Day Trading Firms in the UK

[JPtheGuy]

Day Trading Firms in the UK?

Does anybody know of any day trading firms in the UK? i currently trade for a living in New York at a proprietary firm on wall st. and am hoping to move to london later this year.
i'd like to continue trading the NYSE from over there but so far have been unable to find any trading firms at all.


anybody know where i might find one?

 

[mmillar]

e-trade UK were talking about setting up a private investor trading room in the City of London. But I haven't heard from them for ages. Try www.etrade.co.uk.

 

[Mr. Charts]

Why do you need a day trading firm? Why not trade from your own office and computers and avoid paying someone else. If you think it's a hard commute into Manhattan in the morning you ain't seen London's version ;-)
I trade NYSE and Nasdaq from home for a living. You only need a DSL line or even a modem.
How can you give up pretzels and KKD's donuts to come here? !!

 

[Skimbleshanks]

There was a centre in Cannon Street, in the City of London. I believe it was InvestIn Securities, who operated through www.exptrader.co.uk - but looking at their website it appears that the London centre doesn't exist anymore.

In the UK we don't appear to have prop firms, although this seems to be the norm in the US.

 

[fillyerboots]

Try Interactive Brokers, they're a US firm but have offices in London.

NYSE 1 cent per share (0.5 cents >500 shares), fast executions too. Their help desk is in Switzerland but the people in their London office were helpful.

 

[Skimbleshanks]

I've found a link, which detailed the story, and gives the URL www.investin.co.uk - but that seems to be dead.

The story link is:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/545684.stm


I've certainly not come across a prop firm apart from InvestIn.

 

[fillyerboots]

All the London daytrading firms offer primarily futures. A high percentage of these guys are ex Liffe locals trading fixed income futures, bunds, bobl, schatz, euribor, sterling and gilts. TFS blackwood have a Nasdaq day trading operation £40K down and 2k a month for the privilige of their company.

 

[Naz]

I traded at Investin,visited them at the very start, traded there and did the training until they went back to the US, i still trade an account with them.

Its great working with other like minded people in a scalping environment.However if your style of trading changes then its maybe best to trade somewhere else.

 

[X-Ray Specs]

Try http://www.macfutures.co.uk/

London based and they even offer some training.

 

[shoee62]

Hi JptheGuy, I have a friend who trades through a firm of ex LIFFE locals, there are around 100 of them in an office. Mostly trade spreads on bonds and index futures, details below.
Think they pay about £1600pm for desk, quotes and trading platform and £1.20 RT tops

Schneider Trading Associates Ltd.
(Clearing through GNI Ltd.)
Jeremy Brown


E-mail: [email protected]

Oliver Schneider


E-mail: [email protected]

One Whittington Avenue
London EC3V 1LE

Tel: +44 (0)20 7664 4200
Fax: +44 (0)20 7664 4333

another one is Kyte Futures, info in Google for them

 

[TraderPattern]

Personally, I would find working in a daytrading firm extremely distracting. When I trade, I require total focus.

 

[chesstrader]

It depends. When you work at home and you have a wife or a girlfriend it's very disturbing. People don't think you are working, it's like you are unemployed.
So it could be good to work in an office with other traders

Reagrds

 

[Skimbleshanks]

So you send your girlfriend/wife out to work, and the problem's solved!

 

[ChartMan]

Or you get a girlfriend that's a trader... ...... Maybe not

 

[Halo]

Hello.
Mr Yankee, it looks as if through these boards you may even find a few people to start one up with you.

Has anyone got any input on what the benefits/costs are for using one of these trading arcades..

 

[warm_machine]

Working in a group allows you to cover the market quicker and should reveal more trading opportunities to each member, but you really do need to all be applying a similar strategy. However, as with PC's, you will only work as quickly as your slowest component, so it's important to ensure all involved have a good understanding of the market - in order for you to get the maximum out of it, you are going to have to rely on others to relay information to you without the need for you to verify it's accuracy - no need to detail the possible problems that might arise here.
As far as set-up costs go, aside from the office equipment, you need to think multiple, dual screen, networked PCs, with adsl internet a minimum requirement if for 3 or 4 traders, or higher speed cable if more than that, particularly if you're planning to execute trades online.

 

[JPtheGuy]

thanks for all the great thoughts... very helpful.

responding to some questions as to the necessity of the trading office, i guess that, in addition to the almost unlimited buying power (with minimal personal capital risk) afforded by a trading firm, the main advantages are as follows:
- idea flow (as someone mentioned - the more people around, the better the chances of catching rumours, news, moves, etc)
-infrastructure (computers, software, monitors, T3 lines, etc.)
-tech support
-better data/news feeds & faster executions (vs. consumer online services)
-lower fees (i don't think i would be a profitable trader if i had to pay $10 per trade)
-bullets (i don't know of a consumer service that offers instant married puts at reasonable cost) - necessary to sell short without an up-tick.

many of these advantages may be unique to trading the NYSE and Nasdaq, i'm not sure what the deal is with FTSE & LIFFE related trading.

 

[oatman]

My wife goes to work....I'm self-unemployed

 

[dmasterdc]

I'm planning on applying to the following firms Optiver, Curvalue, Schneider limited, voltrex, makoglobal. Does anyone know what the salaries are like and any opinions of the firms? I understand Optiver is also based in the netherlands.

 

[Halo]

starting salaries at firms like these are very low.. it's also true that turnover rates of trainee traders are also very high..

these firms usually operate a profit split system.. something like a 20k basic and %40 of what you make is not an unusual place to start..

some of the firms you mention are better than others by repuatation, but not having worked at them it's unfair of me to comment.

it's important to know the following:

1.they aim to train profitable traders (usually to perform trades in a very 'set' manner - all traders will be schooled in arbitrage/spread trading etc). the successful traders are there from 6.30am to 6.pm + - so it's not an easy ride.
2. they will 'lock-in' any succesful traders for a long time.. don't be surprised to find yourself unable to trade anywhere else for 3 years if you leave them.
3.if you make it to the stage where you're profitable - you'll be making money for them .. they will make money from your P&L and also your clearing. It comes out of your wage packet.


there are certainly advantages to going this route (information flow, better technology, convenience, gearing) but at the end of the day they are in business by making money out of successful traders..and getting rid of the bad ones early....