Trader In Need Of Mentor

T

TedSpread

BACKGROUND: I graduated at the top of my class from an ivy league college. I spent the next 10 years working for 2 major wall street firms as a fixed income derivatives salesman. Two years ago (at 31) I moved to Boca Raton and began trading for Generic. I have spent the better part of this time as a trader treading water, looking for new/better methodologies and feeling like I have had little to no edge.

GOAL: I would love to find a mentor who can help me reach my goal to become a consistently profitable trader.

CONSIDERATIONS: I am in this for the long haul. I have experience with simple directional strategies as well as complex derivative spreading strategies. I would favor trading futures over equities, but I am open to any instruments/methodologies that move me towards my goal.

If this message reaches any consistently profitable traders that are interested in helping someone else reach a similar level, I would be very grateful to hear from you. My e-mail address is traderljp@yahoo.com.
 
why do'nt you approach mr offman in nyc

and offer your time and efforts to him in exchange for some
feedback on trading?

is he still one of the principals of carlin / generic

or did he retire after the bear market started?

good luck to you
 
Yes, he is still one of the main players in Carlin/Generic. He is still trading actively, but has been much more cautious in the last couple of years. He is still profitable, just not amazingly profitable as he was during the bull market period.

His relative strength/momentum approach has been a tough act to follow for most of his traders. I have listened to all of his mid-day conference calls and have frequently asked questions...he is quite open to helping others. The problem for me and many others that use him as a resource is that there does not seem to be much edge in relative strength/momentum trading these days (unless you have a sixth sense and a genious mind for numbers like Meyer).

Thanks for the suggestion! Best of luck to you as well.
 
Quote from TedSpread:

BACKGROUND: I graduated at the top of my class from an ivy league college. I spent the next 10 years working for 2 major wall street firms as a fixed income derivatives salesman. Two years ago (at 31) I moved to Boca Raton and began trading for Generic. I have spent the better part of this time as a trader treading water, looking for new/better methodologies and feeling like I have had little to no edge.

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Hmm .... Well your background is very extensive. Without knowing anything else about you I would have to say that I dont understand why you are not in sales rather than trading. Trading is in many ways the opposite of sales: you spend a lot of the trading day watching and researching various pieces of data.

I will say this: many of the client employees that I have ran into in my consulting operations - large well known financial firms - were/are working as lower level employees for employee wages in areas other than trading after having many years of experience in trading or trading analytics: they now work as business analysts, low level programmers, low paid consultants.

Its not easy to be consistently profitable trader and really requires a set of special skills that are IMHO difficult to learn on your own. In fact in our hiring its our opinion that you either have the innate skills or you dont: more training doesn't always help.

Two years is a long time to not be making money ....

PM me if you would consider relo to So. Ca. in Q4 2003.....
 
Nice post Ted.

Hopefully by now you have received some intriguing emails. Hey I just wanted to ask, from your opening post - were you selling these derivatives as short term or long term vehicles? Btw I worked for a major firm for almost 6 years and it is somewhat ironic how one can do so and not learn much about trading. Selling takes a lot of focus, and to succeed at it for ten years is very admirable. For me it sucked and all I was there for was to learn what I could about trading. :)
 
Walther - Yes to both of your questions. I would, however, think long and hard (including proper due diligence about the trader's track record) before paying to learn.


CalTrader - The reason I am not currently a salesman is a matter of personal choices...not income potential. I felt burned out and in need of a new direction after a decade of being a 'sales-trader' covering many of the largest hedge funds and proprietary trading desks on the street. I always wanted to trade, and financially, (after many lucrative years as a salesman) I was able to walk away from wall street to pursue this goal.

inandlong - Thanks. I was selling 'idea trades' to the institutional 'leveraged' trading community (hedge fund traders and proprietary trading desk traders). The way the business ran, I would show an idea to my client base (maybe I thought that 18 month treasury paper was cheap to the euro-dollar futures curve) and if it fit with their views and they wanted to put some on, they would have me execute the trade for them. I made my money by being a nimble executioner of these large trades and would scalp out a small amount (maybe an eighth or quarter of a 32 on the cash side) for myself and mark the trade up to the customer. I agree that being a good/profitable salesman does not mean much when you move into trading....just a good foundation of underlying ideas and ability to execute well.
 
Quote from TedSpread:
....just a good foundation of underlying ideas and ability to execute well.
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I am sure you recognize the value of those assets already. All I can suggest is to use the same discernment when selecting a mentor as you used in steering your career path thus far.
 
Quote from TedSpread:

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CalTrader - The reason I am not currently a salesman is a matter of personal choices...not income potential. I felt burned out and in need of a new direction after a decade of being a 'sales-trader' covering many of the largest hedge funds and proprietary trading desks on the street. I always wanted to trade, and financially, (after many lucrative years as a salesman) I was able to walk away from wall street to pursue this goal.

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More...

... With all the money you have why not just form a trading group with some of your contacts on the street: or simply pick up the phone and call some of your old contacts and tell them of your need ? After many years of successful sales you should be in the million plus club - I'm sure one of your old sales contacts would be happy to help you out or refer you to a good group...... you should not have to be looking on a board like this ....
 
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