Hello, Been trading for past few years and I've been successful in building a sizable war chest. I have my own methods, systems, capital and have broken out independently. The problem here is the isolation -- of oneself, of information. There is a lack of idea sharing by being by yourself, and I'm beginning to talk to myself now and calling my basketball "Wilson". So in the hope of saving my sanity, I'm looking for a trading arcade (not prop) in or near Washington DC/Baltimore. Does anyone know or can recommend any? Thanks
Loads of Trading Arcades in this list (sorry it's not specific to your area.. it's everything!) http://www.trade2win.com/traderpedia/Trading_Arcade_Index
It's going to be difficult to find a "trading arcade" that doesn't operate like a proprietary firm (prop firm). In contrast, I highly recommend you could just find like minded traders in your area via the HookUp thread here at ET, blogs and especially twitter/stocktwits. In fact, you should get on twitter/stocktwits and make sure your profile saids what city you live in and that you want to meet traders in person for beer, barbecue, dinner, lunch or whatever without mentioning anything about a trading arcade. My point is that it may be easier to just find like minded traders in your area and then bring up the topic of joining a trading arcade or starting your own. Also, if your single and willing to relocate...you'll increase your chances of finding a trading arcade that's doesn't operate like a proprietary firm. By the way, I had a trading arcade in the Seattle area a long time ago with several like minded traders that had no prop like business model. We basically split the expenses related to the office rent and then setup our own trader workstation...worked well for several years and it did such because we got to know each other personally prior to discussing sharing an office space for trading. There are advantages and disadvantages...there's a thread here at ET that gets into the discussion of such involving "Trading from Home" versus "Trading Office with Other Traders". Mark
If you are starting to talk to yourself, you need some other form of stimuli to keep you grounded. Turn on a TV and put it on CNBC or CNN so your mind has something to tune into without becoming completely distracted. Ive been trading full time from my home office for over 4 yrs and would never give up the home working enviroment. I have my kitchen near me for when im hungry, I have one of my monitors tuned to CNBC and/or CNN for breaking news & lil distraction, and have my 2 small dogs that like to hop on my lap once in a while as Im working. These lil streams of stimuli from different sources keep me from going "loneliness induced hallucinagenic". To me personally, I feel i would get distracted if I were to move to some type of trading room full of ppl that you don't even know and who tend to be slobs leaving cheetos and candy wrappers all over the place. No thnx.... ** the most important thing i found in all my time trading from home is the absolute necessity to get out of the house once Im done trading. Don't stay home looking at charts or scorning yourself over missed trades or engaging in other market related activity. Get out of the house and go for a walk, or go to the gym(excellent for working off any stress), or go "bang" your girlfriend(if you have one)...........