Awwww, Smallcaps... do i look like an amateur? You hurt my feelings.... In fact, i already established the fact that I'm an amateur. Yet you fail to recognize that the same question has been asked 5 times now in the same thread and yet all you "professionals" have no idea how to answer ... Because you have just as little experience as the "amateurs" I am starting from the ground up. And, yes, unfortunately for those you are envious of others, i do have a successful strategy that I can employ and earn lots of money from. It will probably take me 3-4 months to start earning a profit from THT based on my skills. Otherwise, I could earn money a lot faster from another prop firm ... but there just isn't the Type A responses I would expect from 'pros' here... So good luck with being an @sshole
Let me help answer the question because apparently it simply escapes the smallcaps that someone asked a question that he can't answer. JC Trading Group is a great place to look into. Here is a link. Write a nice cover letter and submit it. You will receive a phone all within 30 minutes. http://www.jctradinggroup.com/ Explain that you have 5-10k to invest. He will tell you that in order to trade you need your series 56. But once you get it you're in. They'll start you off with 100k buying power depending on what you trade and your experience. If you can trade SPY regularly and profit (like I can) you can get up to 500k. Pitfalls versus THT. Own capital and series 56 Advantages: Start right away upon completing 56 NOW THAT IS HOW YOU ANSWER A QUESTION IN A COMMUNITY THREAD SMALLCAPS!
scoobysteve0, the best advice you can get from here is don't start trading, even if it's with a prop firm like THT (that starts you out super small) until you have a winning strategy. Now, me, I have one and I asked for help in choosing a firm. But I can't get any help here. So I pass the advice onto you... work hard at finding a couple strategies that work. That way you're not fumbling around for a year trying to earn back what you lost 'learning'.
That's good advice. I thought about contacting JC, and am not totally opposed to taking a test, just don't want to take it and have it not be worth taking in the end. I also dont would rather not start trading remote. I would rather be around others doing the same thing, to kind of learn from them. On the other point, I hate the "dont start" advice because, yes I understand its going to be hard and there is a possibility that I may not make it. but I am past that point, I was told that with real estate as well, and I did it, and the only reason I'm not still pushing at that is because its just not testing me enough and I hate sales. The financial sales advice was solid, I will look into it, but I don't know how it can bring me to where I want to be other than trading on the side while making a paycheck.
Scooby, Since you live in Chicago you don't need to locate anywhere. Chicago is probably the easiest city to get an entry level job in finance. Much easier than NY. Chicago is Midwest and people are a lot more laid back. You will need to start at the bottom....probably a clerk job or back office, but at least you are in the door. From there you will need to be aggressive and befriend a trader. If you are smart and have something to offer people will notice. Send out a lot of resumes to every trading/brokerage firm on Wacker, in the CME and CBOT and follow up with in person visits. You will get a job.
Why do so many people say, "Work hard."? OK, go work for me on a commission basis and work 100-hour weeks. I will give you money if you work hard for me. Now don't slack!!! Working hard only makes sense if you are given what you expect out of working hard. There are tons of people with 2-month vacations getting 200k a year, so they obviously used to work hard but now they clearly don't (they admit this to me). They play the system and get their handout from the company. women get pregnant, etc...then they say "I earned it." No, you were a slave, sacrificed your life and kissed butt and lost your soul and backbone, gained 40 lbs, hate your life, and now you have maybe an extra 100k to your name. suckers. life is not meant to be "worked hard." that is crazy. learn, experience, make money sure, YES make money!!! but don't think being a slave is the way to do it. I laugh at people who are owned by their job and must cower if they are late. that is a massive weakness. if the love it, they are not owned and are the ones doing the owning. lie about "loving your job" only if you make ridiculous cash, and leave before you put yourself in the grave 30-years too early.
I trade for this firm. I can explain how it goes. When you sign up, there is a 1 week training course. It's pretty basic. They tell you about basic bid/ask, order entry, etc. They teach you how the platform (Takion) works. And they give you a basic idea about imbalances. Then you begin trading live the following week. You start with 5 shares, $2,000BP. Every 2 weeks or 10 days you are at least 6/10 and net positive, they will bump you up. It goes 5, 10, 20, 40, etc. up to 3,000 I believe with $500,000BP. The share limit is per stock, not in total. So I can hold 5 shares in 3 different stocks if I have the BP to do so. They manage risk by stopping you out after x2 your share size I believe. So if you are on 10 shares, you will be stopped out of a stock if unrealized PnL reaches -$10, or you will be blocked from trading for the day if your overall PnL hits -$20. IF you ever make it to 3,000 shares and want to move on higher, they will sponsor you for your Series 7 to trade up to $10MM for Great Point Capital. The fees are quite low. I can buy a share and make profit selling it 2-3 cents higher. I believe it's $0.0035/share, then of course you have SEC, ECN, etc. There are no hidden fees, however if you are not profitable by the 6 month evaluation period, you will have to pay for your own data which is about $200/month to continue trading their capital. As far as the agreements go, it's not anything to worry about. I trade my own account with another pay to play prop firm while with this firm. I even ask their trainers for tips and they don't seem to care. They don't really teach you how to trade or have any education program like other programs. I think we currently have about 219 traders. Many are experienced business graduates looking for a career change. They have many remote traders from across the world. Maybe 30-50 make profit every day. A few make more than $1k a day. All of the good traders get sent off to Great Point Capital. It's more of a recruitment firm. The best traders here are scalpers. The only thing I dislike is how they handle overnight positions. I feel like I'm getting robbed. Say I buy 10 shares of XYZ at $100 and hold over night. It drops to $99 but comes back and I sell it at $101 when the market opens. Well I made nothing because it covered the unrealized PnL I had overnight? I never knew you had to cover unrealized losses ever? I bought at $100 and sold at $101, I should have $10 profit. I always argue with them that covering unrealized losses makes no sense. But I get nowhere. This problem doesn't happen during the day. But something about overnight unrealized losses just fucks you over. So I wouldn't consider this place if you are a swing trader.