seminar training has about a 0.001% of creating successful traders. you have 2 options... either learn it yourself through trial and error (and get your info from the internet and bookstore) or go to a prop firm and sit next to a trader that actually makes money.
Good point! I almost paid for OTA, then realized it probably wasnt a good idea. I'm looking at proprietary firms now.
So, which branch of OTA do you work for? I have already seen enough of their shill reviews all over the web. Terrible way to start "trading"
Most courses are garbage. Usually you'll find they are just a massive plagiarized version of the finance section at Borders. Your best bet is to go out and find a trading firm with people that are making money and work your way up.
Another winner here!!! Who sold you people this idea that there are firms out there waiting with their arms open to make you rich? Some prop firms make money, yes, but they also LOSE money, LOTS of it, on their recommendations. If you don't know what you're doing you will blow your account in just a couple of bad streaks. OTA is not the only answer, it was mentioned and spoken about because this is what the thread is about, there are books and other sources you can get your education from, if books and videos is your style more power to you! But knowing what I know now I would NOT start off at a prop firm without any education. How much education is enough to make money should be the real question. Sim trading and real money trading are two very different animals.
In terms of the Chicago futures prop trading business model, some firms do train grads they recruit and employ as W-2 status in exchange for a lengthy and restrictive employment contract loaded with intellectual property rights clauses extended well beyond their employment dates. Gambit, Millenium, and DRW come to mind. Two of my current clients were employed at those firms for the length of their contracts - one for three years and the other for four years. The trader I currently employ to trade my own firm's account spent six years at Goldenberg-Hehmeyer and went through their new grad development program starting in 2002. So yes, it is true at least in Chicago that there are a handful of firms that do recruit and train traders from select academic areas and schools. It is an excellent way to start if you can make the cut, but it isn't necessarily the last word in trading education. Since the early 1990's I personally have never met a successful proprietary trader in Chicago who would let a rookie (or any other trader for that matter) look over his shoulder or sit next to him and show him 'the ropes' as it were. I personally know R. Cahnman (TMG), C. McElveen (Kingstree), D. Ellis (ITG/DE Trading), W. Noyes (York until 2007) and actually use some of these prop firm owners as references for prospective clients, and as possible future employers for my successful graduates - but let me just assure you that they will absolutely under no circumstances let a newbie sit next to them and show them how to trade. Neither will their successful traders - quite the oppposite, they don't want anything to do with you. Over 90% of the Chicago area proprietary firms will not hire a trader unless he can show them a trading system and sell the prospective employer on a 'convincing edge' or methodology that makes sense to them. They used to hire newbies fresh off the street, but those days are long gone. So, at least in Chicago, there are a handful of firms that hire very select graduates from very select academic backgrounds. But other than that, you really have to sell them with a methodology that they think makes sense - and they have been pitched on everything.
You got me there Sherlock, must be a shill because he actually have something GOOD to say about a company. Really, with that rationale I don't know how you can even afford a computer to write your nonsense. It's funny, when companies get bashed here on ET everyone joins in, but when there is something good to say about any company it's a shill. What's interesting about this particular company is that it's only the people who have NOT tried OTA that bash it, not sure if that's the case for other companies mentioned here on ET.
So you are clearly anti-prop, but what about all the successful traders that have come out of prop firms in NYC and CHI??? We should ignore that and just buy a seminar??? Your views are obviously biased and not objective