Life after Proprietary Trading?

Originally posted by jpomerenke
i wonder if most of you that say that theres no money in trading....got started in 99...and u are so used to trading in a markets that anyone and thier brother can make money in..i know many traders most that started in 99 during the bid daytrading days dont make $hit anymore....they idnt grasp the concept of changing techniques..they still think money should be made easy in the markets.and they are scared to pull the trigger now .but all my buds that started in the last 2 years..are making very good incomes...some 7 figures...and i am not lieng...
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I did start in the spring of 1999 and made a good profit by early spring 2000. Then I had to reinvent myself, which took a while, but it happened, no big problem. I have been trading profitable again for well over a year.

I think trading is complex but not too difficult. The big obstacle is, imo, our egos - those places in our minds which never want to take a stop loss or follow any one technique too close (because "we" know better.) In retrospect, that issue arose right from the beginning, 3 years ago.

So, the big change in me, from undisciplined gambler to disciplined trader, had nothing to do with the market collapse. Lack of discipline back then did not mean large losses (as it would today) but it did mean large reduction of potential profit, which I noticed right away and gradually learned to guard myself from. I am still working on this one - the risk may never go away for real.
 
Personnally, I think the "daytrading"game is over. I traded off the floor and the penny spreads killed it. There is no momentum, and the edge, the dumb money, is not there.

I have been pulling my hair out, cking out off floor operations and i made the decisicion to go to the Futures pit. The pit is by no means in jeapordy like I use to think as a daytrader.

In fact, the pit has the edge, you see order flow far better than on any level II or book montage. You can see the big locals handsignals, the big institutions, the paper flow. The commssions are almost none existant. You stand next to a big institutional broker and your money.

I was from the school of thought that the pits are done, finished and electronic daytrading is the new exchange. Well, that is not so. There will always be the pit, and there will always be the computuer. I will be working with both on the floor, for Arbs.

Take a warning from the best Prop house on the street, SCHONFELD. When they decide to scale down in size, this rings bells. Many off the floor prop offices in the institutions are now gone. The banks/brokers are getting rid of their in house Prop traders and sticking with the floor. This all makes sense.

Dosent mean you cant make a nice living trading off the floor, I have, but the edge is not their and your trading against 80% pros. Were are the Pros, on the floor and they are the Big locals, and Insitutional brokers........Specialist on the Amex and NYSE.

Of course the Nasdaq is diffrent, being a electronic medium....however, can you say OTCBB very soon?
 
ertrader,what futures contract do you intend to trade,what's the lease cost per month,is there any minimum capital requirement required to trade on the floor,do the margin requirements vary when on the floor?
 
I it takes an MBA to make connections for you guys than that is what you do. I droped out of one of the best programs in the country......why, because I ran into someone who was a trader.

MBA's are good to flash around at cocktail parties and try to pick up girls because you went to XXXX school. I come from Manhattan, were the best of the best play and work. Most of them are idiots. Some are smart. Most of the successful people I made contact with only have a some formal education, 4 years or so.

Universities are money making institutions. I hope you pay for yours as i did mine, in cash. To take on 100 thousand plus overhead because you think your gona come out of the gate making 6 figuers, think again. University of Chicago grads of MBA are not making 6 figuers out of the gate, I know that for a fact.

MBA in investment banking work 100 hours a week, they have to work under the senior partners for years before they break out. There is hard work and smart work, a diffrence.

Also, you dont need a MBA to be a institutional trader. LOL< come on down to the floor and those Brokers are by no means MBA grads. The institutions use that as a screening play. I know many who now trade for GS/Mer/MWD/ from my undergrad class. Now the GS guy had some connections from the inside, GS does tend to hire nothing but MBAs.

The funniest thing now is all those layed off people, in tech, in banks/ 40,000 wall street layoffs, were do u think they went. THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY TO MBA SCHOOL> take a look at the jump in enrollment in the last year.....MBA schools have tighten up their entrence requiremnts, Better knock that GMAT out,

I do think taking classes with certain PROFs on individual subjects helps to expand your thought process. I do it from time to time, take a night class at UofC. Helps to keep the mind fresh.

However, from experiance, I have friends of mine who graduated MBA school this past year, some from Great schools, some from middle level, none, I MEAN NONE are employed as of yet....hummm
 
here is a joke before I head off for the midday chop.

There are three guys with their dogs at the park, A lawyer, a builder, a trader. The lawyer says, "hey you wanna see a cool trick?" he throws a stick and yells " Magnacarter fetch". The lawyers dog runs gets the stick, brings it back, chews it up and spits our a replica of the Constitution.

The Builder says " i got a better trick, Mortgage go fetch boy". The builders dog runs and get the stick comes back, spits it out after chewing it up. A perfect replica of the Empire state Building.

The trader laughs and says "man that ant shit" he throws the stick and yells, "Options go fetch" the dog runs, grabs the stick, brings it back, chews it up, and spits out two staight lines.

The Builder and Lawyer look at each other, then the traders dog, sniffs up both the lines, Fucks the other two dogs, looks at the master watch and says, "its quarter after three, lets get the fuck out of here."
 
I have an MBA from Univ of Chicago. I can tell you: MBA - from ANY school - will NOT make you a better trader. My personal experience.

Trading - at a certain level - is not about what you know but how you execute what you already know. It's just like professional sports in that sense. What seperates the successful ones from the failures, is the head games and how mentally tough you are - not whether you know how to calculate cash flow or know the balk rules.

I wish I started daytrading when I was in college. I know some college kids trading at my firm...19,20,21.... taking night classes...and some make 6 figures....Mid 6-figures. Imagine that....20 year old with 500,000 annula income.
 
not bullshit, i was in that play my man, I sat next to a guy making 4/5 million....its not bullshit. Sorry u missed it, but hey, dont hate what you dont have,,,,not good.
 
Originally posted by ertrader
The Builder and Lawyer look at each other, then the traders dog, sniffs up both the lines, Fucks the other two dogs, looks at the master watch and says, "its quarter after three, lets get the fuck out of here."
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Bwahahahahahah!!!!

thank you!
 
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