Prop trading- Volume you trade...

[Hockey Trader]

Hi,

Do most firms "force" you to trade certain volume every day/month, etc? I realize it is in their favor since they collect commission from what you trade. And even if you are never profitable, at the least they can benefit from one trading large numbers.

A few months ago, on a prop trading blog, I saw stats of a typical day for one of the owners of the firm. He made well over 200 trades- He was up 8k for the day, so good for him. But I do not think this style would suit me. I think I would be more comfortable trying to find better opportunities in fewer trades.

Either way, is there a standard or such at most prop firms in terms of daily volume or roughly the number of trades made a day?

Thanks

 

[T-Bone Trader]

My understanding is that most firms "encourage" you to trade more daily volume. My last firms would come up to me and ask" why aren't you trading more?" Or I would get the BS comment from the senior trader that if you're in a trade for more than 20 seconds then you are doing something wrong. I thought that was pretty funny and unethical!

The firm I'm currently at actually encourages me to trade less.

Gil likes to put it in terms of baseball - you can't swing at each pitch and have to wait for your hotzone pitch so that you can get an easy single and then calculate whether you can stretch a single into a double and when you can stretch a double into a triple.

The method that I was taught allows me to be patient for high percent trade set-ups - thus I trade about 3-4 trades per session and only trade about 3-5K shares and take home about $300 average daily.

It's all about the training you receive and the firm you trade with.

Most of the prop firms are scamsters. I'm fortunate.

Good luck all.