several years ago, i had personally seen one of their seasoned guys have a $100k+ day. not exactly sure how he did it but i believe it was largely due to a huge amount of positions, like 300 stocks, mitigating risk through diversification and balanced in the stat arb styley(half short and half long). i have no idea if he had a knack for direction and would take off a certain % of the longs/shorts throughout the day or it was solely from pair production, both intraday and those coming back in for him but he was impressive, both in the numbers and his breadth of knowledge. think about it, if the guy had on $50 million in positions, that is only a .2% gain on the (good)day and supposedly, he was averaging something like 1.5% per month after commish and haircut. some years back, brother Bob was one of the top traders of the year with something like $15 million so if you think of that, he was averaging close to $60k per trading day. keep in mind, this was years ago and the times have changed a lot since, so who knows what is working for them there now but some form of mitigated risk, be it with options or similar stocks, is always a good idea if holding overnights, IMHO. met the folks, good people but i am not a Bright trader though have known a few people that were happy to be there.
maybe he had a Buddhist conversion and embraced the inevitability of impermanence and change but when i was there 6 years ago, it was the most high tech trading system i had seen to then with Don's 6 or 8 screen system with spreads to assist with OPGs, stat arb (some even automated if on Don's, i don't know) and whoever knows what else. of course, everyone has their own idea of what is high tech and 6 years ago, i was living a thoreauvian lifestyle in the jungles of SE Asia
$200 monthly desk fee is 10% of your capital contribution. In 2 months, you're down 20%, in 5 months, you're down 50%. Add this to your daily commissions, your max daily drawdown, and monthly platform/data fees, and you can see that $2,000 capital contribution is unlikely to last long enough to generate a consistent income stream. Also, with a registered prop firm, any capital you contribute as a member is subject to a one year "lock up" as per SEC rules, so that $2k is something you should be ready to part with. You're off to a good start by considering to join a registered firm, getting licensed and being able to trade from an office, which has many benefits vs. trading remotely from home, especially as a new trader. However, do not be lured by the leverage, it's simply NOT realistic to use 100k in buying power with a 2k deposit. Once you have enough screen time and a disciplined trading plan, it's the EQUITY portion of the account that will determine how long you will last in this game, not the buying power. So it's probably a good learning experience, and the license will be good for two years, giving you the option of adding more funds to the account when you're able. Best of luck.
If I was giving advice to a young kid still in school I would tell him to learn to program. Two reasons. I would say 95% of all trading jobs require it. And two, having that skill is a godsend if you are out work and need to pick up money on the side. I know guys that make $75 to $150 an hour programming. Beats waiting tables while you are waiting to get that job. If he didn't want to do that, I would tell him to get involved in physical commodities, especially energy. I mean trading of physicals, not the financials as in over the counter. That's the advice I would give.
Is anyone else trading at WTS paying only .35 per 1000 shares? I was just curious if there were any other requirements with a commission rate that low? What is their payout percentage? I am curious if the deal that the person who started this thread mentioned is standard or not?
usually they offer a 50 % payout for that rate . that is a terrible deal you can do better then that , depends who you talk to at wts
Does anybody trade in the Miami location? WTS doesn't list a Miami location on its website. Do they go under a different name?
That is the norm with every small business. Trading is not an exception. Retail Stores, Wholesalers, E-Commerce, Etc. - all small business have a 95% failure rate and it isn't just a coincidence. Taxes, regulations, fees, fines, penalties, etc. etc. - scam after scam after scam being perpetuated by our government on defenseless small folks. As for bright, the minimum is 25k. The OP should try somewhere that focuses on training like SMB, T3, Maverick Trading, etc. - Look at professional musicians for example - how many did not go through some type of private lesson or training? Very few. It's no different in any type of industry. If the OP wants to trade, he should look to minimize his learning curve which will reduce his losses.