Trading career - change, insights and trading

A

alisveris

Hello fellow traders,

first let me introduce myself. I'm a prop trader from about 10 years and I have heavily specialized in fixed income and bonds trading, but from the last let's say 4 - 5 years things in that niche have become more and more difficult. It has become a new normal not to have any opportunity to trade in the sector or to be forced to hold overnights with very high carry interest for prolonged times to actually breakeven or profit from them. A lot of the volume has disappeared and moved to dark venues which for the sake of trading do not move the spread or the stock and trading has become almost impossible. So what's my point, you're asking. I'm looking for a change, maybe switch to common stock trading and I'm looking for successful people trading journals or threads with ideas so I won't have to reinvent the wheel and fire.

I'll post my ideas and further into time trades but for now I would like to spend some of my time for due diligence to get familiar with trading equity stocks, as I'm used to highly illiquid stuff which is very different than the regular common stock.

Can you give some links to threads here or insights how to start? Thanks and great profits to all.
 
I don't know what the microstructure of the markets you traded in the past, but I am pretty sure it's very different than that of US equities. If you're talking about the less liquid equities, scarcity of liquidity is compounded by fragmentation. Most retail brokers sell 100% of their order flow to "wholesalers" (where it commands a premium as "dumb money") or internally trade against their own clients. So brokers and/or their wholesalers at a significant advantage, both in terms of information and their effective ability to jump the queue. That leaves largely professionals trading at the actual exchanges, and many of these professionals are the very same wholesalers with the advantaged information flow (Knight, Citadel, etc.). Just something to keep in mind.
 
Occam said:
I don't know what the microstructure of the markets you traded in the past, but I am pretty sure it's very different than that of US equities. If you're talking about the less liquid equities, scarcity of liquidity is compounded by fragmentation. Most retail brokers sell 100% of their order flow to "wholesalers" (where it commands a premium as "dumb money") or internally trade against their own clients. So brokers and/or their wholesalers at a significant advantage, both in terms of information and their effective ability to jump the queue. That leaves largely professionals trading at the actual exchanges, and many of these professionals are the very same wholesalers with the advantaged information flow (Knight, Citadel, etc.). Just something to keep in mind.
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Hello Occam,

I have traded as a proprietary trader working with the prop firm's capital. Usually I don't care from where the liquidity comes and who's on the buy or sell side as I try to profit from the spread or the general daily direction. The problem is that it has become very numb and dull and this kind of strategy is dying. The bots are always first on sub penny prices and most of the volume and execution goes to dark venues at which I cannot compete as I'm always outpaced by the bots in their aggressive pricing. I also forgot to mention that I have always traded the US equity market, never abroad so all my experience and observations are in it. This is why I'm more than willing to change the niche to common stock, futures or something else liquid with the help of others' insights and ideas if they're willing to share. Thanks for the comment Occam.
 
Hello guys,

a bit of observation today and the questions it brings. As I compare today's action in some of the more liquid assets it was rather choppy compared to the trendy movement from yesterday. Do you know any articles or strategies that can be applied intraday to avoid being caught in a choppy market. I know of ATR or bollinger bands, but alas I don't find them very useful. Any ideas? Thanks.
 
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