The Perfect Prop Firm

Discussion in 'Prop Firms' started by Maverick74, Jan 20, 2012.

  1. First and foremost is trust. I can't trade with traders that I can't trust.

    I had a nice chair that another trader stole/took and I spent half the day looking for a decent chair. Why so ghetto?
     
    #21     Jan 21, 2012
  2. Hey Mav, let me chime in just for fun.

    I think there are atleast 2 models that make sense:

    1. Model for profitable traders
    * Give them leverage
    * 100% payout
    * decent commisions so the firm makes money but competetive still (think 3-4/1000)
    * No stiffing customers with unnecessary costs
    Other words the firm makes money on traders commisions; nothing else. Once you have good traders they keep trading more and your volume increases. Eventually you will make a lot of money with a lot of happy customers.

    2. Model for newbies or not yet profitable traders - now this i am very suspicious about.
    * Want a cut fine - i guess they wont mind since you are teaching them to fish. But i have serious doubts anyone can teach any other person to fish.. specially if the edge is significant enough and is a real edge - intead of something very fleeting.
    * Again it makes sense here to offer the same commisions as model.1 but make it clear that since you are taught how to fish, your profits are shared.

    Now.. over the past year i have spoken to maybe 20firms and i can tell; like 90% of them have a different model. Try to catch small fish who can pay 5k and churn that account within an year. I bet they dont believe their customers can make money because honest probably every body running the shop itself has never made money in the markets.


    -gariki
     
    #22     Jan 21, 2012
  3. well the first thing to do is get rid of the guys with delusions of granduer. In case you haven't noticed, you're not the boss of me.

    I know you want to be the bigshot, but the only kind of traders bigshots attract are losers.

    Might I suggest instead of imagining your self the bigshot at the firm, you switch your fantasy to being the best trader at the firm.

    Then they would be asking you these stupid questions.

    I know a thing or two about trading, and you are no trader.

    You are just a salesman. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing happens until someone can sell it.
     
    #23     Jan 21, 2012
  4. Maverick74

    Maverick74

    Why don't you stop by my office in person and tell that to my face. You want my cell number and office address? Time to put up or shut up. I'm real, let's see if you are.
     
    #24     Jan 21, 2012
  5. I will choose decent profit split but I also want the firm to invest in me in some way so that they don't punt me out the door on whim. Of course, better investment means higher ROI.

    I don't want to be concerned about all the little fees.

    I am a trader. I should be trading. I am not a bean counter.
     
    #25     Jan 21, 2012
  6. Maverick74

    Maverick74

    Yeah, this is why the industry is breaking down and this website as well. I know you probably think oldtime is just some alias acting like a child on a message board, but this business is full of guys like him and it's why ET has gone to hell and the entire industry.

    Anyway, I'm trying to add some value here. As you can see, it's hard having an intelligent discussion on this site without some guy with a 3k Oanda account sticking his chest out. LOL.
     
    #26     Jan 21, 2012
  7. MBC

    MBC

    All you can do is proceed.........

    1.) risk management key. So trader is to balme himself, not the market, not the prop. HIMSELF

    2.) Reasonable amount of risk on the prop and the trader. Small skin i nhte game for trader for example, start smal, scale up same risk parameters just bigger size.

    3.) Cool office would be nice as long as its not so cost prohibitive that it is a becomes a bone of contention with the "prop" owner that he charges weird "fee's" to make up the costs
     
    #27     Jan 21, 2012
  8. If you allow a trader to go that deep in losses, then your risk management is not good.

    You should have stopped the bleeding long before when you realized that you are not going to recover the losses.

    Your other good traders will most likely have to cover the losses.
     
    #28     Jan 21, 2012
  9. rmorse

    rmorse Sponsor

    You asked what the perfect shop would be to me. You asked the question. I'm interested in the tradition set up where a firm hires traders, pays them based on what they make. Or, I'd look to a Fund of Funds to get an allocation of capital as a Portfolio Manager. I'm also not talking at $50K. This is the way the business is run outside JBOs, and you know that. I would not be interested with under a $1MM allocation to start. I'm not a 22 year old trader just starting out.
     
    #29     Jan 21, 2012
  10. Other traders should never have to pay the bill for bad traders. 100% of whatever a trader puts up is his hard cutoff. I would say 70-80 is when you start tightening things up in the worst case.

    -gariki
     
    #30     Jan 21, 2012