Quote from limitdown:
Its retail trading with all the disadvantages of "someone else" setting terms and limits upon you in these key areas:
1) Arbitration against perceived unfair treatment as verses the choice of choosing Arbitration, Law Suit or Simultaneous actions
2) Capital and Licensing requirements exert pressures without renumeration for the trouble.
2a) many firms impose unrealistic capital holding periods that only serve their interests, which calls into question whether they were properly capitalized in the first place.
2b) numerous firms (Onsite Trading LLC, AB Watley, Assent/Andover, Hold Brothers, Worldco) impose undisclosed holding periods with no legal basis other than initiating lengthly arbitration proceedings. They further impose these without consistancy amongst their clients / traders (i.e. some have them imposed and other obviously do not/did not)
2c) NASD/SEC licensing requirements to participate at these prop shops further limits one's claim of not being an "informed investor", as one takes on the pseudo employee/proprietary trader status. This status places one at odds with the enforcement agencies and confuses them as to how to proceed should / when legal actions against said firms are requested. This status also makes it near impossible to claim, as retail investors do, that these newly crafted rip-off schemes left one exposed, and their monies on deposit at risk.
3) no protections as your status is quasi employee (hence employer/employee dispute resolution through the NASD). Mind you, should your firm be licensed through the Phlx, Csox or Psec (Philadelphia, Chicago, Pacific) exchanges, then they either do not have regularized enforcement divisions with any significant impact upon their members or they defer enforcement actions to the NASD through some verbal sub-contract relationship (which never works). Hence, taking any actions against said firm ends in "no action" letters (if you're fortunate enough to even get them to document any said claim or response.
Trading remote supports a sub industry that at best has seen its hey day and offers decreasing and declining payoff for most participants. There will be days and perhaps months where success will be attained, however, how realistic is it to trade upwards of 1 (or more) million shares a month and not make
$1 on each share, or
$.10 on each share, or
$.01 on each share or even
$.001 on each share?
One has to set priorities upon the notion of making a career on being isolated (hence trading remote) and thinking that whatever strategy they have now will serve them going forward as long as they're trading. This by definition is unrealistic. The markets are dynamic, and so too are the trading methods. Hence the need to maximize one's proprietary status by either literally being proprietary, where you can keep your eye upon your firm / company as well as actively get / share trading methods amongst other traders.
going it alone suits these firms, not the traders (and these comments come from well over 20 traders that I've traded with or trained and seen prosper); these are not just my opinions
One should approach this choice (remote proprietary trading) from the perspective of:
1) what do I personally get out of this (isolation)?
2) why is this being proposed over "in office" trading scenarios and who (company or me) benefits most?
3) how long can you reasonably last alone without positive trader association?
4) how long can you tolerate chat rooms in substitution to "live trader" rooms?
5) who benefits most?
