Before i make a change i am trying to understand other`s experiences and whether this is something that i could deal with. I plan on using futures and oanda. I expect i will be paying a tad more per round trip in the futures mkt, but nothing too dramatic. Oanda has the lowest spread that i know of so i will use them if i go this route. You just have to watch oanda and its skewing of the spread. Fi`s have many bank systems in front of them so at any given time especially in the morning the spread between the different banks is zero and sometimes I have ability to buy and sell at the same time between the bank and make a point for no risk. In the morning the euro spread is 1 point but each bank has a different 1 point spread so that works to your advantage. I will not have this ability with the brokers.
I have a friend who left his prop bank dealing room ( not FX ) to join an open outcry futures exchange he has been doing ok ... maybe not as well since then trading his own money and doing paper ( commissions ) not sure how he would be doing if he were to only rely on his own trading.
Definitely glad I left. Was in NYC for 12 yrs and ready for a change. Took the opportunity to move to CA and explored the west coast for a year before settling. The hardest thing to get over is the annual bonus but the easiest thing to leave behind is the upper mngmt who often come from backgrounds like investment banking or sales.
I would take that $75,000 and put it all on EUR/USD at 200:1. Flip a coin for long or short. good luck
A fair point and one I will attempt to answer and justify! Before I do I will say that I don't trade with any US based brokers anymore - I don't know if it is they have less ethics or it was becuase I have not actually met them but all the ones I dealt with in the US were awful. I have not dealt with Oanda but am put off by my previous US experiences. I trade decent size (say 5m a ticket) in cable and euro dollar. The first reason I don't use futures is purely because I am used to spot as have being doing it for so long. By having various brokers on it means you have a reference point to check you are hitting a valid bid or offer whereas in futures I would constantly be having to make the points adjustment to check. That would not be good for my style of trading. Secondly by having various brokers on it usually means you can get a choice or 1 pip price as they are not usually all quoting the same price. Thirdly I get a 2 pip price all the time even when it is very volatile - does futures have this even when it is very volatile. I have been told all ids and offers can be pulled for short periods as say figures are released. I also believe that futures are shocking for cable. I would also say that I use various ECNs as well not just brokers. I hope that answers why I don't use futures although I accept someone else could justify perfectly well why they do. It is something I am considering but to date can see no need to change. Back to the original topic, another area I would consider if I was the person considering making the change. When I started out I did so from home and thought it was ideal. I hated it though after a while. If you do go solo either set up an office away from your home and get in other traders or rent a desk at an arcade/prop shop.
hey gwac, take a years leave and go for it...worstcase you will lose your trading capital, not a big deal as its ur risk capital. you can always go back to your job, otherwise you might regret in few years for not doing it when you had a chance. just my thought
I think a lot of people here would be happy to trade jobs with you. I think 75K is not enough to make anywhere near the same amount of money you are currently making and the risk is considerable. Also FX markets are good now , it won't always be the case. You should be a multimarket player. Are you trading in all kind of pairs or just the majors, do you rely on some kind of privileged info or sophisticated systems in your prop trading ? Retail spot FX is not a place IMO to bet "large" amounts of money (i.e . 1M +) you can not trust the dealer and their systems. I have yet to find one that I can trust , I wouldn't'even trust them to trade in 100K lots , except for multi day positions if I had what I feel is the proper capital to do it . Some guys here have access to several phone brokers, platforms etc, but I am sure their fixed cost goes way up . Futures is the way to go for short term trading, Euro FX has plenty liquidity, don't know about yen but cable is not as liquid.
Maybe you should get your wife to regsiter an account and then trade it for her, doing maybe up to four hours per night to get used to trading your own money. Do it for a year and limit your funds to 10k. Slowly work your way into trading for your self and see what the pressure's like. There's no law preventing your wife trading fx and would be the best way of seeing if you can do it without having to take unnecessary risks. Good luck with what ever you do and hope you can make it on your own. Theres nothing like having the independance to run your own race.