Gifted trader: Andy Priston
- Thread starter flipside21
- Start date
I heard the sames stories about this guy. However, when traderchi128 said that priston traded huge size and legged out of things as they went his way, I understand that he is saying that in fact priston is an spreader legging the spread in and out. I also read here on ET that Rotter did the same thing but on scalping mode.
In this article, he said that his trade last minutes or seconds most of the time. http://www.markintoshdesign.com/cif_2006_2007_web.pdf
traderchi128
Guest
You're Welcome. Refco/Mac guys never traded spreads while I was there (I left about 6 months before Refco imploded). They were all outright guys trading bigger size for a tick or two. Again....the guys who ran the firm were only interested in commission churning. The firm never made any money p/l wise....but raked in commissions. Their "methods" were horrible. They would have guys churn for a tick or two most of the time...but then trade 4-5 times their normal size right when economic numbers came out. Complete gambling. I would see guys who would lose 3 weeks of work in 30 seconds at times.
As far as Priston....he might have become a spreader later...but at least when I was there he was an outright guy.
traderchi128
Guest
I haven't traded Stoxx in a long time. At one point there was definitely a lot of money to be made watching the DOM. If you have the right commission structure (Which Mac definitely did) I guess you can grind out good money. But with all the HFT and bs fake bids/offers.....gotta be tough to base trades on bid/offer size.
The news trades they did were insane. Basically guys either killed it or got wiped out. Not exactly a strategy that lasts very long. I would see guys in the Chicago office be up 30-40k on the month then lose 100k in 30 seconds. That was when the 30 yr actually moved 3-4 full points off of numbers. Now with the huge decrease in volatility in treasuries and HFT algos in there, that game is completely gone.
As far as Priston...you are exactly right. While the owners were telling guys to take a few ticks and take profits he would hold winners for hours taking much much bigger winners. But he was one of the only guys doing that. I remember asking him about taking 2-3 tick winners in the Bunds....he laughed at it.
I remember taking a 7 handle winner in the ES one day...getting called into the manager's office and being yelled at for taking a 7 handle winner instead of 14 two tick winners. Pretty obvious that they were not interested in making money...which is a fact for that Chicago office. They were NEVER profitable P/L wise.
traderchi128
Guest
No...he was an outright trader legging out of winning positions. Would buy a ton of Bunds/10 yrs and offer them out higher as they went his way. But it wasn't for a tick or two. He held things much longer than most of the Mac guys.
I enjoyed this thread - informative.
I have a question however. I know equity 'deposit' prop shops like Bright, Echo etc. are interested in commissions as they do get lower commissions than they pass on to their traders. So more churnout means more commissions for them.
However, how does it work for futures prop shop. All my information suggests that futures prop shops back traders with their own capital and want them to make money. You are rewarded PnL wise and the idea is not to churn commissions. Can you please explain this ? Also, do those futures prop shops have access to much lower commissions compared to what they pass on to the traders? Thanks for sharing.