just after your money!
     
  6. Agree- I have to also heard bad things about the company.

    Stay away is my advice!!
     
  7. I find nothing abnormal or strange about his replies to you. His response to your inquiry was everything typical of how I'd expect a group like his to present themselves. He asked you to review the section of his web site that directly addresses your potential situation/partnership with his group, probably because most of your questions could be answered on his site without him writing everthing verbatim in an email reply back to you.

    If anything your response to him came off as nervy and ignorant of the opportunity they are potentially offering you. You are asking these guys to back you with their capital while you trade in a remote location and having never met them, are you not? Their policy of expecting someone such as yourself to cover desk fees incl trading platform and data feed is legitimate. This is how partnerships work. It's give and take. Sounds to me like you want them to hand you their capital on a silver platter.

    Further, the fact that they will start you live and don't ask you to dick around on a simulator is the right move. I'm familiar with other firms set up similarily who would ask someone such as yourslelf to trade in sim mode before progressing.

    Lastly, you trade 10-lots. Are you thinking you are going to find someone to bring you on their books and let you immediately trade 50, 100 contracts and upwards without you building your way up, or that you'd even be comfortable doing so for that matter?

    He didnt ask for your acccount statements because you guys hadn't gotten to that point yet. He was qualifying you, and you probably disqualified yourself from having any chance at a partnership with them by bringing your conversation with him onto a public forum.

    I don't understand your concerns.
     
  8. Just as a matter of interest what remote deals have you seen elsewhere that are as good or better? I've been looking around and have seen a lot of deals where you need to deposit some of your own money and the payout is less than 50%, plus in some cases youre expected to cover your losses.

    If you're trading from an office the fees seem to range from £1500 per month upwards for access to the software and data etc which makes their one off £2995 fee not look so bad after all.

    Of course theyll kick you out after 4 months if you cant make money but then who wouldnt?
     
  9. hardistep

    hardistep

    TCA markets, TCA Futures Ltd, TCA Financial Ltd

    Do check them out

    http://www.trade2win.com/boards/trading-arcades/24604-tca-remote-trading.html

    They used to operate in London.
    Words is going out, so they are moving to the US.

    Few questions to ask them:
    - where is your office?
    - can I visit it?
    - can I check if it is effectively YOURS?

    - can I see your mentors' P&L?
    - can I talk to your traders?
    - can I talk to your former customers?



    If you do know any former customers, ask them to PM their
    experiences.
     
  10. I would avoid this company like the plague personally.

    Had a buddy who worked there, whom said it was nothing but a " churn and burn".Pay astromical tuition fees to " learn how to trade".I would prefer to spend the money on actual trading myself than pay for so called " tuition"
     
    #10     Jan 17, 2009