I have a decent history of retail equity trading and some basic commodity futures experience, to go with excellent software and database skills (15+ years / engineering background). I'm thinking of going Prop. What does it take to be very successful ($10k / day +)? How hard did you have to work to become consistently profitable, say profitable 4 days out of 5? What's a reasonable starting cash stash, i.e. how much did you place as your initial deposit with your prop trading firm? What was your starting buying power? How long did you trade with your prop firm before they increased your buying power to higher levels? $2m? $5m? Do you trade using automated statistical strategies or by watching the charts? Thanks to anyone who's willing to take the time to answer.
amount of time varies greatly because not everyone attacks it with the same level of commitment, people have different views of whats possible, current living environment and the list goes on. Generally, I'd say it takes roughly between 1 and 5 years to get consistent.
ekwtrading and Cocaine (now there's a username w/ a story I bet) - a very delayed thank you to you both. I thought this thread would go a bit farther, and have been away from the site with my head stuck in CFA books for a few months. Thanks for your replies. They were both helpful.
Uhm, You need to get some realistic expectations. If you can even net a few hundred a day on a consistent basis after 9-12 months, you're doing excellent.