Prop Trading in San Francisco

B

bv321

I'm in San Francisco and am interesting in prop trading. I've been trading global equities at the institutional level for almost 4 years and am considering a career change. My current day to day is pretty boring. Although I have opportunities to advance in my career and hold a CFA, trading for my own account seems much more fulfilling and stimulating than a lifetime of subordinated office roles and sharing bonus pools.

With cash in the bank and a steady uncorrelated income from my Wife, I can probably survive a year without a steady income. I can also put up capital.

I am looking for a legitimate shop that trains traders, has good mentors and is actually interested in my success. I realize SF isn't the best city for this.

At this point I'm very skeptical of this niche in the finance industry and have read much more negative reviews than positive. Much of the positive literature sounds like a cheesy infomercial

If anyone has any recommendations of a good shop or would be willing to share their experiences in SF, please let me know. Any other advice will obviously be well appreciated. I've searched the boards and think I have a good understanding of what to ask if I do go in for an interview.

A couple shops I've found:
http://www.mavericktrading.com/
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/acc/1962334795.html

Thanks for any help. Good luck with your trading.
 
Quote from bv321:

I'm in San Francisco and am interesting in prop trading. I've been trading global equities at the institutional level for almost 4 years and am considering a career change. My current day to day is pretty boring. Although I have opportunities to advance in my career and hold a CFA, trading for my own account seems much more fulfilling and stimulating than a lifetime of subordinated office roles and sharing bonus pools.

With cash in the bank and a steady uncorrelated income from my Wife, I can probably survive a year without a steady income. I can also put up capital.

I am looking for a legitimate shop that trains traders, has good mentors and is actually interested in my success. I realize SF isn't the best city for this.

At this point I'm very skeptical of this niche in the finance industry and have read much more negative reviews than positive. Much of the positive literature sounds like a cheesy infomercial

If anyone has any recommendations of a good shop or would be willing to share their experiences in SF, please let me know. Any other advice will obviously be well appreciated. I've searched the boards and think I have a good understanding of what to ask if I do go in for an interview.

A couple shops I've found:
http://www.mavericktrading.com/
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/acc/1962334795.html

Thanks for any help. Good luck with your trading.
More...

Prop trading is a scam.
Firms only profit from (often illegal overleverage) margin interests and trading-commissions.

Their customers never profit.
 
I`ve come to the conclusion that Garcia is a Troll who got burned, so don`t mind him. He`s kinda like that mascot every forum has and no-one really pays attention to.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot to add what I really wanted to say.

The if you scroll through the the 15 pages of Prop Trading section, you`ll find numerous companies, though most are on the east coast.

I`ve been researching for the last month and most of the financial companies here in Cali (and Nor-Cal) are Hedge Funds (www.BAHedgeFunds; has a good list, costs a little bit); Asset Managment Firms & Groups; & Private Equity.

I`ve found under 40 firms (companies) that are either a Prop Firm or have a Prop(Trading) Desk in the Bay Area. Some of them range from 2-3 people up to those of the larger players (Meryill, BoA, etc).

Links that`ve been posted a multitude of times are http://www.investimonials.com/prop-firms & http://www.tradersnarrative.com/list-of-proprietary-trading-firms-735.html

It appears that alot of the `Prop Firms`are go`n remote, so if you have a method, strategy, and good risk & trade management to keep you in the game, remotes the way to go out here on the west coast. If you need training, i seems like you better book some time off and a plane flight-itinerary.

Cheers,
 
Quote from jd_harris:

I`ve come to the conclusion that Garcia is a Troll who got burned, so don`t mind him. He`s kinda like that mascot every forum has and no-one really pays attention to.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot to add what I really wanted to say.
More...

Maybe it's actually that you can't post real arguments for prop firms?
Deep inside you know prop firms are a scam?

So you resort to (pretending to) insult me?
 
There was no pretending: "I've come to the conclusion taht"... no pretending there. Just a statement. Thanks.

As many arguments that can be made against 'Prop Trading' there are an equally weighted ammount for: To eaches own.

"Move along, nothing to see here".

Cheers,
 
Thanks for the replies jd harris and Trujillotrader. I will give these leads a shot and obviously proceed cautiously. If I do find anything legit I will definitely post back and report my experiences.
 
Quote from Trujillotrader:

There are prop firms hiring in San Francisco on www.daytraderjobs.com there are new firms popping up each day. Maybe you'll have some luck with what you're looking for on there.
More...

By law, it's banned to advertise trading as jobs.
If they are still doing this highly illegal practice, you know what kind of scammers/crooks you are dealing with.
 
your CFA is worth at least 100k a year.. no??

im sure youre a smart guy.. open an account with IB and start trading 1 lot of ES, 6E, CL.. figure it out
 
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