life after making mrkts on the floor

Quote from Billy Valentine:

Mkt Mkr-
Thanks again for your insight. To follow up on the pts. that you made:

1. How well capitalized are the large independent locals?

2. How low are their commissions?

3. What range of income can they expect to make?
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I am guessing that a independent local has about 15000 to 20000 in monthly fees(everything included). It isn't easy to cover given how well options are priced and that most orders trade at value. The costs simply don't line up with the profit opportunity.
 
Quote from AMW:

I am guessing that a independent local has about 15000 to 20000 in monthly fees(everything included). It isn't easy to cover given how well options are priced and that most orders trade at value. The costs simply don't line up with the profit opportunity.
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the fixed costs actually came down, a fuction of much more capital required to trade (have to carry a position=real risk), but the payment for order flow can send that number throught the roof...sure you can come down and churn the options, if you can compete with the electronic guys and their prop routing and risk systems, but whats the point...at the end of the day you took risk, spent $ on comish. and locked in nothing, unless you take an opinion...and then you are paying fixed exp. to have low comish on the floor, executing as your own broker...the old game is over in equity options, for now, i just wish the upstairs community would see the mm not as a dinosaur but as a valueble bank of information and experience
 
i heard of some of the ex-London floor traders end up a London taxi driver.......after failed to be an e-trader.

Everytime, when i jump on a London taxi I start talk to the driver straightaway, trying to bump into an ex-floorer. So far I have not had my luck yet.


Always a learner
 
Quote from Learner:

i heard of some of the ex-London floor traders end up a London taxi driver.......after failed to be an e-trader.

Everytime, when i jump on a London taxi I start talk to the driver straightaway, trying to bump into an ex-floorer. So far I have not had my luck yet.


Always a learner
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you think i havn't heard of that, i peranaly know guys waiting tables after years on the floor, when the mrtgage is due, you got to do something...scares the crap out of me...its like having this great wealth of knowledge and not being able to find a home for it
 
"alot of the electronic mm that have never been on the floor have never seen a crash..."

If I may counter, as an ex floor guy who moved to the screen nearly 8 years ago, a floor guy cant grasp how fast the screen moves when it hits the fan.

The market isnt orderly when it gets crazy and it vacums, your friend holding the 3 bid for 1000 isnt there on the screen like he was in the 30's, 10's, 5's ect. No one is there to bail your ass out on the screen
 
Quote from mktmkr:

you think i havn't heard of that, i peranaly know guys waiting tables after years on the floor, when the mrtgage is due, you got to do something...scares the crap out of me...its like having this great wealth of knowledge and not being able to find a home for it
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welcome to the future my friend..Get used to being underemployed...Computers eliminate a lot of human necessity...
 
Run like an antelope dude ;)

The fact is that there is little need for the old trader with new tech. superioir risk tools and a plethora of kiddies who will do it for peanuts and 25% /75% splits. Plus the kiddies can all rpogram and dont need a huge base to pay the bills and the ex wife!
 
Quote from artis74:

"alot of the electronic mm that have never been on the floor have never seen a crash..."

If I may counter, as an ex floor guy who moved to the screen nearly 8 years ago, a floor guy cant grasp how fast the screen moves when it hits the fan.

The market isnt orderly when it gets crazy and it vacums, your friend holding the 3 bid for 1000 isnt there on the screen like he was in the 30's, 10's, 5's ect. No one is there to bail your ass out on the screen
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true and believe me i'm not knoking anyone for being upstairs, but for the past 4-5 years we're all siting in a pit looking at a lap top and posting our mkts though the computer, it just gets to me when a guy thats never been on the floor looks at me like im a dinosaur
 
If it came like I was knocking anyone I most certainly am not. We all have to make a living and to each his own.

My experience is that the guys from the floor who couldnt transition to the screen were either size guys who could bully the market or stood next to a friend. These types are now "trading managers" or "trading mentors" not traders. Most are doing it to work of large debits.

Trading is trading screen or floor. The issue is if you had big swings or questionable discipline on the floor you will have a tough time finding a backer on the screen because they can monitor in real time now. I know a few bond guys who went from being THE BIG guys to trading 5x10 FIT/NOBS b/ of this.


No one should look at anyone like a dinosaur and if they do they arent worth your time.
 
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