Why can no one suggest a real prop firm on this section of the forum

Discussion in 'Prop Firms' started by gpstrade, Feb 11, 2012.

  1. JSH - What strategy are they teaching you?
     
    #61     Feb 14, 2012
  2. i mean they teach u scalping, but they say you can use whatever strategy you like... position/momentum trading obv exposes you to more risk, so they don't teach you it because they don't want to promote risk... but if your a winning momentum trader, and your making money, they wont care.
     
    #62     Feb 14, 2012
  3. Rebate trading (generally putting in bids and offers in thick, low priced symbols), or actual scalping (trading stocks over 20 bucks back and forth)?

    Reason I ask is because if that is what you are going to be taught rebate trading, save your $1,500 bucks. The strategy has a low top for its potential profitability. And the skills you learn doing that are not transferable to any other type of trading. You'll end up like a money starting at SIRI for months and in good months make $800.
     
    #63     Feb 15, 2012
  4. yes rebate trading. and yes i know that it's not a very profitable system but they don't just make you do rebate... you are at your free will to trade your own symbols and strategies, as long as you're profitable.
     
    #64     Feb 15, 2012
  5. Because generally speaking the industry is filled with people that lack morals and integrity. Everyone is out for themselves and the most profitable strategies quite often pull money out of the market vs. invest or do something positive.

    The barrier to entry is extremely high as is failure rate of new traders.

    It's like that saying "those who can't do, teach". Well there are a LOT of "learn to trade" courses out there... Think about it, if they were such great traders why wouldn't they be retired or still trading? Very few do it just because they love it.

    At 21-25yo and bartending at night for living expenses putting up $1,500 (and being prepared to lose that and recapitalize twice or more in your first year) isn't a bad way to learn. As long as you are NOT factoring in trading profits into your living expenses.
     
    #65     Feb 15, 2012
  6. My friend, who owns half of Swift Trade, Charles K. explains that he simply attracts 19 year olds who are good with video games and shows them how to attempt to make money with rebate trading. Some do, some don't (of course), but if anyone shows interest in actual trading, he has sent them here. He came here for training about 10 years ago and decided that trading was not what he wanted to do, so he has done extremely well with Swift. Not sure if things are still going as well, about time for me to call I guess.

    My point is, sure, give the $1500 a shot, what can you lose $1500, right? And, it might be fun.

    All the best,

    Don
     
    #66     Feb 15, 2012
  7. I c... it's just my biggest issue with people and trading is that they say 95% fail... and i've faced that same story when I played poker for a living, and a good number of my best friends are still playing poker professionally. We are part of that 5% who knows that poker can be won, if studied and learned and you had disciplined. I see day trading the same way.

    95% of the monkeys just pick stocks they think are good and hope for the the best while others don't study and do their homework.

    If I was successful with playing poker for a living for 2 years, I feel like i can adapt and use my skills as a poker player with studying and money management and thought process into trading.

    Here is one of my friends who is also interested in the markets. Making money out of poker and trading is not luck, its about preparation and studying.

    http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-players/95618-alexander-queen
     
    #67     Feb 15, 2012
  8. You're not going to make $40,000 off $1500 in one year. there's a 90% + chance you will lose that $1500 within a few months even if you are very conservative. If you just want to try trading and learn the basics, I think $1500 is a low prices entry to day trading the markets but I highly doubt you'll make anywhere near $40k the first year. $40k from 1500 is something like a 2600% return.

    The typical learning curve I've seen is about 6-12 months. Trading these markets is tough.

    if you're bright and have some programming skills (learn c++ and java), rebate trading can be automated and turned into a blackbox. On the other hand, to rebate trade manually you'll probably lose. It's very competitive and many firms have bots that can think & execute a lot faster than you can. You'll need to scale the strategy up to make good profits.

    I do think that for $1500 to get access to 50k bp is a great way to start because you'll actually be participating in the markets. It will be a good experience if you don't expect to earn a return on your capital quickly or at all. If it's just RISK CAPITAL then it could be a great experience but if you are relying on it for your income, I highly suggest having another job on the side.


     
    #68     Feb 15, 2012
  9. This has been an interesting discussion.
    Traded prop 5 years ago and broke-even (I was lucky !).
    The other traders all busted their accounts....they were all small $5k accounts.
    However, one trader went on to successfully trade options...he basically got that $5k back and then some.
    He said trading options was so much easier than daytrading stocks. His hold period was usually 1-2 weeks.
    I think it's foolish for even a good trader to expect much income from a $5k account. I would say $20k is about the minimum for the daytrading "game". With 10:1 leverage and an excellent 1% per week return on capital invested, you would be doing pretty well.
     
    #69     Feb 15, 2012
  10. Rebate trading is not completely useless. It does require some basic skills that can be used on other trading strategies, such as watching which ECN queue to sit on, quickly adusting your orders to changing market conditions, or cutting your losses with no regret when the market goes against you...
    You can learn the basics trading against SIRI and later move to higher priced stocks by adding the taking of the spread into the strategy...
     
    #70     Feb 15, 2012