25,000 Roundtrips a day?!

[smallStops]

The world being small :

Sarao, if you are reading, the gal who worked shortly with the "emerging algo team" you and the other guy ( yes the three of you at the back of the trading floor) in 2009 gives you a hello, and wishes you well. She said you said you'd "be one day famous", she would have "never believed that would happen this way".

 

[propwarrior]

Someone with autism/asper syndrome, he should not be in a jail - including a UK jail.
That is not his place. he should be now in a mental institution.
His spending time in jail is scandalous.

disorders like this are not black and white. Probably around 30% to 50% of jail population has some sort of diagnosable psychiatric disorder, are you saying we should empty out the jails and put them all in asylums or anyone with autism shouldn't be in a jail.

the guy is a scapegoat for sure however he didn't help himself and pushed the limits.

 

[syswizard]

Now, Sarao : why did he lie? Did he think he was smarter than FBI agents?
why did he not stop his illegal activities when asked so by the Americans? why did he insist in continuing his behaviour when he was clearly already under the radar? What was he expecting? that the Americans will just tell him to stop his illegal activities and let him continue and do nothing about it ? why couldn't he stop his illegal activities when asked so by the Americans? Why did he felt he had total impunity to continue even when asked to stop his illegal trading?

My gosh, that's simple: He had "King of the World" syndrome. He was printing money....pure and simple as that....and was getting away with it.

 

[syswizard]

The world being small :

Sarao, if you are reading, the gal who worked shortly with the "emerging algo team" you and the other guy ( yes the three of you at the back of the trading floor) in 2009 gives you a hello, and wishes you well. She said you said you'd "be one day famous", she would have "never believed that would happen this way".

Where did you find this inside information ? What trading floor ?

 

[mstier]

recently came across an article (published quite some time ago) that talks about a prop trader in London who makes seven figures a year:

http://www.financialtrading.com/lawrie-inman/

a couple details that really stood out:

this is truly amazing, and humbling to read..! how do the prop firms in London provide enough leverage to do this? what are the mechanisms involved (eg. contracts per trade, trade per day, profit/loss per trade, types of trades, commissions paid), in going about trading 25,000 round trips a day? any ideas?

I am not an individual trader but work at a prop firm (not an arcade, a proper firm). We're exclusively futures. So far I have traded 19,967 contracts today. The guy behind me has traded 23,072 contracts today. For sure the # of round trips is much smaller than that.

These types of numbers are certainly achievable, but not sure how you would consistently get anywhere near these numbers as an individual trader or manually - too many constraints. Our formula is automated strategies that can be deployed across many products.

 

[syswizard]

So what is your average lot size ? Average # of R/T's per day ?

 

[mstier]

So what is your average lot size ? Average # of R/T's per day ?

Today's count - 21,353 contracts (guy behind me 29,844). Lot size anywhere between 1 and 70. The smaller sizes are on thinner products, tests, etc. Larger sizes on stable, thick books. Calendar spread trades obviously contribute to making the total contract count looking a bit bigger. Mixing all these things together + never having a need to keep track makes the total round trip count a non-obvious statistic. It isn't 10k.

Guy behind me now 30,166.

 

[dealmaker]

Today's count - 21,353 contracts (guy behind me 29,844). Lot size anywhere between 1 and 70. The smaller sizes are on thinner products, tests, etc. Larger sizes on stable, thick books. Calendar spread trades obviously contribute to making the total contract count looking a bit bigger. Mixing all these things together + never having a need to keep track makes the total round trip count a non-obvious statistic. It isn't 10k.

Guy behind me now 30,166.

Are you at Garachen's firm in Lamorinda?

 

[syswizard]

Mixing all these things together + never having a need to keep track makes the total round trip count a non-obvious statistic. It isn't 10k.

Typical neanderthal prop trader.....no stats, no tracking, no quantitative numbers.

 

[smallStops]

Typical neanderthal prop trader.....no stats, no tracking, no quantitative numbers.

The mentality of prop traders is indeed "neanderthal". Just one example:
one prop traders could not read and write nor drive, so he had a driver driving his limousine to the prop firm whenever he needed to trade. Funnily enough, as he plateauded at $40K/session trading profits, nobody cared about his no stats.
I should add that the best traders in London used to be "wheelbarrow boys" - no sophistication; no stats, no quantitative numers, just profits. These wheelbarrow "boys" seem to be able to pay their 2000$/month desk fees at prop shops and not bother with "quantitive numbers".