You go to a prop firm and put up your $10k. If you can't afford to lose it you shouldn't be trading with it in the first place. They set you up to trade and if you are lucky you get some good ideas from them. If you lose your $$ trading you have no one to blame but yourself. If they flat out steal/keep your money, sure you try to get it back, but this is the very rare case. Maybe you lose your $10k (worst case scenario).. so you go to work and make it back in the market. The risk is really on the firms. It is much more likely you are going to blow out their firm with your high leverage, than they are going to keep your deposit. Saying the prop firms are to blame is like saying that people must be protected from themselves, the reason the PDT rule was implemented. By that logic, daytrading should be banned by the SEC to protect people from themselves. You have to ask yourself, with the existence of prop firms, are there more opportunites for people to make a living trading, or less? Clearly there are more, and that is good for everybody.
OTL.....Please stop mincing words ok? I want to know how you truly feel so please stop trying to mask your true feelings ok?
lets say there was a local business that was legal, profitable, but 50% of its customers had a strong negative experience when dealing with them and felt they were unethical in their sales practices. Is that a good company ? Would you tell somebody to use that company ? Would you yourself use that company ? My answer to all three questions is NO.
I would never blame a regular discount retail firm for losing money, But that isn't what we are talking about here, these are essentially "full service" firms, since they sell advice and trading methods and solicit people to follow their advice. if I 100% followed the advice of a full service broker who churned me and I went broke , I would blame him, and I would seek a lawyer to help me get my money back. if I 100% followed the trading advice of a guy running a prop firm who told me to churn and I went broke, I would blame him and I would seek a lawyer to help me get my money back.
If you followed the advice of an analyst who was interviewed on CNBC and lost money, would you blame him or the station? Of course not. It's ultimately up to the INDIVIDUAL TRADER to make the trade. You make it sound like these prop firms are holding a gun to your head to trade their methods. I don't know a single firm that does that. Sounds like you're the type who blindly follows advice and trades on it without properly digesting it on your own. ANd if you lose money, you're the type to immediately lay the blame on someone else other than yourself. VERY COMMON trait of the LOSING trader. Read Market Wizards...all the great traders mention that they NEVER EVER trade directly off of someone else's style or advice. What "full service" firms sell advice and trading methods? Who'd be dumb enough to pay money for these "services"? Are people so incompetent that they cannot devise their own trading strategies? They have to rely on someone else?
a little bitter, are we? just because the truth came out about your misfortunes at worldco doesn't mean you have to constantly make up more lies and make these personal attacks on me. OVERtheLINE, get over it! You lost all your money at worldco because you're a bad trader. Stop blaming everyone else for your shortcomings! Go out and get your 25k/year job and move on with your life! if you guys have noticed, i haven't promoted any firm, nor do i intend to. i'm just sick of these type of guys popping up and bitching/moaning about certain firms on the street...pretty much making up every lie and excuse they can come up with. all because they are BAD TRADERS and can't come to the realization that they need to find another profession. Sad, but true. I feel sorry for you, OVERtheLINE, I really do...
Very well said - 100% agree with you. We all should stop bitching and whining and accusing prop firms of being blood suckers that they really are not. Prop firms provide the trader leverage, bullets, a computer(s), and maybe some training. It is up to the trader to exploit these advantages. There are losing traders and there are winning traders. I'm not interested in the losers - I want to know what the winners are doing and see how I can hopefully learn something from them. I can do this by being a pain in the ass and continously asking them questions or I can just observe what they are doing and see if I can benefit from this. I have lost a decent sum of money while learning to trade, but it was MY fault. I was the one clicking the mouse, so can't blame it on the prop firm or anyone else.
The lifetime horizon of a trader is like a marathon not a sprint...everysingle trader has their development and their ups and downs.... there is no question over time the ultimate responsibility lies on the individual pushing the buttons.... BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE there is somthing to be said about shady operations and what can be learned from traders experiences at these types of places. RICHSOHN is THE absolute epitomy of filth in that he can represent the single most horrendous firm the way he does through lies and dishonesty here on elitetrader
overtheline, go away! no one wants to hear your whining anymore. go bitch and moan somewhere else. you're like that one kid in elementary school that no one liked, but kept showing up everywhere you went. seriously, no one's interested.