Creating a group of REAL professional traders?

OctopodeClub

OctopodeClub

I am tired of useless "trading rooms" that charge hundreds or thousands of dollars to join. By its very nature, most owners of these rooms don't even trade since they receive all of their profit from the membership of the room itself.

I am a professional futures trader - In other words, trading daily is my only source of income!

What do you think of creating an organization of ACTUAL professional retail traders? A group which is not subscription based, but rather verifies already successful traders to be part of the group? Why doesn't this exist...

{ I refuse to believe that successful, professional traders have an ego so large that they are not willing to work together and become even more successful. I believe this because I DID NOT get to where I am by "being a guru", not listening or asking questions, or working with others to get better at what I do. A support system is always beneficial in any type of business. }

I can't be the only professional (see my definition of professional above) trader here. In my mind it would make sense for successful retail traders get together to form an "Online Retail Firms" of sorts.

I value any and all constructive criticisms to this "wild" idea.
 
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Robert Morse said:
You can use Skype for group chats, personal chats and group calls. Create your own trading room for free.

Bob
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Bob,

That's exactly what I have been thinking of doing.

Can I ask, are you a professional trader? And if so, do you have a support system of any kind or do you do it all by yourself?

The problem is I don't know many other traders who are not a) at a huge firm in NY, so they have their own "real" coworkers, or b) Teaching all day. So getting together a small group would be the first step (I'm only looking for a couple of people here nothing crazy).
 
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I was a professional trader from 1985 through early 2011. 25 years as an option market maker and one year at an equity/option prop firm (Hated that one). I have been in sales since and a sponsor on ET. My clients are small and medium-sized Hedge Funds, CTAs, Trading Groups and Active Traders in equities, options and futures.

The problem is choosing the purpose of the "club." It is mostly business or mostly social with a little business. You might be looking for others to throw ideas at and hears ideas back and they might want to talk about lunch and sports.

Track record will likely not be the best way to pick your group.

Bob
 
Robert Morse said:
Track record will likely not be the best way to pick your group.

Bob
More...

Hahaha ohh prop firms, those could be VERY hit or miss.

You bring up a good point. Isn't the purpose of having coworkers all of the above though? You are initially at work for business (to get paid = make a living), but you also have watercooler talk from time to time.

Track record was the only thing I could think of that differentiates ACTUAL traders from beginners with a 5k account. Like a resume of sorts? Maybe a "trial" run might be helpful as well, like an employee review period in a brick and mortar business.
 
If it were easy, anyone could do it!

I can't give group discounts on futures, but I can for equity/options groups. I can group friend's personal accounts together for volume discounts. Yes, the account stay separate, I just add their volume together. No, not random strangers just looking for lower commissions. They need to come to me together or refer friends.
https://www.lightspeed.com/pricing/commission/

Good luck!

Bob
 
Robert Morse said:
If it were easy, anyone could do it!

I can't give group discounts on futures, but I can for equity/options groups. I can group friend's personal accounts together for volume discounts. Yes, the account stay separate, I just add their volume together. No, not random strangers just looking for lower commissions. They need to come to me together or refer friends.
https://www.lightspeed.com/pricing/commission/

Good luck!

Bob
More...

Thank you for extending the offer Bob, you just made clear one of the many benefits of being part of a trading group! (who doesn't like lower commissions huh). Thank you for your feedback.

If anybody else has had an idea like this, would like to try something similar, or believes that this would never work - please let me know!
 
Hi Octo,
I default to Skype a lot because I've been using it for almost 20 years so I'm used to it.
Slack is really good too. It's probably easier to search and share and can integrate with lots of tools.

I'm a futures trader and system developer (ES, TF, CL, GC, KC and EC mostly ES TF).
I am also a long time web and app developer, Trading Tribe participant.

It think that relationships, community and feedback are critical for my wellbeing and success in any venture.
I'm not a full time trader at this time and won't be again until vol and ranges pick up. The regime seems to be shifting towards the kind of intraday activity that favors my strengths and methods so I think I'll be enticed to get back to trading fairly soon.

I'd happily join and contribute to a quality group on Skype or Slack.

Best,
Alex
 
mercurial said:
I'd happily join and contribute to a quality group on Skype or Slack.

Best,
Alex
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Alex, I think Skype or Slack would be perfect for something like this as well - its ubiquitous, easy to use, and their subscription services are not outrageous (Hell I would gladly foot the bill for something like this which would be FAR more beneficial than charging some stupid subscription).

So can I ask, what would you do to keep the riff raff out of this group? How would you vet "employees" if you will. Assuming you would want the highest quality of traders in the group, like any large firm would.

Track record? Resume? Let anyone join for a trial run? Etc.

// As a side note, I was a Digital Creative Director at a Software Development co. myself before being a full time trader. Funny how trading has seemed to attract tech people instead of finance people recently.
 
You can use Hipchat or Symphony chat apps that are way better for group chats, offer collaboration tools, rich APIs, file sharing, white boards,.... Skype does not even store files on its servers that are being sent, which makes this app completely obsolete. Try to send a file to someone and then go offline before that someone gets a chance to download the file. It won't work. This is just one out of dozens of weird and antiquated approaches where Skype fails. I am enthusiastically using some of Microsoft's products but this one is a huge fail. They seem to be cursed with everything that remotely touches on the topic "phone", "chat", "social".

Robert Morse said:
You can use Skype for group chats, personal chats and group calls. Create your own trading room for free.

Bob
More...
 
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