See my post above. Because they are not hiring you to scalp minis or AAPL stock. LOL. You have no idea what trades these firms are engaged in and there is no way you could execute them in your IB account. I'm sorry, those are just the facts. You are 100% right, if your definition of trading is scalping e-minis all day long, then there is absolutely no reason to go prop. And btw, I don't run a prop firm nor will I ever run a prop firm. I just get the feeling you are not even clear on what a prop firm is.
I admit, I am being a dick this time. But a real prop firm is one that won't return your phone call. LOL.
So then one has to be able to get the game winning base hit with a 0 and 2 count down by two runs with bases loaded in the final game of the World Series against Marino Rivera at Yankee Stadium with thousands of fans on their feet screaming and yelling. How many MLB players can do that? I thought this thread was about a perfect prop firm and not about a perfect trader. Nevertheless, this thread was amusing.
Well the thread got a little de-railed. So unusual for ET. LOL. Look, there are 1000 threads every year on the prop section of this site all complaining about this and that and I thought it would be a good idea to consolidate it all in one thread instead of starting 1000 threads. And the idea of asking what the perfect prop firm would be was just to see how far traders expectations are from reality. The answer......light years!!!!!
Your thread asked a bunch of anonymous individual traders in a public forum what their "idea of a perfect prop firm" was. I get the feeling you posted your question in the wrong site lol. Now you try to swing the attitude that a prop firm = market maker/market neutral/yet not a hedge fund ivory tower? Sorry, I'm guess I'm just "retail" prop who scalps AAPL stock. LOL? What's with the attitude? Tell me these prop firms are paying 6-7 figure salaries, then you can really say I have no idea what a prop firm is. Then tell me why I need to go to your version of a prop firm rather than making the same amount trading right where I am. Thanks.
Great post Mav. You have outlined who prop works for, the conditions it works under and why it works. You have also laid out the part of the equation that most small/directional traders simply cannot seem to comprehend: "Leverage and direction are like oil and water, they don't mix." I can throw up small $$$ say $5000 (small enough that if the firm goes the MF route I'm annoyed but not destroyed) and trade six or eight ES or three or four 6E. I am in a $500,000 notional position betting on my ability to pick direction at 100 to 1 gearing. Do I really want more leverage? Do I even want that much? If I want to increase size I can open an account at another low margin house -- let's not overlook counter party risk -- and on 10K be in intraday for a million. No prop firm wants to be online behind that leverage and in fact there are very few traders who can use even that much directionally. Now that we all know you have no interest in opening a prop firm, Mav, I bet most of us are curious as to why the thread!
I thought it would be interesting to see where the market is for reality on this forum. I'm getting tired of debating politics down in the basement. LOL. Sometimes you have to branch out and explore other areas of the site. The commonality between the basement of ET and here is the over sensitive ego's. LOL. I'm not here to sell anything or convince illiquid he is not a real trader. It's simply a discussion. Not trying to hurt anybody's feelings. I guess the guys down in P&R have thicker skin.
The market for reality is very thin. I like to think I add liquidity but I bet everyone else thinks they do as well ... lol.