hiring and managing traders

I am not sure "fair" is relevant - competitive may be more.

I.e. fair is useless if everyone else pays better. Competition research may be in order.

Btw., I am in the same boat - negotiating about opening a trading floor. But I would not say "I opened a company", I say "I am considering opening a trading floor" (the company I have - that would just be another business activity).

You definitely need to look into labour laws, too - either you go with hired people (Risky, capital intensive) or contractors getting a share of the profits. Here is the deal: if you do the later, make sure that this legally is sound and they do not have work contracts once they sue you. In many countries if you treat them as workers, they have a right to be paid like them - regardless what the contract says.
 
Quote from Ironplates:

i am a trader who has significant experience trading, but not managing other traders.

i am looking for feedback on what traders want from my trading operation when i hire them?

what kind of compensation arrangements are typical?
More...

Anyone would agree on 50/50
 
Quote from Ironplates:

i am the founder of a private non regulated investment operation that looking for some traders.

what is an effective way to manage traders and the best way to compensate them and retain them?
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kids need security(fences),parents set guidelines and the kids feel safe staying within them and getting praised/loved for it,reciprocation is the key word here,as they get more apt at social skills, the fence area becomes larger,all the while the same structure is in place, the child, the parent ,are happy and eventually the child becomes a parent and the cycle repeats
 
thank you members for ALL feedback, this is very helpful.

i am getting some great feedback on this subject.

as a trader, i continue to learn about myself, however one can always learn and grow more.

i am attempting to gain additional perceptions and viewpoints to improve the decision making and policy process.

relationships are important and partnering with people who are skilled and/or willing to learn and put the necessary work into their craft is important imho.

i am very humbled and excited about this building process and the opportunity to do this.

i will say this that through hard work and even more, faith, all things are possible. failure is just part of the journey.
 
Quote from NetTecture:

Let me clarify that - you founded a company without having a clue how to run it?
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The question should be judged on its own merits. Whether he is competent or not is another matter. He can still improve. Running a business is a process, a long one too. It has to start somewhere.

I applaud him for taking the first steps and I wish him all the best. I am also a business owner and I know that when starting my first business I was not as competent as I am now.

I think to succeed you need to be more determined than competent and sometimes being competent may discourage you from pursuing certain things because you may find them impossible to reach.

P.S. This did not get posted the first time. I hope it will post this time. Sorry for duplicate posting if it happens.
 
Quote from small_beer:

I think to succeed you need to be more determined than competent and sometimes being competent may discourage you from pursuing certain things because you may find them impossible to reach.
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Lots of truth to this statement.
 
If you're hiring traders to trade for you, the main thing you need to be able to do is manage their risk and cut them off before they lose too much. If the bad ones can't hurt you too much, the ones that are left will do fine by you. Consider incentivizing them to meet risk-adjust performance goals, unless you really don't care about risk.
 
Is this your first venture having workers/employees? If so, you really need to consult with an employment lawyer....

In the US, there are theoretically 2 classes of workers - employees and independent contractors. In reality (if you speak to any Federal or State agency), there is only 1 - anybody who receives pay from your company is an employee.

The IRS recognizes the two classes, but you and each and every one of the "independent contractors" has to pass 20-question test in order to categorize them as independent contractors.

IRS Independent Contractor Info

Don't forget about Worker's Comp insurance. If they trip over a power cable and break their arm, they can file a claim and/or sue you...

Be sure to do background checks of all applicants to see if they have criminal records (particularly anything violent or fraudulent), and whether they've sued anyone in the past...

Be sure to get those E&O and Professional Liability Insurance policies. Jack up the coverage to $10-25MM instead of the minimal $1/$2MM policies most new businesses obtain..

You want to be covered in case one or more of your workers go off the rails in some way...

Be sure to see if you can get trading losses insured... Dunno if you can, but doesn't hurt to check.
 
Quote from Ironplates:

i am a trader who has significant experience trading, but not managing other traders.

i am looking for feedback on what traders want from my trading operation when i hire them?

what kind of compensation arrangements are typical?
More...

I have 13 people who trade for me, all using methods I/manager trained them for several months. It was at one time nineteen but not all can learn to trade, it was just way too many of them, and it might still be, so going to have design some more systems. They all use platforms that were made by programmers that will alter size of contracts due to time of day, reports or volatility. In place are ways for me/automatically to reduce or stop them from trading altogether, this stops them from making fat finger errors or if them want to intentionally lose money. They have no idea how many contracts they are trading, platform does the rest after they get in on limit orders. Traders can adjust targets, but if certain amount of time goes by, platform automatically takes over. They are only trading my funds.

All get base salary of $1,000 per week regardless if they make or lose money, full bennies, health ins, sick days, 4 weeks vacation, life insurance, short term disability, retirement, college fund for kids and profit sharing. There are weekly/monthly/Holiday goals that if met, they receive added bonuses from couple hundred bucks to $200k yearly bonus. Goals are not totally money based, getting very low losing percentages on losses is. They get fun extras of limos for Valentine's Day, Santa brings gifts on Christmas morn to each house, birthdays of all family members are remembered, monthly parties and free baby sitting services on Friday/Saturdays. Free attorney services, less my people are worried about their kids or whatever, they more into concentrating on their job. And after one year, LLC buys a $500k brand new house to live in-rent free. They are all under very strict contracts. We run 3 shifts from Sunday afternoon to Friday afternoon.

I did make one of them a manager several months ago and he trades as well. In May I had to stay in hospital for fifteen days, and he ran it very well. All were unemployed defense employees and half had no clue about trading. They are now getting to the stage where they are offering improvements after two years, and if it comes out in backtesting to make improvements, more bonus money. All are aware their 401k's are tied into total trading by all. Last year my employees received 38.7% of profits, they are all day/short term traders.

I don't have a clue if they get too much, too little or just right. But all seem happy overall, I don't oversee it as much as before, but they all doing great job. They all know I have open door policy. They all live within 3 miles of where I live, and all trade at home. All signed ten year contracts for receiving the base salary, did it this way so they wouldn't run off after learning entries, but they are unaware of exits, volatility, time, ranges, etc... Gives them security and gives me an idea if in eight years or less if I want to continue.
 
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