Who needs a prop firm?

Although, I have an interest in a firm, I am the first to agree with someone who says there is no reason to go to an office if you do not need to. There are many mornings I wish my setup was at home. However, it would be expensive for me to duplicate my setup for home and work. But if you are making money at home why change?

However, two points. I was not making much if anything trading until I went and trained with traders who were making money. After seeing how "easy" it was to make money after training with someone else, I wonder why anyone would waste their time and money in the the market without getting help. And I do not mean $3,000.00 seminars. I mean the person doesn't get paid until the trader makes money. I agreed to pay the guys who trained me 1/8 of a cent a share for a year and it was the best $22,000 I ever spent.

Second bullets are just not a one tick improvement. Even if a stock ticks up you may not get filled because: the whole reason a short may be enticing is that a vwap trader is selling the hell out of the stock ahead of your offer or someone is trying to short size, or a sell program just started. You are almost never going to get your short off during the best short opportunities (Short term) Consequently, you do not get filled on a short until you don't not want to be filled. My favorite stock is almost impossible to short when it is in a downtrend. There is almost always size there in front of your offer until the downtrend is over. I did not get bullets yesterday and sure enough more than 100,000 showed up on the offer right as the market was rolling over. That offer walked down the stock for 30 cents or more and actually just before that offer there was an even larger offer up 15 cents higher. I could not get in.

But to show you I am open minded if someone could show me how to make more money trading futures or stocks from home I would pay that person a fair cut and become and underwear trader in a second.

 

I don't see how you can beat that

There are definitely some advantages to certain type of people to be in an office surroundings, reap benefits from the firms hidden treasures etc. But no amount of money over what I am currently making is going to get my tooshie(sp) out of bed and into the car at 4:00 o'clock in the morning.

One of my favorite things to do is stand on my balcony just about 45-30 minutes before the opening bell with a cup of coffee in my hand watching the sun rise over the Saddleback valley and listen to the birds singing to me, "good morning Mr. Oz, are you going to have a great day in the market today?" There is something about the calm and the scenery that has become a big part of my life. On some occasions the valley under is covered by a cloud and it looks like a big lake. The colors from the sunrise combined with the lights under the cloud (street lights and traffic lights from the valley) creates a picture that words couldn't possibly describe as the Calvin temperature is just perfect and it brings out the colors ... well I can't quite explain it.

And then there is always the possibility of hitting a couple of home runs early in the day and be done trading at 7:00 AM. I'd call the golf shop or tell my wife, "honey, Jordan is not going to school today how about Disneyland or how about a drive down to Cornado Island or Santa Barbara or whatever. God, I take too many of these things for granted.

 

You're a good man, Tony Oz...and you deserve every penny. Enjoy! It is sad we get to spend such a short time here on this earth.

 

Man you just blew my mind....
I am a believer now..

 

LOL,

The funny thing is that every time we attempt to drive up to Santa Barbara we have to stop in Oak Park (off Lindero Cyn 101) to see Jodi's brother. We always end-up getting stuck there He has three boys and Jordan has a blast with them, so it makes it that much harder to leave.

San Diego County is a different story. No one stops us there We go there a couple of times a month. BTW the Four Seasons at Aviara has a seafood buffet on Friday night with all you can eat lobster and other fun ocean creatures. I think it is like $40 a person or something like that. I highly recommend it. Your date will be happy

We all have season passes to Disneyland, and I try to take the family there at least 4 times a year. I will only go there on a weekday and never in the summer, otherwise the long lines take away from the experience. Always spontaneous after a good morning in the market (as long as Jodi's schedule permits it).

BTW, we are getting in the car to go to Oak Park for a house concert of http://www.venicecentral.com/

We will spend the night up there, so no posting tomorrow

Later,

 

Tony:

Are you for real? That sounds like a nice setup that you have going. Definately inspiring to those of us in the newbie section of the bus. Hard for those of us sitting here in the midwest going into winter, little sun, corporate job, fifty pounds of clothing to stay warm..... But you keep it goin', I can see those hills and valleys too.

 

Posted by jem

>>>>However, two points. I was not making much if anything trading until I went and trained with traders who were making money. After seeing how "easy" it was to make money after training with someone else, I wonder why anyone would waste their time and money in the the market without getting help. And I do not mean $3,000.00 seminars. I mean the person doesn't get paid until the trader makes money. I agreed to pay the guys who trained me 1/8 of a cent a share for a year and it was the best $22,000 I ever spent.<<<<

Hi jem, great post.

Were you trading listed or otc at that time? What firm was/is it?
Can you expand a bit more on the types of stocks and average position sizes that you and the rest of the trainers stepped up to?
You can pm me if more convenient.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Josh

 

I have no problem explaining the most important part of the philosophy. When I was trained and when I trained people we had them trade 100 shares of a thick med volatility nyse stock at a time. When they could net 100 bucks a day for a few days they would ratchet up their size to 200 to net 200 etc.

The guys who trained me are somewhat quiet and a bit modest and would not like me talking about them here on the net. However, I will tell you that until this year they had trained more than 40 guys including three in my office. Some of the guys they trained made seven figures 1- two years ago and many if not most made six figures.

We watched the futures and we traded tech stocks that would explode in combination with certain technical points and a push from the futures.

Unfortunately, this strategy produces much less money now because txn, emc, mu, amd etc no longer move the way they did. (We loved the down market more than the up market until the prices got too low)

We also made an a great deal of money trading the qqqs until they split them. We used similar strategies to the basic stuff dave floyd teaches at trading markets. (He is my business partner). Now I feel like most days its just me trading against other traders and there are no mutual funds which we can front run. So we are not making the kind of money we were. I have had to stretch out my time frames but I still am not as profitable as I was last year. It just part of trading.

If you spend enough time reading this board and trading markets you will see most of the trading strategies either used by me or taught to me. (Mixed in with a lot of non working strategies and some pure b.s.)

When the guys who taught me are making successful traders again or when Dave and I are making new guys a lot of money. I am sure I will talk about what we are doing.
Right now it takes a lot of experience to make money for most people.

I reread this and I left out some answers; the guys making the most money were trading up to 10,000 shares at a time at the time when they were having really large days. (six figures on some of the biggest). Like mine the firms were guys who had been trading at bright 4-7 years ago but they are not echo and they are in S.F. with offices in S.D. L. A. and Chicago.

 

That's what I look like, making 60k minimum a month from home.

Trading from another firm provides you with companionship and some hand holding if you need it. Otherwise, stay at home, and do something else you love when you don't feel like trading.

Life is about freedom of choice, and trading provides that. The true profession of wisdom.