Tips for a new Proprietary Trader?

Discussion in 'Prop Firms' started by warrenbuffet, Nov 5, 2005.

  1. and don't forget that the firms wants you to trade in order for them to make commisions on you..so be careful.
     
    #21     Nov 6, 2005
  2. esmjb

    esmjb

    are you serioues about putting up 50g's of your own money??? unless you are rich this seems like flushing money down the toilet.
    my advice is find a place where you dont have to put up any cash and cut your teeth there. if you become profitable, quit and then put up your own cash and reap the rewards...
     
    #22     Nov 6, 2005
  3. oh no, i dont have to put up 50g. I have to put up a deposit of $5,000, which i can get back in the future once they know i'm not someone who's coming in just to gamble away their money and leave. And this money will not be put towards as part of the $50,000 my company will grant me as my capital
     
    #23     Nov 6, 2005

  4. "Gamble away" WHOSE money????

    Reality check!!!!!!:D

    1. You have not been given a "job".
    2. It's not "your" company OR capital.
    3. The only money that will be lost is yours.

    The experience you are about to receive........"priceless"!!! :D

    st
     
    #24     Nov 6, 2005
  5. Rearden Metal I will trade any stock but I think a new guy should learn with less choppiness. The name of the game your first 6 month is not to blow your capital away and do you think he is going to trade a MRK successfully? I think you see my point and when he understands more he can trade them. Eusdaiki I am a professional I rather make money then be excited watching volume. Volume has choppiness and a new guy won’t handle it right. I don’t think a stock that trades a million shares a day or less has to be boring. You come off as not being a consistent trader with that comment Eusdaiki.

     
    #25     Nov 7, 2005
  6. Because i told you so
     
    #26     Nov 7, 2005
  7. Im a rebate trader... perhaps that's why I like stuff with plenty of volume in it... JDSU, SUNW, and that sort...
    However the advange I see to stocks with higher volume to a newby is that they have better liquidity, allowing to enter/exit constantly, and most times they're stocks that wont open the spread easily... I think that stock priced around $25-35 with very high volume, and a dense level 2... like intl, pfe, msft,ge, c... are great for learning.

    I also find choppy markets to be very profitable... if one's simply looking for ranges and not for the range to be broken. is just a matter of looking for the rght strategy... and at least in my case, when I started I used to throuw away too many trades waiting for that big trend to start...
     
    #27     Nov 7, 2005
  8. OK, don't take this the wrong way, but you are asking all of us some pretty basic questions. I think you need to spend a couple of weeks reading and studying basic educational material before you go in the office. Ortherwise I am afraid it might be very confusing to you.

    Regarding the trend, I would suggest looking at an index like the S&P on a higher timeframe than you are trading. If you are daytrading, maybe look at the 60 minute and daily index, and make sure you are trading in the direction of that trend. Then do the same thing with the stock you want to trade, and make sure it is aligned with the index. why? Because most of trading is just a matter of understanding what the market finds easiest to do. If it wants to go up, why fight it? If it is going down, why gamble on a reversal when the crowd is selling? It's great to be a contrarian and question the conventional wisdom, but the crowd is right in the short term and a daytrader lives moment to moment.

    Entry points become more important the shorter the timeframe you are trading. If you are daytrading on 5 minute bars, then your entry need to be very precise. Otherwise you have to deal with the stock going against you and pssoibly forcing you to exit just before it turns around, what is called getting whipsawed. Most entries are either pullback or breakout type setups. Breakouts tend to have a low success rate, making them tough for daytraders, plus they react more quickly, which can be a problem for a newbie. Pullbacks tend to give you a better entry, but will leave you waiting in a runaway market. Look at harris tech's journal for examples of how to do this.
     
    #28     Nov 7, 2005
  9. I am surprised there wasn't a real structured training program. Basicaly I was monitoring what the senior trader was doing, asking questions, and he will sometimes ask me if i notice something, but it's hard to understand fully.

    Afterwards, i went on to the computer and was testing out the software, and getting a feel of the market, making trades on my own with fake money (kind of like a simulation) but i was not very succesffuly at it 'cuz i didn't know exactly what i was doing... they say it takes sometimes, but i was really sadden by the fact taht there's not a structured training program. Is this usually how it is at other firms?

    Also, a lot of the traders were using primarily the Openbook(seeing how many people are looking to buy a certain stock at a certain price for how many shares, and selling at whatever price, to see the trend... etc)

    I was wondering if anyone could explain to me their strategy in this so i could have a better understanding of how all these work =\
     
    #29     Nov 7, 2005
  10. mizer

    mizer

    Did that wall street journal subscription come in handy today:D
     
    #30     Nov 7, 2005