Compensation for traders at top firms?

Originally posted by sammybea
Curious if anyone had info on what a typical equities trader would make at a top firm like Goldman Sachs or JPM.. lets say after 5 years. Would it be over a million dollars? Are there any particular websites that would give a insight to this?

Original topic, anyone got any contribution to that, sorry if I'm interfering in the mini-wars!
 
I think AVERAGE or MEAN is the only number that matters in professional trading.

_NOT_IN_MY_BOOK_

However, I do know some _OPTIONS_ traders that go by the 80:20 rule, that is, they make 80% of their profits from 20% of their trades, and the rest are small positives/negatives. I don't understand swing trading, but I would not be surprise if something similar was true there (be easy on me swingtraders - I don't know what I am talking about - any input ?) But _YOU_AND_I_ARE_INTERESTED_IN_THE_MODE_BECAUSE_MOST_OF_OUR_TRADES_ARE_VERY_SHORT_TERM_. We are more likely to ka-ching the register than "let our profits run."

BTW, in our case,the mean and the mode are very close.

And I never said I am as good as Bob, and 820 posts is a reason behind that, and I think the same can be said about Don.

Hitman, you and Bob are both terrific traders - Don just has more capital than you so his cojones are bigger.

Cut this shit out you guys have going between you.

Jus my .02c

nitro
 
From a manager's perspective, it is called running a business.

From a trader's perspective, it is called leeching, just ask STOCKKBROKER lol.

Don:

I have a trader on my team who takes 3-4 trades a day, makes 15-20 cents per share on good days, it is called intraday swing trading, it is called an efficient strategy, no I will not be able to "leech" off him much (well I taught him the OO strategy :-), but I still welcome this kind of style of my team for a mix of different strategies.

Look, it is not like I dislike high churn strategies, I even modified your OO strategy and taught it to my entire team (and I did tell them that without someone named Don Bright from Bright Trading, one of our competitors, I wouldn't have had the concept to come up with something like this), my entire arsenal is made of high churn strategies, but at least I don't say it with a straight face that a strategy that primarily looks for dimes and quarters with occassional homers is a low churn strategy.
 
who cares how much those people make at goldman and jpm.........

I care - I care what everybody makes in the sense that I enjoy understanding how Capitalism allocates its resources. Sort of like my interest in Politics, or Philosophy.

As far as my trading, I agree - I couldn't imagine how it matters.

nitro
 
Originally posted by Hitman

Don:

I have a trader on my team who takes 3-4 trades a day, makes 15-20 cents per share on good days, it is called intraday swing trading, it is called an efficient strategy, no I will not be able to "leech" off him much (well I taught him the OO strategy :-), but I still welcome this kind of style of my team for a mix of different strategies.


OK, this is good, thank you for your definition.
 
Originally posted by StatTrader
seems like there is a lot of resentment towards the wall st. establishment by people who, for whatever reason (education, intelligence, luck), can't break into it.

its easy to say 150K, 300K, 500K is nothing special, not worth breaking a sweat for, but i'm sure that a) it is more than most of you make in a year, and b) if actually offered a position paying than sort of money, most of you would take it in a heartbeat. i'd sure take it, rather be a "middleman" making that without any risk, than be a self employed "prop trader" making 50K.

as hitman says, making a decent living daytrading is tough, and most won't make it. i'm sure everyone here truely belives they'll be making 7 figures sooner or later, but in reality, its highly unlikely many of us ever will.

ever ask yourself why don bright makes his money leeching off the efforts of others, rather than trading prop himself ? yeah, i'm sure he does some trading, but the guy is worth millions and is probably risking squat each day (whereas some people may only be worth 25K and risk it all each day). regardless of whether traders at his firm do well, he's a winner, so long as there's a steady stream of newcomers to replace those who have lost everything.

StatTrader:

I was part of the Establishment. Top school credentials. Worked at Merrill. Then went on the buyside managing institutional money(which the entire fund complex had abotu $40Billion. much more than what I'm trading now as prop trader).

And I do agree that these "daytraders" most of them will probably fail and be disillusioned. But if you have a valid strategy(i.e. after working a few years on the institutional side), then prop trading might be a better deal. The most highly paid people in finace are hedge fund managers and they only get 20%. But then we are talkign abotu 20% of a $100M. But most hedge funds are rather small anyways from $5M-$70M. $100M+ club is rather thin. But at prop you can get at least 50% deal with no risk capital of your own on the line.

But I doagree for the average person coming in hoping to make millions withou any finance training, no backtested strategy, no respect for risk mgmt guidelines, then daytrading/proptrading is just a shot int eh dark. Kinda like gambling..

Ang honestly, if this doesn't work out, then I can always go back to the institutional world. I still get calls from recruiters every now and then. But I'm going ot give my hand at this prop thign for atl east 1yr. Then decide if I should stay prop or go back to the institutional world.

trader99
 
Originally posted by Hitman
And I wonder how can anyone possibly make a case for prop trading firms against big institutions, as far as the income potential is concerned. And "just 135K a year" is more money than most will ever see here at Worldco and Bright save for bubble times.

And nobody can tell me making 500K a year is easy unless he is already doing it, and I think Nitro overestimated the amount of money Don makes off his OO's by a double, it takes a LOT more than 15 minutes a day to average $1000 a day for sure.

SHIT!! You are making me reconsider my chosen path here.. Maybe I should squirrel back to the institutional world with guarantteed salary and bonuses..

Well, I'll give this prop trading thing at least another 6months before I can make a verdict...

trader99
 
Originally posted by blue horseshoe
who cares how much those people make at goldman and jpm.........

BlueHorseShoe..........nice choice for a username. I was wondering when somebody was going to use this one.

Robert
 
Back
Top