No didn't get the wrong side Okwon, was just a bit silly. The expected for the payroll was 150k but during the day some of the banks were revising their forecasts to 200-250k. Therefore I was expecting a really strong number. US unemployment came out first which I can't remember seeing before and it was 5.7 (expected 5.9) which is really out of line for that figure. I only had a second to make the decision and thought I had to sell it as unemployment was already a big sell and nonfarm was expected so strong so I just took a plunge and sold 400 Euribor. Before I could react the market went up off my screen and I was screwed as nonfarm came out at 1k. I still think it was a decent decision but I took on to much risk, I should have never done that size before I knew what the non farm was. Gutted, but a good lesson for us all.
Stratcat, are you still going to continue prop trading? How do you deal with the loss? Clearly it wasn't something you had to know - You were wrong-footed, like we all will inevitably be at some time sooner or later. I hope that doesn't discourage you? What effects / consequences did this have on your career? Does it go into a resumee? Did your boss fire you? Or did they all just see what happened and realized it was a bad tread? Will you keep trading and if so, how are you going about it? I hope this isn't too many personal questions asked - I am just curious as I realize I'll have to deal with a similar situation sooner or later and wonder what the impact means, from both a personal and a career / financial point of view. Warmest Regards, Scientist
Let's put this in perspective. The guy trades at the biggest arcade in London. Probably couple of hundred traders there. Two are making it big. The rest is just doing "ok". He himself made 50k quid, but lost 65k three weeks ago.. Who's the big winner here? To me it seems to be the broker. Risklessly raking it in! t4s
That kind of confuses me. There are 200 traders there, professionally trained and supervised, with highly professional setups, highly professional commissions and highly professional leverage - And only 2 of them are "making it big"? I don't understand this. When I look at these traders' infrastructure and compare it to my own, with high comms, 350ms ping and a lame setup, then I'd really think they should be having a huge advantage and doing hugely better than me! And come on t4s, you know I can make 50K in a year, dollar or quid. And I seriously trade *minimal* size compared to these dudes. If I wouldn't be looking at the opportunity that arises from that massive leverage and the extremely limited amount of liability, I wouldn't even consider prop trading. What is the handicap that these people are facing that so few make it under those favorable circumstances? P.S: I've checked out the MacFutures website in Sydney, but it's all old and not updated, it's been the same since 2001. And nobody's there. Are they broke? I tried to search for Refco office too, since Refco bought them, but there's nothing there either. Any info here?
It's more than my rent, too - That said though, think about the setup you get. If you want to have a decent setup at home, with a Bloomy, Reuters, decent feed and connection, execution etc, you're immediately out of pocket ~$5K a month. And this doesn't even yet factor in the price for the setup to start with, such as hardware etc. and the inevitable depreciation that comes with it over time. And after that, you'll still be trading with retail rates... Plus your risk is unlimited... There are reasons why people trade prop, and these are just a few of them.
Bloomberg and Reuters are useless if you trade futures outright. A CQG with dual/triple screen is all you need.
You can have Dow Jones Newswires with CQG. In my opinion, it's not worth paying around 2000$/mth each for Bloomberg and Reuters just to use 1% of it.