Can I skip the "Interview/Intensive training" ?

Quote from my2cents:

Elitedallas -
. There isn't a reputable firm out there that is going to give you $100 - 200K of leverage on a deposit of $5 - 10K.

Just-
My2cents

That is just not true. I don't know what you know that makes you think this is true, but I can think of five reputable firms off the top of my head that do just that. Give $100-500k of leverage with 5-10k down. It's very very easy to find.
 
my2cents probably just does not understand the difference between retail trading and prop trading firms. The pattern daytrading rule has absolutely nothing to do with proptrading.

Rates of .005 and less and buying power of 20 to 1 or more off of $5000 and greater initial deposit is very common by very reputable firms. Firms such as Bright Trading, Echo, Assent, Generic and a host of others regularly give traders greater than 20 to 1 in intraday buying power. People who do not understand how prop trading works always assume that some person with a $5000 deposit will immediately go and buy $200,000 worth of stock and hold a position til they either make a big profit or get destroyed. Some guy jumping in and out $100k worth of stock intraday is not the same thing as a guy managing a portfolio of $200k worth of stock over several days. Most firms run pretty tight risk management and most traders with even half a brain do not use their full buying power except in very specific circumstances. A trader who is up $15k net on the month, but has not withdrawn his money yet, has a very great incentive not to blow his account out.
 
Quote from my2cents:

Elitedallas -

Don't take this as a personal attack it's simply a view from the other side of the coin. What you've said here sets off a series of red flags. Quite frankly you're a liability risk to any firm. If I were the compliance officer I would never approve your account application.

For starters, the NASD requires minimum equity to open a day trading account is $25K. There isn't a reputable firm out there that is going to give you $100 - 200K of leverage on a deposit of $5 - 10K. That's the formula for disaster. If you loaded up on a low price stock a 1/4 pt. move against you would blow out your account.

In addition, much of the "intensive training" is to satisfy the NASD requirement for proper supervision of an active trader. While "the silly fake 'interview' " is to protect the firm and other traders from ever having to deal with the likes of another Mark Barton.

In my estimation you're not serious about trading, you just want the juice.

Just-
My2cents

Hey - no offense taken !
Nothing personal from my end either 2c, but I believe you have either forgotten that this thread is posted in the "PROP FIRMS" category or maybe you don't understand the difference between prop firms and daytrading a margin account.

I am looking for an account with a prop firm- they regularly offer 20-25x intraday buying power and are quite legal.
I tried to explain that I know the risks(I have experienced blowouts) - that's the whole point - I just want someone to let me "blow-out" my account (up to what I have contributed) if I want to. I'm not pussyfooting around here- I know how these amounts of leverage can lose a $5k stake in hours at 20x BP and you don't need a "low-dollar" stock either. FSLR has made two 7-point moves this morning allready - with 125k BP you could get 400 shares - thats $5600 P/L by 11AM - oh wait it has moved back another 6 points while I typed this- that's another $2400 I could have lost.
This isn't entirely theoretical either - I regularly traded $100k of FSLR in a practice accout and would have seen these losses at times if I did not practice some risk management.

So I don't see how much more "serious" I could be than to plop down my money knowing full well I could lose it all before lunch....

Also,I don't really know what it means to "just want the juice", but if it means I just want to make some money then you are right.

Thanks,
D
 
Quote from Trader7793:

People who do not understand how prop trading works always assume that some person with a $5000 deposit will immediately go and buy $200,000 worth of stock and hold a position til they either make a big profit or get destroyed. Some guy jumping in and out $100k worth of stock intraday is not the same thing as a guy managing a portfolio of $200k worth of stock over several days.


Exactamente....
Although I do tend to use the full BP- I might scale in 20% at a time- but this can occur very quickly - up to 100% in 60 seconds and then back out again in 2-10 minutes.
Many times I will shoot off $100k and close the position in 20 seconds- just depends.
But no way I would sit on a $100k position of anything overnight with only $5k to lose. I know guys who do this and see morning gap losses of 5 figures and wait it out for days to recover (they can afford it!) - but not for me....
 
Remember guys, overnights are generally where a big portion of where the money is made these days. We still have basic "daytraders" who trade the same stock each day (like a Specialist or MM), but it still takes a $million or more to even do opening only orders (which, I guess, is daytrading, but just one good strategy).

Just something to keep in mind when considering a Firm.

All the best,

Don
 
Quote from CaptainObvious:

You're missing the most important aspect of the interview process. It's not all about them evaluating you, it's your chance to evaluate them.


That makes more sense, but some of the promotional material talks about business degree requirements and aptitude/work ethic, etc. More than one actually specifically want people wit "strong competitve sports/extracurricular involvement"......
 
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