Okay, so I currently trade for a prop firm. Rates aren't terrible, payout kind of sucks, but there is no capital contribution which is nice. The deal-breaker is that I'm stuck at 1,000 shares max size and they aren't interested in taking us beyond that without a capital contribution, so my earnings are limited. Plus, their daily loss limits are very tight. I'm not contributing capital because they refuse to offer me more competitive rates.
I have spoken with WTS, EchoTrade, and T3 (they never return my phone calls).
My offer from WTS (actually it was a sub of WTS) is .002/share, 99% payout, Fusion DMA platform was offered free w/ about $150 a month for data fees. Everyone I've spoken with so far has been very nice. What I do not like, at all, is their financial statements. They have a liability for bank overdrafts on their December, 2012 statement of operations for about $40,000 and they only carried $21,000 cash on hand (red flag for cash management issues in my experience, but I'm not a CPA). Given how prominent they make themselves look in the trading community, I'm shocked that their total assets, including members equity, is a meager $7 million. I consider my current firm small-mid sized and their total assets including members equity is roughly $30 million. This sketches me out considering how big and popular they sound. Additionally they were dinged earlier this year with about a $20k fine for transacting under net capital requirements. Double sketch. I put them on the back burner only for the reason that I'm not 100% confident my capital would not be at high - very high risk on their books. I look at it like buying a stock that I can't sell for a year - I'm less interested in buying & holding a stock with potential cash issues.
My offer from EchoTrade was .0025/share, they didn't disclose a payout but I'm guessing 95-99%, and they sent me a list of software and data fees. It looked like it would run me about $410/month. They offer volume incentive rebates that would make the monthly software/data fees less intimidating, maybe $100-200. They told me that it's essentially free if you trade 1m share a month. Solid financial statements from Echo. I think they may have had one violation in the past but I can't recall what it was for - don't quote me on that, though.
T3 never responded to me, so screw them. I had heard positive comments about them on this site and called them twice. Both times someone told me they would have a representative call me back as soon as they were available. Done w/ them, but would still like to hear any comments from current traders. In particular I'm interested in rates and software.
I would be grateful to hear from you if you have personal experiences at any of the above mentioned firms. A detailed response about your experiences with software, management, cash payments, capital contributions/withdrawals, execution speed, comparative analysis between any of the firms above and past firms you've worked with, etc. would be appreciated. I'm not in a rush to make a decision, but I've narrowed it down to WTS and Echo. I've heard positive comments about WTS regarding receipt of payments, but other individuals I've spoken with in the industry have said "they are at the bottom of this business" - word for word. That scares me a bit, but people are stupid so I remain open-minded.
I haven't heard anything negative about Echo. I have tested their version of Sterling Pro and the demo seems "okay", but it's not worth $400+/month. I would also be grateful for anyone who can speak about their experiences with either the Sterling Pro or Fusion DMA platforms in a live trading environment (i.e. hitting out of or bidding/offering 1,000+ shares at a time in a fast market).
If you have any questions about my firm, pm me directly, please. If you don't want to share your experience in a reply to this post, also please feel free to pm me directly. Thanks a lot for any insight from active prop traders on this board.
I have spoken with WTS, EchoTrade, and T3 (they never return my phone calls).
My offer from WTS (actually it was a sub of WTS) is .002/share, 99% payout, Fusion DMA platform was offered free w/ about $150 a month for data fees. Everyone I've spoken with so far has been very nice. What I do not like, at all, is their financial statements. They have a liability for bank overdrafts on their December, 2012 statement of operations for about $40,000 and they only carried $21,000 cash on hand (red flag for cash management issues in my experience, but I'm not a CPA). Given how prominent they make themselves look in the trading community, I'm shocked that their total assets, including members equity, is a meager $7 million. I consider my current firm small-mid sized and their total assets including members equity is roughly $30 million. This sketches me out considering how big and popular they sound. Additionally they were dinged earlier this year with about a $20k fine for transacting under net capital requirements. Double sketch. I put them on the back burner only for the reason that I'm not 100% confident my capital would not be at high - very high risk on their books. I look at it like buying a stock that I can't sell for a year - I'm less interested in buying & holding a stock with potential cash issues.
My offer from EchoTrade was .0025/share, they didn't disclose a payout but I'm guessing 95-99%, and they sent me a list of software and data fees. It looked like it would run me about $410/month. They offer volume incentive rebates that would make the monthly software/data fees less intimidating, maybe $100-200. They told me that it's essentially free if you trade 1m share a month. Solid financial statements from Echo. I think they may have had one violation in the past but I can't recall what it was for - don't quote me on that, though.
T3 never responded to me, so screw them. I had heard positive comments about them on this site and called them twice. Both times someone told me they would have a representative call me back as soon as they were available. Done w/ them, but would still like to hear any comments from current traders. In particular I'm interested in rates and software.
I would be grateful to hear from you if you have personal experiences at any of the above mentioned firms. A detailed response about your experiences with software, management, cash payments, capital contributions/withdrawals, execution speed, comparative analysis between any of the firms above and past firms you've worked with, etc. would be appreciated. I'm not in a rush to make a decision, but I've narrowed it down to WTS and Echo. I've heard positive comments about WTS regarding receipt of payments, but other individuals I've spoken with in the industry have said "they are at the bottom of this business" - word for word. That scares me a bit, but people are stupid so I remain open-minded.
I haven't heard anything negative about Echo. I have tested their version of Sterling Pro and the demo seems "okay", but it's not worth $400+/month. I would also be grateful for anyone who can speak about their experiences with either the Sterling Pro or Fusion DMA platforms in a live trading environment (i.e. hitting out of or bidding/offering 1,000+ shares at a time in a fast market).
If you have any questions about my firm, pm me directly, please. If you don't want to share your experience in a reply to this post, also please feel free to pm me directly. Thanks a lot for any insight from active prop traders on this board.