I was just wondering what the average earnings are for a prop trader who is in the top 10 % of the company in terms of earnings. I probably wont recieve any answers, but, i thought i would ask it anyway. Sorry if this question offends anyone.... its a bit uncouth. jc
At my company, there are 25 traders. The top 10% earned between 3K and 9K last month (after commissions and before taxes). 50% were net negative and 40% made between $200 and 3K in July.
The stats say that 90% of traders will lose money (the honest number is closer to 95%), so that means the top 10% earn anything from nothing ($0.01 per year +) Brandon
You aren't going to get a straight answer around here. So, I'll be straight with you. I broke $65K today for the year. I'm hoping to see $100K by year's end. We'll see.
damn- what company do you trade for, if you don't mind me asking? no offense, but thats piss poor........not even a real living ..are you all trading NYSE or nasdaq?
I trade thru a sub-LLC and my friends also have a separate sub-LLC, so I know the numbers from those 2 entities but not the firm. By the way both groups are mostly comprised of experienced traders who have traded a few years. For last month in my friends group the top half of about 20 people ran from 20-200K. The bottom half was basically flat and a few in the middle made around 10K. However last month was decent trading. In my group, which is a lot smaller, the numbers for the month ran from down 2K to up 70K for the month. In my office there are a couple heavy hitters who made over 250K for the month. It shows you there is still money out there in the market, you just need to find out how to make it and not get discouraged by making yourself believe that the market is impossible to trade. It is just different than it was before.
I trade for a small equity hedge fund ($30MM in assets) in NYC. We trade both NYSE and Nasdaq. About 10 of the 25 traders are beginners and the rest have at least one year of experience. We are not encouraged to write many tickets so we average from 5K-75K shares a day.
Those stats are true but they are for traditional, retail commodity customers trading off the floor. Today most commodity traders trade like floor traders (with practically the same expenses as well). With electronic products there is no disadvantage in trading off the floor. Regarding floor traders, the estimates I've heard are that 1/3 of the newbies stay on to make an income with it; 1/3 break even and tend to leave in time and 1/3 lose and leave more quickly.
If you catch the brokers in an honest moment most will admit that more than 90% of the accounts are not profitable, the success rate is higher on the floor, and probably at professional firms where you are surrounded by others who know the ropes etc. Most people though don't even have the discipline to come up with a plan, let alone follow one. Brandon