Has anybody actually profitted from a 5k deposit prop??

Quote from 7rader:

imo i think that nothing beats trading live for experience whether it be small shares or not. having your money on the line brings out a different trader in you. i can only speak for myself, but sim trading didnt help me, other than for key speed as someone mentioned earlier.

a great point that was also mentioned is that you have to have savings, not just banking on your 5k to make a living. takes of a lot of the pressures off succeeding right away. Also you have to take into consideration the trade fees, plus most prop firms will charge you a software fee per month. So 5k can disappear pretty fast if your not a profitable trader.
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absolutely agree with this.
but some people can overcome it, so starting with $1000 or $1M it really doesn't matter the size of the trades, it's the methodology and discipline in execution that defines profitablility. i've done it more times from $2000 for people that were good friends of mine and built up nice size portfolios for them to take larger risks on margin to where once they got above a certain profit number, they were comfortable to trade on their own based on the principles they'd learned from watching me.
i've also blown out $5000 at a time, more times than i can count, but those were on hailmary trades where i could afford to lose it, and did.
no big deal.
it's not a contest. it's all just a stupid guessing game in the end.
 
Quote from CollegeTrader:

i can't believe the majority of people think sim trading hurt them. i sim traded for a year and it helped tremendously. however i was sim trading the ym and not stock so the fills are WORSE that realistic cause price has to trade through your limit. I agree with ammo sim helped me develop a strategy. i could care less what my sim profits were. i just tried to learn a viable stategy and learn were my losses came from, and try to minimize them.
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sim trading teaches you the same principles and methods as real, in fact, moreso not having the distraction of the emotional stress of real money being lost.
you can take risks and make decisions you would never make in live trading, which will temper your emotional ability to make those decisions in real trading.
especially so beneficial if you use sim in parallel with live. you can verify your logic and adjust accordingly, and also track trades you were thinking about doing but didn't, especially the opposite trade which every trader knows bites them in the ass the second they hit buy.
 
Quote from kungfutrader:

I'm just curious because I'm a beginner and have yet to profit. Has anyone actually made a living off of that? I mean isn't it kind of tough to make a living off of that in my opinion. And has anyone been with their prop for more than 2 years with just profits after profits? Just curious and would like to hear from honest people who won or loss from a 5k prop.
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I started my primary account with $1500. I blew it several times, not due to the amount (some would call it undercapitalized) but because I did not sim long enough. If you are trading futures, it is fully doable to earn a living from $5k. You won't get rich, because you're taking out your profits every month to live, but if your system is sustainable then you will be fine. Just pray the liquidity doesn't dry up or we're all out of a job and will have to either retire or move to the Asian markets.

If you're a stock or option guy, I can't help you there, as I wouldn't touch this market with either of those.
 
Quote from Jacob Fries:

I started my primary account with $1500. I blew it several times, not due to the amount (some would call it undercapitalized) but because I did not sim long enough. If you are trading futures, it is fully doable to earn a living from $5k. You won't get rich, because you're taking out your profits every month to live, but if your system is sustainable then you will be fine. Just pray the liquidity doesn't dry up or we're all out of a job and will have to either retire or move to the Asian markets.

If you're a stock or option guy, I can't help you there, as I wouldn't touch this market with either of those.
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Thank you for writing this. I am learning futures on simulator. I know of a trader who lost half his account when he first started. He went back on sim. A year later, he making a living trading 1 contract at a time.

It is definitely possible with futures.
 
Quote from dodobird4545:

Nice.... So you're doing us the favor of contributing to this conversation having no trading experience and never actually trading at a shop.

How very insightful your opinions must be.

Have you ever traded live? Or just jealous you can't scrap the money together to join a firm, so instead you sit on line just being a hater. Certain firms are certainly chop shops, but there are plenty that charge low commissions and back you far into the hole. So bottom line would be that you are a broke loser and have probably never made a cent trading but wish you were in the game.

Only an idiot could say that trading is a boring job. Please explain to me how risking millions of dollars to make millions is boring compared to the job you have a Staples.
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i totally agree. trading rocks. never wanted to do anything else in my life. i love it. every other job is a joke compared to what i make trading, always has.

i would gladly set up an account with any number of existing prop firms to "prove" i can trade. but to whom, i am unclear, because in the final analysis,
does anyone really give a flying fuck?
because i sure don't.
 
Quote from kungfutrader:

I'm just curious because I'm a beginner and have yet to profit. Has anyone actually made a living off of that? I mean isn't it kind of tough to make a living off of that in my opinion. And has anyone been with their prop for more than 2 years with just profits after profits? Just curious and would like to hear from honest people who won or loss from a 5k prop.
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Yes
 
The downside of all of this is that if you take a Training course you probably only get approximately a 50/50 profit split, which is steep for a beginner. The only time that you should be willing to give something like that up is if you're trading somewhere like first new york and they're bank rolling you with a 20 million dollar line. Taking 50% from a guy who just starts out trading makes it extremely difficult.

I firmly stand by my belief that you should NEVER EVER PAY FOR TRAINING ANYWHERE AS A CONDITION OF JOINING A PROP SHOP. You should only put down money when it is counted as a risk deposit or initial deposit, any other type of capital you pay.... no matter what the firm says, you can be fired at anytime and lose it. If you're going to be trading your own money you should be taking atleast 90% home, for non-licensed guys the only legal way to trade prop is that the firm has to take a small piece, and to have your money credited in your account. If you go to a Keystone, Velez or any of these other firms that are talked about in these threads when scams are refered to, you will see that your starting balance after sinking 5K in your account is ZERO. I have never traded through any of these shops, but I challenge anyone who just started at any shop like this to show me an starting balance with 5k in it. Infact I'd be shocked if anyone could show me a starting balance above zero.

I GUARANTEE YOU THAT YOUR STARTING BALANCE IN YOUR DAILY REPORT WILL BE ZERO, even after you just handed a 5K check over. That means you have waived your right to your own money and only paid for training. Firms can now limit you as they see fit b/c in theory you only paid for training.

I would like for some people who work at some of these firms to reply and tell me if when you started your account had a zero balance or whether it showed the money you paid in it. If it doesn't have a positive balance and is not a Chicago member then the shop is behaving in a way that the SEC is opposed to.... this is the very reason that they have to mask your deposit as a traing fee.

I would like to hear from some guys who work at one of these shops. And other posters PLEASE DO NOT ATTACK THESE PEOPLE AS THEY'VE DONE NOTHING WRONG..... THIS IS A DISCUSSION, NOT A PLACE TO RIP APART GUYS WHO ARE TRYING TO LEARN IN THIS BUSINESS. SO LET'S KEEP THIS AN IMFORMATIVE DISCUSSION AND NOT A FIGHT.
 
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