Over the past 2 years, one young trader has been making his way from trading just a handful of contracts to trading 80 contract positions in the ES (all live trade), 50 contract positions in Crude and Gold and up to 300 contracts on the Bund Futures on Eurex. From 3 lots to 300 is amazing progress in 2 years and the trader isn’t even 25 years old yet. He has no degree. He wasn’t a ‘star student’ at school. He started trading at 19 years old and he’s now just 23. When I asked the manager at his firm what Joe’s special qualities are, the reply was “So many traders improve their skill and then increase their size, but the first time they take a couple of knocks trading that new size, they fail to hold onto that increase in size. Joe never failed to push himself outside that comfort zone“. At the same time, over the past 2 years, many retail traders have still been in the cycle of going from SIM to Live and back again over and over again. The simulated account being comfort zone they cannot escape. To help you benefit directly from Joe’s experience, we are now able to share with you a full 20 hours of video from Joe, spanning over 2 years, in which you will see him trade larger and larger size as he progresses. The videos show: Joe’s thought processes & the questions he asks himself before he enters a trade. Live blow by blow account of the trades as he takes them. You can see the trades on the price ladder, on a live account as Joe discusses the trade execution and management. Specifics on how he analyzes the price ladder to make trading decisions. A workshop of his biggest day so far, with profits over $100,000 trading FOMC day. Note – this is all real money, live trade, all done in the heat of the moment. This is not simulated trading. Not only is this inspirational, it also contains a mine of useful real-time insights into reading the market and how a proprietary trader really makes money. These videos are ‘all action’, in other words, Joe pauses the video when he needs to explain a key concept and he speeds it up over parts of the trades where he’s not actively making decisions. The average length of each video is 15 minutes. In addition to this, we have live trade recordings of another Axia trader taking us through his first-ever £500,000 plus trading day Not only do you have a chance to truly benefit from Joe’s live trade experience, but you can also at his firm (Axia Futures, London), who will be hosting a workshop on October 18th. Joe will be discussing the practices and routines that helped him accelerate his development as a trader. You’ll get a tour of the trading floors with the Trading Floor Manager who will hold a workshop on the price ladder setups of some of the top futures traders in the industry, including the routine of the trader there who recently had his first £500,000 plus trading day. Note that these sessions will also be recorded for those that cannot attend. Much of the live trade video content is new but for the sake of completeness, we have included 45 previously published videos from this series of 81 videos. From those previously published, many were shortened versions of what you see here. We included this previously released material for continuity as we thought the old and new content together in one series made the most sense. The videos and live workshop (or workshop recordings) are available for people signing up for the Jigsaw Institutional Trading Package with Jigsaw Trading in September. You cannot buy these videos anywhere else, nor do will the videos be available with the Institutional Package once this offer expires. Simply sign up for Jigsaw Institutional Package today. Click here for details. Note that traders that purchased the Institutional Package previously can upgrade to buy get the videos & workshop for just $399.
It changes as he progresses. He starts off pure order flow/price ladder - as do a lot of prop guys. As he progresses, more structural analysis comes into it - so charts are used. Breakouts, post news ranges/post FOMC ranges etc. There's no specific timeframe as such. If a market is consolidating, it's going to be evident on a lot of timeframes. So it's usually a matter of "which timeframe shows me as much history as I'm going to work off?"
Is it fair comparing trading personal money vs prop money? I was talking to a prop trader recently and asked him what would happen if he hit a large draw down that would take him a year of normal trading to get out of. He said he would have probably left to join another firm. Not trying to make a point, but asking for opinion. What stops prop traders from pressing hard? Is it just that, as professional traders, they would be embarrassed to have such a huge draw down?
These firms do have daily loss limits and will intervene on a bad run - so massive draws are managed to an extent but any trader can go on tilt. Especially those with a narrow focus - like interest rate spreads. The prop world is pretty small - with firms constantly trying to poach staff off each other. It's like any job in another respect, it's not that easy to lose big at one firm and then expect another to welcome you with open arms. It's a cottage industry, word gets around. You'd probably get away with it once but I doubt you'd be able to jump like that a second time.
I think you can appreciate the following analogy: Each year millions of Thai gals (replace with Filipina, Cambodians,..., if you like) hear how one of their friend's friend dated a foreigner and the foreigner got her preggy and, oh miracle, married her and they were happy ever after. For each of those gals this one single story is enough to convince them that they should give it a try with a foreigner, knowing full well that 95% or more males who come to Thailand without a female companion are there for one single reason: sex tourism. Bam bam, thank you ma'am. Yet it does not prevent ths girls from engaging in unprotected sex and all other sorts of stupid decisions because sometimes one gets lucky in life and gets "chosen" . In reality the probabilities are as firmly stacked against them as a lotto player. (I am engaged in an ngo that works to fight sexual abuse and trafficking which is why I am quite informed on the above). Sounds familiar? You live in Thailand, you must have heard similar stories many times. And this is exactly how the snake oil from rags to riches trading story works on the cattle class. As long as the suppliers of the lucky gold dust drop a success story every now and then to keep the hopes of the desperate up, the money keeps on rolling in. Isn't that exactly how your industry functions? Just thought you might be able to identify an analogy here or there with the story you just shared.
@GRULSTMRNN, I don't like your analogy. You are getting so dark lately. Someone here posted below once and I like that much better.
Well - I sure wouldn't want to see 81 videos of that. The trading industry can indeed be slimy. In our case, we are providing education AND showing 81 videos of the techniques in use over 2 years by a trader. This is coupled with a visit to the firm and the chance to meet the trader at the building the firm owns. Joe is indeed lucky. He did win the lotto. He managed to get into a firm that taught him solid techniques and he worked hard. Some would call that 'making your own luck'.