Futures Proprietary Trading

Some firms ask you to put up a stake set at a minimum level say $X, 000. They then share profits with you in a ratio of say 60:40.

How does such a scenario benefit the trader?

It doesn't. Those firms are like the dealer at a poker table. They don't care if you make money. Their goal is to suck your deposit through commissions (rake).
 
Thanks CALLumbus.

How do the profit sharing deals works. Let's say a UK or EU firm asks you to put up $50,000 in exchange for a 60/40 profit/loss split.

How does this work in practice?

How much capital are you provided in addition to your 50,000 deposit? Or is there no additional capital provided, one being merely provided increased trading limits?

How are profit and losses calculated and split?

How does the firm protect itself from losses?

How does the trader protect his/her $50K deposit?

Any tips, warnings, and suggestions for these futures prop deals?


@aetrade
I dont have too much details, I never traded with any of them. I decided I prefer to stay completly independent.
TTG for example does not provide backing of traders. All traders have their own funds down. But as well as individual traders at TTG, they also have groups of traders, some of which will provide direct backing. Minimum funds they require is about 20,000 GBP. Depending on the leverage you require you could expect to be on a profit split of 80/20 in your favour. But it is decided on an individual base, they have people with that level of funding that pay no split and also people with 10x that funding on the same split.

Arfima Trading in Madrid on the other hand work also with independent traders, but the company usually shares a part of their risk.

I think if you are really interested, it is best if you just contact a few of them. Usually they will give you all the info you need and you will soon find out if they are potential match for you. I was also considering this option a while ago, but not so much for the leverage or the knowledge they could offer. I was mostly interested in the fee structures they could offer to their traders. But these days there are so many possibilities to get your total roundturn fees low enough (<1 EUR for EUREX products, <1 US$ for CME products) to make very shortterm strategies net profitable that I prefer to stay 100% independent.
 
I would rather work for a bomb squad than at a prop shop. Just take out a big insurance policy so when you blow up somebody gets rich.
 
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You are typically not allowed to contribute capital. If you are lucky they might eventually allow you to contribute $250k to get the pass through tax treatment.
side note: If you're offered to be buy into the firm and become an equity holder it probably means the captains are leaving a sinking ship.
 
Sorry dude, you are mixing the old equity model with the futures model. The futures model "hires" people. They are not allowed to take risk capital. Better have a nice looking resume.

100 percent accurate.
 
I have clients in the prop futures trading industry and with the major banks. They had good resumes before they hired me, and I have had the good fortune of having clients in the position to hire other clients.
 
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