Quote from Hydroblunt:
I am sure you and your friends are making millions. I never claimed noone is making money, I personally know at least a few that are doing good.
I am talking about real edge. Real edges existed in equities and even index futures, but at this point, they have been marginalized to an absolute minimal value and chopped up by HFTs. Going long a stock because the charts seems to suggest so is not an edge. Bullets, NYFIX, CHX/PHLX/Cincinatti/Boston arbs, ECN arbs, tape reading and more, now those were real edges.
The most commonly traded grounds are ultra competitive and oversaturated. It makes no sense to do an incubation program in such environment unless you actually have a real edge that is scalable and that you can teach. However, due to competition and market saturation, such edges will not exist. And that is the main reason why your concept would fail.
Why do you think all the current "prop firms" charge a "training fee"? It's a risk deposit, nothing more.
Quote from tradingjournals:
His plan is to pay a trader $2K as salary. My proposal is no salary, and giving $1K to cover losses. The difference is at least 3K (in salary version he has to pay other things, less tax deductions, other liabilities). But assume only 3K.
I gave the example to show that the discussion in this board is just bull crap, because if it were real they would take my proposal because it is cheaper and more convenient. I am that no one will take it which will prove that it is just empty talk around here.
Quote from shortthelows:
Hi,
I have been trading for about 5 years now and have been completely automate for 2 and I am thinking about starting up a sub llc under one of more well known prop firms. But instead of running your traditional subs I was thinking of going a different direction.
Instead of of having any trader come in and put money up, I would hire traders. They would be paid a small salary (2k a month) and 50% of their profits or 75% of their profits (which ever is greater). But we wouldn't be focusing on manual trading, everything would be automated.
They would have access to in-house programmers, back-testing software, and other infrastructure to develop trading strategies. I would be looking to hire college grads without any trading background. Teach them the basic of the markets and electronic trading and them let them at it.
Each trader would have 1 year from their hire date to develop 1 trading strategy. Once they have developed on, their day would consist of research and monitoring their models.
The reason why I feel this is a good business model is because most new traders fail because of three things, they are under capitalized, don't have trading plan (a stick to it) and they have poor risk management. This new model would address all three of this issues.
This is the basic overview of what I would like to do. What to you guys think, is it worth the time and effort? Any suggestions and comments would be great.
Quote from shortthelows:
I still have no idea what you are talking about. And why is this bullshit, I am not selling anything or asking for anything at all, just a simple question whether or not this concept would be worth while. Some have said no some yes. It's just a discussion, calm down.
Quote from Maverick74:
Did you hear why? I can't believe that they don't have really good traders there that don't want to escape the state and city taxes of NY.
Quote from shortthelows:
I guess you and I have different views on what an edge is. The things you mentioned, I would called them gimmicks that are not going to last. To me an edge is a strategy or method that can work on in different markets, time frames, etc. Perhaps my view on what is edge is wrong.
I know there a lot of "prop" firms that require a training fee or what not, but there are firms such as swift, title, WTS that don't require these fees and seem to be doing fine. If I was to ask if opening a Title Office would be a good idea, and not require a deposit but I didn't pay a salary would we be having this same conversation?
I fail to see how paying a small salary to a few traders is such a bad idea. Having that 2k a month will allow to focus on developing strategies and not trying to make money right out of the gate in order to pay their cell phone bill. It has been my experience that having that small amount of income goes a long way.
But this is what this thread was designed to do, to have experienced guys like you tell me what you think, I appreciate it.