Here's an old excerpt from Trader Monthly: Darren Petterson Age: 30 Firm: TransMarket Group City: Chicago Trades: Yield curve As a wide receiver on the 1997 national-champion University of Michigan football team, Petterson learned how to stay focused on the ball while ignoring the guys trying to run him over. This skill served him well on the floor of the CBOT. Now trading by screen -- he trades eurodollar futures, mainly the red and green packs, as well as Treasury bond futures -- Petterson isn't afraid to take contrarian positions when naysayers abound. "When I started playing football at Michigan, I was a walk-on," he says with a shrug, "and I had everyone telling me 'You can't do it.'" But despite the steep odds against a walk-on making the team, Petterson busted his ass -- and two years later, he was playing. "I just got good at ignoring what people think," he says. After college, he joined TransMarket Group in Chicago, becoming the first of four Petterson brothers to successfully trade for the firm. He spent time under the tutelage of TransMarket chairman Ray Cahnman before heading out to trade Treasury futures for his own account, successfully exploiting arbitrage opportunities in the early days of electronic trading. "Ray had a tremendous influence on me," Petterson says. "He's the ultimate mentor. Before I came in, he'd take people under his wing all the time, but he had decided he was too old for it. Then he decided to take one last chance -- on me." In 2001, Petterson bought an associate seat on the CBOT. He has since enjoyed both a 1,600 percent run-up in the seat's value and consistent seven-figure trading profits. While his success has enabled him to buy a 4,500-square-foot home in Chicago's trendy Wrigleyville neighborhood and a scenic lake house in southwestern Michigan not far from his hometown of Flint, the walk-on Wolverine seems prouder of the fact that he has been able to follow in the footsteps of Cahnman and mentor other traders. "My youngest brother was the first one to get in, and he started to do well," Petterson says. "Then my other brothers said, 'It looks like you guys are having fun -- we want to try this out.' So from there, I took some of their friends in and taught them how to trade, too. Now I've brought six people into the business."
Just a follow up on Drayton's post, I'm also surprised their traders don't need any license. For clarification, is this more of a "hedge fund" model?
sports and poker may have been popular over 10 years ago. now its mathematical intuition and programming.
Maverick, Why are you so sure that this firm is one where the "big hitters" go versus one where the traders scrape by? It says they trade stocks. Is there any way to know? How can some of these firms be "big hitters" versus others who are scraping by? Is it because the "big hitters" have proprietary/real edge and the average prop trader is just momentum trading? Not clear on how you know which are which..
a firm would want someone in sports and/or successful for poker is not because they are delusional. There are a lot of people and few jobs. there are a lot o people with engineering/math degrees. there are fewer people with e/m degrees who play / excel at sports. if you take someone who has a great education + good competitive and physical skills - that shows a lot about a person. just because you know Pi to a million places doesn't make you any better than a regular jock who can outplay you in every sport imaginable but dumb as a brick. if you can do both - you are rare. if you can do more - even more rare but you wouldn't understand.
not sure how many proprietary firms in chicago that trade stocks they have a true proprietary model . very selective in who they hire to work on there floor employee. no money required. split deal they teach you to trade there style & you follow there rules to the t all these hedge funds / mutual funds/ various pools of capital most of those traders are not licensed they are actual employess that are hired to trade firm capital all personal preference on how a trader can pursue to learn to trade & how they apply themselves in the markets . pro/cons for true prop or risk deposit model no easy path in learning to trade let alone being consistently profitable