That's the easy part. LOL. There are a million ways you can filter and the software today for filtering stocks has never been better.
Do elaborate, I am all ears! You can get the leverage to trade commodities without taking an exam or finding a prop firm
You get 4 to 1 leverage in a retail account with taking an exam or going prop. This isn't the thread for me going over scanning. I post frequently over here: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3446256#post3446256 We discuss futures and stocks. Feel free to post your question there as this thread is specifically about prop firms.
I've never traded with a prop firm before so this is going to sound like an ultra newb question. Can buying power with a prop firm be spread across multiple positions intraday as if it were your own cash? In a regular non PDT retail margin account your 2 to 1 BP can only go towards one position essentially. Let me give you an example: Lets say you put up the minimum $2K in a retail margin account. Now you have $4K buying power. You could not however establish 4 seperate $1K positions across 4 different stocks with your BP. Prop firm buying power is different right? If I have $50K BP Intraday with a prop firm then I can use that to hold multiple positions across multiple stocks unlike retail BP?
The buying power restrictions from retail pdt do not apply. In our case, a trader with $20k or so, might have 20 different stocks, against an ETF or something of $20k each or similar. We just look at your equity, and try to keep you from going crazy, LOL. Sure, it's better, common sense, to have the risk spread across multiple symbols. We don't like to see too much in the way of "specific risk" (several terms for this, basically having too much risk in one symbol) of course. Some of our guys might use several $million, with a $million in his account. We would prefer to see dozens of positions vs. the "all eggs in one basket" type of thing. But, again, that's just common sense, which, as they say, "ain't so common sometimes." Just think of professional trading as a business, you are running it with the support of your "bank" in our case, Bright Trading and Goldman Sachs. Don't over-think this guys, really, it's a very simple business model, and works for many. AND, "not for everyone" as with any business venture. All the best, and btw, I'll get to the PM's soon. Emails should go to: donbright@brighttrading.net - probably a quicker response. Mention ET if you would, thanks. Have a good evening everyone, need to head out for a while. edit: props and thanks to everyone for helping out with the questions here. Rob Morse, Evo, Mav, Lucias (oops, starting to sound like the Grammy's LOL). Oh yeah, do me a favor, check out: www.premarketinfo.com - run by one of my best guys, Dennis. Long time successful trader with us, CFA, and he keeps his hand on the pulse of the business. Tell him Don sent you, LOL. Seriously, good and helpful info. Don
YES! And that's why trading is a minus sum game. (this is referenced well in the book "pit bull.") I've been recently finding that prop trading is a minus sum game, minus another sum. Prop + risk deposit= a sucker's game these days...
A bit harsh my friend. No more so than any other business (OSHA, NLRB, ordinance fees, licensing fees)... carrying this out one step further, no business should ever be started because of start up costs and overhead. Surely you're not saying that. The whole start up process is like a couple of grand, and monthly overhead can be as low as a couple hundred. Try starting any other business with a big upside potential, and the ability to "borrow" a lot of money for free. Pretty low barrier to entry as compared to virtually any other business that I have started, taken public, kept small, even being a public accountant costs a fortune in overhead and license fees, continuing education etc. My Professional life in accounting, my personal business ventures from manufacturing to computer stores, all were much more of a headache and more costly than trading, especially these days. But, as I keep saying, trading is not for everyone. I know you'll be fine when you get going, all this other "stuff" is just that, "stuff." All the best everyone, still trying to get out of here for my Dr. appt. Don
Getting back to the OP, what are some reputable firms if you are looking to deposit non-piker size, say 25k+ for a firm?