Rentention Rate at Prop Firms

A

axehawk

To all owners and managers of prop firms that frequent this site:

What is the retention rate of newbies that have entered your firm/office in the past 12 months?

How does that rate compare with the rate in the bubble years?

Also, please comment on specific factors of why newbies blow-out the first year. (No cliches please.)

Thanks,

Ax
 
You will never get an honest answer on there success rate. I was told by hold brothers in 1999 that 1 out of 20 make it back then. Now it is probably lower a lot lower.
 
Echotrade currently has a track record of having more traders at the end of the month that the beginning of the month.

There isn't that much new blood out there but that picture might give you something to think about

Robert
 
Originally posted by trade555
You will never get an honest answer on there success rate. I was told by hold brothers in 1999 that 1 out of 20 make it back then. Now it is probably lower a lot lower.
More...

I guess that would explain why so few (if any) are willing to "stake" traders.
 
It would be good to get some honest information
from Prop firm managers & other folks about this subject.

I could make a case that the Prop Firm retention rate would
be better today than two years ago during the "bubble"
because most Prop Firms are more focussed on providing
better training and education to make their traders successful.
Many of the fly-by-night firms are gone. The days when every
character was walking into a prop firm and expecting to be
rich in a few weeks is gone. Most prop firms are now focussed
on people who expect to be in trading for the long term.

Due to this I expect the retention rate after 12 months is
greater now than two years ago... however I do not know
for sure, I am not a Prop Trader.

- Greg
 
Good luck on getting an honest answer.

If you owned a business, would you say anything negative to scare away potential customers?

No. You would emphasize the good points.

Think about it
 
Most firm's that hire traders don't actually hire they bring them into a LLC and you need to deposit something in the area of 10 to 25K then if your account fall's below a certain amount you need to bring more money in. As for profitability they go by gross figures so yeah the trader is taking money out of the market but he is losing most of it to commission's. It's a great business traders never complain about payout because the commission is just part of doing business. So most trades do make money but they don't last because of fees.
 
In the last 12 months we had six people come into our office. Four traded our money and two are trading their own. We let two go. We have kept two who are profitable since Jan 1 and the two other guys just started in the last two months and they are using their own money. Those two new guys are experienced as they had been making markets at a nasdaq firm.

I have previously stated for the 2-3 years prior to mid 2001, just about every trader that we trained or other guys in our office trained made money. (There were a couple of traders who traded their own style that did not make money and prior to 3 years ago a couple traders that we trained did not make money and left.)

From now on when I detect a know it all suspicious tone about prop firms I will not reply.

I run a business because I would be trading in a firm anyway. I am not trying to churn seats because it makes for a lousy trading environment.

p.s. one other guy we trained left to go back to grad school even though he was profitable. However, he might have been with us more than a year so I am not sure he fits into the catefory of newbie.
 
We have a 100% success rate and will start you with $1,000,000.00. As a signing bonus you will be given your choice from our corporate fleet of Mercedes or BMW's. We will be adding a fleet of customized HumVees with sattelite data uplinks so you can stay in touch when your trading from our 45,000 acre ranch in Western Wyoming. You will have access to one of our three Gulfstream V's, as well as a share stake in all of our offices scattered around the globe in tropical locations.

You don't need any experience at all. Sorry we can't be more accomodating...but our service is in demand.

Hope to here from you soon....

ACME trading...

/sarcasm
 
Since Oneway has already stated the honest facts...what else can I say??

I will sort out the last 3 years, and come up with some numbers for you.....you may or may not like them....and I will have the "verified" by our Compliance people first....if they let me post them (always fearful of "advertising" concerns)...then I will get them up this week.
 
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