I've contacted Hold Brothers, to hopefully start a trading career. Deciding btw the midtown and downtown, nyc offices. Does anyone have any input of suggestions on which one has better training, and better traders to learn from? Thanks!
Hold Brothers, which office?
- Thread starter Trader1626
- Start date
All I know is that I have several traders in my office who had a bad experience with the two Polish guys from Caliber, who work from one of those offices. Apparently they they give you only a chop strategy while keeping your rates at .007 for a year, which is a typical churn-and-burn approach since the boom. I don't know for sure what they're doing now though so take it with a grain of salt (just check the rate and training). Other than that, I hear their software is good and the firm as a whole has been much more reliable than the past. Last I heard the midtown office was in a nice spot right off of 3rd Ave.
Cute cheap shot Dog, but last I checked there were no polish guys running Caliber. Check your facts, some of the top traders have come out of Caliber.
Good traders come out of every office out there, as they're the types who will succeed regardless. Doesn't change the fact that the standard sub-LLCs who endlessly hire the untrained are just middle men who chew em up on commissions. This is not a big secret.
We're not a sub LLC, just a group. Shouldn't we be compensated for taking the time to provide hands on training? If you read most of the posts on this site, a mentor is very important. Is it fair that someone comes to a firm, learns to trade, and then leaves for better rates, even if it is not a substantial savings? Then why should anyone even bother providing a training program?
Remember the clearing firms provide no training. And if it was only them running the show with no sub LLC's/groups, the number of succesful day traders would be significantly less.
And you are correct, some do succeed regardless. But from my experience, it's rare to see a trader who succeeded with no guidance at all. In fact, we've had alot of traders come from other firms, where they struggled with little guidance, finally succeed with the right amount of hand holding.
Don't take what I wrote in response to your post as an attack. I don't like when people take a cheap shot at us before either meeting us or truly understanding the amount of time and effort we put into building our group from the ground up.
... The 2 guys who run the NYC ofcs are russian. Alex M in midtown and and Alex G downtown. Both of them are former worldco guys, I was with them in 2003,but thought the software sucked and the back ofc clueless. Maybe things have improved since then. FWIW, calibertrader and his partner Ed seem to have their act together. If I had a choice of groups Id go with them.
Before you sign on the dotted line, get fully educated on the impact of SAI's on your botom line. If you trade bi-directional, you might find that SAI's are the best thing since sliced bread or the polar opposite.
I'm sure you've produced good traders, just like every other "group" out there, and I'm sure there's always the standard 90% failure rate of everyone else. A red flag should come up in any serious potential trader's mind when they see someone defending .007+ commissions over a year or more by claiming they deserve compensation.
Everyone deserves compensation. Let the free market decide what that compensation will be and there's where true value lies. The next sub-LLC, or "group" who claims they deserve good treatment for themselves at high rates, at the expense of their labor, is already declaring something important about themselves.
New traders should always educate themselves. Ask about commissions, ask about other costs, ask about how the rank and file earns on their commissions, not just the top four or five traders, and most importantly, ask about what your "group" is getting off your work. Determine for yourself how much they will make in contrast to how much you will make, and decide for yourself what you are paying for. Finally, ask around and compare (I'm sure Don Bright would be ready to chime in and explain the quality and depth of their training
).Any middle-man who has nothing to worry about, who trusts this common sense that we all know, wouldn't take anything I say as a challenge personally. Offer your wares and your value will speak for itself. We all know how this business really works in the end.
