The new SMB 5-year career path program

@anh_trader

A wise decision grasshopper. Find a job (if there are any) and paper trade on the side. If you can't find a job, create your own and hire yourself. Start a car wash, sell sandwiches, clean up trashed foreclosure properties or whatever. In this economy, we're all self-employed to some degree. When and if you're ready, the markets will be there.
 
First off you can't even be a "day trader" without $25,000 in a retail account. Your complaining about paying $7,500 to get TRAINED and trade someone elses money? How about trying to look at it in a positive light? You put up $7,500 and you have more buying power than you obviously had before. You are around a group of people who actually trade.

Are you so successful at trading right now? If so, prove it and bring in a track record and maybe they will cut you some slack. It's a fools game to think just because you think your some hot shot that they should just bring you on board for nothin.
 
why not take your $7500 and trade it at assent or another firm that lets you put up 5k, gives you the buying power, and you either make money or you don't. you will end up splitting your profits with them, probably 75% for you, 25% for them. if you have to get a series 7, no big deal, in fact it is nice to have. currently, i trade my own account through lightspeed but 5 years ago i did trade through assent. i don't know if any of these places do the above but i would check them out: echo trading, hold brothers, keystone, bright trading, first new york securities, t3live. from my perspective, let me trade my money, if i lose it, i lose it. if i double it, 75% is mine to keep, not theirs.
 
I would not do a deal where you had to put up the money, no training is offered and you have to give them 25% of profits. If they provide training then that may be all right. If they don't provide training, then you should be able to keep 99% of all profits.


Quote from nymsmith1979:

why not take your $7500 and trade it at assent or another firm that lets you put up 5k, gives you the buying power, and you either make money or you don't. you will end up splitting your profits with them, probably 75% for you, 25% for them. if you have to get a series 7, no big deal, in fact it is nice to have. currently, i trade my own account through lightspeed but 5 years ago i did trade through assent. i don't know if any of these places do the above but i would check them out: echo trading, hold brothers, keystone, bright trading, first new york securities, t3live. from my perspective, let me trade my money, if i lose it, i lose it. if i double it, 75% is mine to keep, not theirs.
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Why don't you try Chimera Securities. They don't require a deposit or training fee. See their FAQs, in particular #10:

10. What separates Chimera Securities from its competition?

* Chimera does not accept capital contributions nor charge training fees from inexperienced traders, and in some cases, Chimera pays salary and bonus to them.
Since Chimera takes all of the financial risk on its employees, it has every incentive to make sure its traders succeed.
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They have several locations:

New York, NY: recruiter@chimerasecurities.com

White Plains, NY: recruiter@chimerasecurities.com

Boston, MA: recruiter@chimerasecurities.com

Los Angeles, CA: recruiter@chimerasecurities.com
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They even offer health insurance. From their FAQs again:

17. Does Chimera offer a benefits package to their employees?
Yes. There are optional medical, dental, and vision plans available to all employees of Chimera Securities after a short waiting period.
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Retief,
This seems great! Do you know the chance of acceptance, if the new trader(or having some experience) is NOT a new college graduate?

Remote training seems is not offered :-(

Any other firm do you know that can provide this opportunity for remote trader?

Thanks,
 
I don't have any personal experience with Chimera or other prop firms. I saw a reference to Chimera in the trader's health insurance thread, and checked out their website. Maybe someone else will come along that has more information about Chimera and other prop firms that offer similar opportunities.
 
Assent is closed down, but there are other good prop firms such as Echo Trade, Hold Brothers, JC Trading Group and Benchmarq Trading that will take a $5000 or $10000 deposit and allow you to trade and keep 100% of the profits. The problem is that it is extremely difficult to become a consistently profitable trader. Approximately 90% to 95% of the people making the attempt, fail.

I personally believe that most who make the attempt to become prop traders do not have enough money saved up, prior to beginning. Individuals that have 1 to 2 years of money for living expenses saved, have much better odds than those that do not. A firm like Chimera or Opus, that says it offers training and requires no capital deposit might be a better choice if your funds are limited.
 
very cool .... thanks for sharing!

Quote from KingDong130:

I somewhat agree with that, the part that 95 -98% of people that try won't make it, I also think it depends on the drive of the person too, if you are determined enough you will find a way to trade better and do whatever its takes to learn this game if its your passion. In the beginning its all about preserving capital and being around to trade tomorrow so you can apply the things that you learned today.

Ok with that said, I hesitate to even post this with the fear of being flammed endlessly about this. I have paid for SMB's training program, and thought it was worth the money, again in reality its not that much money, if you can't afford that then you probably should think about trading yet. I'm not speaking to the career path as I know very little about it, this is purely to the educational programs at SMB.

I was very skeptical about it as many probably are, its a risk that you could just blow that money and walk away with the same knowledge as you walked in with. Searching the internet didn't help me either, so I decided to visit on a trip out there and was very impressed with the operation. The guys that run it Mike, Steve, and Gman are all very open and honest with their trading and their knowledge. They share office space with T3Live, run by Marc Sperling, and their traders were put through SMB's program. If I'm not mistaken Mike and Steve worked at Broadway Trading with Marc in the 90's along with some of the best traders on the street.

I have traded before, but wanted to add another tool to my tool-belt, reading the tape, and they really stressed this skill its a basic foundation of their class. The training program is very structured and is being updated/added too all the time. They have a big archive of recorded video of their trading and will walk through what they did and why. The also have a simulator where you can practice one type of trade over and over again whenever you want. I trained remotely and now am trading their money, but plan to go on my own soon as that was what I intended in the first place but was offered a spot so I'm giving it a shot. The reason I'm trading their money instead of my own is because its a 'good trade' for me, risk $0 of my money and learn with their money until I become consistent.

I will say that the program isn't easy and I have heard only about 20% of the people that complete it are offered a spot. I probably put in about 80hrs a week working on the material and practicing what they were teaching. When I was going through their program there were a guy that ended up leaving early. He didn't put in nearly as much work as I have, so maybe he would think its not worth it, but for me it absolutely was. They are heavy in making you consistent, that is their overall goal.

So here is my defense of SMB and T3Live, if you put in the time and want to learn then its worth the investment, its not much anyway lets be honest...
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:) :)
 
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