Looking For Honest Advice

[MayZerG]

I REALLY want to trade full time as a job in London, but i have no University background, and im stuck in a ****ty job . Coming from a poker background i stopped during summer of 2010 due to americans no longer being able to deposit, which was enforced even further earlier this year with FBI closing down a lot of networks, which forced me back into full time employment.

I've traded LIVE for about a year, first dip into forex didnt go too well, didnt manage my risk compared to my account and quickly busted my 1st account. I've done well trading the index's and commodities, but i decided to buy banks at what i thought were yearly support at what i thought was their bottom, until they collapsed even further when Greece/Italy was announced around April/May this year.

Since then i have been trading on a demo account strictly forex, and im also in the T2W forex contest atm which i am currently 2nd. I entered this contest to prove not only myself, but to everyone else i am a great trader and deserve to do this for a living, as i feel i have what it takes and i love the markets. Will probably try trading LIVE again and making sure i limit my risk to only 1-2% per trade.

Is there anyone in this forum, currently working as a Prop Trader in London (UK)for a firm/bank? Any advice on how i could follow in your footsteps?

Any posts here or through PM is greatly appreciated!

Nick

 

[MayZerG]

Nearly 50 views and no replies (got 1 PM though, thanks!) pretty shocked...

 

[pboyles]

I REALLY want to trade full time as a job in London, but i have no University background, and im stuck in a ****ty job . Coming from a poker background i stopped during summer of 2010 due to americans no longer being able to deposit, which was enforced even further earlier this year with FBI closing down a lot of networks, which forced me back into full time employment.

I've traded LIVE for about a year, first dip into forex didnt go too well, didnt manage my risk compared to my account and quickly busted my 1st account. I've done well trading the index's and commodities, but i decided to buy banks at what i thought were yearly support at what i thought was their bottom, until they collapsed even further when Greece/Italy was announced around April/May this year.

Since then i have been trading on a demo account strictly forex, and im also in the T2W forex contest atm which i am currently 2nd. I entered this contest to prove not only myself, but to everyone else i am a great trader and deserve to do this for a living, as i feel i have what it takes and i love the markets. Will probably try trading LIVE again and making sure i limit my risk to only 1-2% per trade.

Is there anyone in this forum, currently working as a Prop Trader in London (UK)for a firm/bank? Any advice on how i could follow in your footsteps?

Any posts here or through PM is greatly appreciated!

Nick

I think by your own admission you havnt been successful over time, therefore you dont have profitable accounts to show to a prop firm. Without that I dont think you'd get in. Of course you could try applying to Schneiders or Futex training schemes but even if you got in the chances of success are very small indeed, especially as you havnt been successful before and theyre really not teaching you a system or anything that you can take and use to make money right away.

Stay away from all these companies that offer you training and a chance to trade their funds, it will be a waste of money, in fact some of them will just take your money and run.

 

[ronblack]

Trading is much harder than poker. In poker there is no inside information, MMs, dark pools, you name it.

Unless you develop a mechanical trading system which you will follow with discipline you have no chances making any money pro trading or not.

If you have such system already you must create a record to show. Good luck to you.

 

[MajorDutch]

Hi MayGerG

You want advice I will give it to you. First up there are NO shortcuts to becoming a profitable trader. I would suggest it will take 3 years minimum of screen time alone and this is assuming you learn to listen and work out who you should listen to and who you should disregard.

You are looking for a prop role without a profitable track record. This is not possible. You could join a prop training program but chance of success is minimal plus most will cane you in desk fees.

Were you making money playing poker? If so I would suggest finding a way to continue earning money via poker whilst you learn to trade. I don't know what these new poker rules are but you need to get around them even if that means going offshore there must be workarounds.

You need to find a job or earn from poker whilst you learn to trade. Trading is a zero sum game and you are going against pros with 10 years screen time. Put it this way if I entered a $1000 8 person sit n go tournie online what do you think the outcome will be? Now think about the same tourney but I start with 50% of the chips everyone else has. Basically this is where you are now and you will lose your chips.

The previous poster is wrong mechanical trading isn't the only profitable way. Beware the vendors who tell you 'buy my system and it's easy, just £47 pm' this is guff.

 

[MayZerG]

Thanks for the replies:

I will be opening a live account and will makesure i keep a strict discipline of what i am doing and good money management following the same strategy i am doing atm on the contest and my demo account.

It does sound like going to a prop firm is not a good option, not only do i not have any real proof that i am successful, i also dont want to get robbed in fees.

I was making good money in poker, made $22k in half a year doing 20-30 hours a week (i lost focus/concentration doing 40 hours and made stupid mistakes costing money). When USA banned their players from depositing, the player pool shrunk by a good 30-40%, it become 1-2 bad players on a table and 4-5 regulars which is not what you want. I was going from -$200/+$200 days to -$600/+$600 within days of that event happening. It was something i was not prepared to risk, and my account couldnt handle the variance. Later that year FBI closed down Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet and others.

I'm smart enough to not pay for a training course, i was just wondering if i could get an interview ANYWHERE even if it was an assistant job, and if so if anyone knew of anywhere.

I will succeed at this and make it happen, its just going to take longer than i wanted it to.

MayZerG Statement.htm <--- my demo and from the 1st November they are the exact trades i have done on the forex contest.

Thanks all so far.

 

[Masquerade]

There's loads of euro sites to play on. People still making good money without the americans, i'm not sure I buy that line. There's still plenty of good games running. But the money is bigger in trading + it's an easier life.

 

[Club]

Have a good look around the prop sites, some do offer fully backed positions if you pass the selection process.

DO NOT pay to become a prop trader as a beginner trader.

Whilst you still have little chance of success at a fully backed prop firm, atleast you have only wasted time and not as much money.

Very few, if any, will even look at your demo accounts, regardless of how profitble / how long you have been demo'in for.

 

[NVP]

Thanks for the replies:

I will be opening a live account and will makesure i keep a strict discipline of what i am doing and good money management following the same strategy i am doing atm on the contest and my demo account.

It does sound like going to a prop firm is not a good option, not only do i not have any real proof that i am successful, i also dont want to get robbed in fees.

I was making good money in poker, made $22k in half a year doing 20-30 hours a week (i lost focus/concentration doing 40 hours and made stupid mistakes costing money). When USA banned their players from depositing, the player pool shrunk by a good 30-40%, it become 1-2 bad players on a table and 4-5 regulars which is not what you want. I was going from -$200/+$200 days to -$600/+$600 within days of that event happening. It was something i was not prepared to risk, and my account couldnt handle the variance. Later that year FBI closed down Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet and others.
I'm smart enough to not pay for a training course, i was just wondering if i could get an interview ANYWHERE even if it was an assistant job, and if so if anyone knew of anywhere.

I will succeed at this and make it happen, its just going to take longer than i wanted it to.

MayZerG Statement.htm <--- my demo and from the 1st November they are the exact trades i have done on the forex contest.

Thanks all so far.

personally I would get something boring but consistent as a paycheque whilst you find out what you are good at ...........subconsiously you may be desperate and therefore not in the best place to be selling yourself....with desperation in the wings

if you really analyse the people on most forums the percentage that are full time professional and profitable traders is miniscule......most of the long term people giving advice here have primary professional careers or are retired and are playing as a hobby.......

N

 

[MayZerG]

all good advice and probably true, thanks so far guys

 

[tommog]

MayZerG,

I dont have a Uni background and never made much money trading from home, but have been a prop trader for 6 years. As ive said a couple of times on these boards there is no one size fits all approach to trading. The degree thing is a stumbling block, they tend to chose people with degrees just because they can, i.e if you were to get a car with normal seats or one with leather seats for the same price you will chose the one with leather seats just because you can, even though it has no impact on performance. Some of the best traders I know dont have degrees.

This biggest assets you need are passion for trading (you're looking at a minimum of a year working 12 hours+ a day for no money) Adaptability (demonstrate times when you have been out your depth and had to quickly adapt to a new situation or problem) Successful (prove that you have mastered another skill, making a sports team at county level/setup a business etc etc) This is because the skills and attitude required to master one thing generally apply to trading, you wont have a clue what youre doing to start but through hours of learning, innovating, getting the sh*t kicked out of you you pick it up.

Dont have any concerns about trading from home performance not being great, i know people that make 6 figures a month prop trading that dont make much on spreadbet accounts and the like. Most of what professional traders do is very different and use strategies you cant really do at home.

Play up the Poker thing, there are huge parallels between Poker and trading. I can think of at least 5 guys that have been hired on poker skills.

 

[MajorDutch]

MayZerG,

I dont have a Uni background and never made much money trading from home, but have been a prop trader for 6 years. As ive said a couple of times on these boards there is no one size fits all approach to trading. The degree thing is a stumbling block, they tend to chose people with degrees just because they can, i.e if you were to get a car with normal seats or one with leather seats for the same price you will chose the one with leather seats just because you can, even though it has no impact on performance. Some of the best traders I know dont have degrees.

This biggest assets you need are passion for trading (you're looking at a minimum of a year working 12 hours+ a day for no money) Adaptability (demonstrate times when you have been out your depth and had to quickly adapt to a new situation or problem) Successful (prove that you have mastered another skill, making a sports team at county level/setup a business etc etc) This is because the skills and attitude required to master one thing generally apply to trading, you wont have a clue what youre doing to start but through hours of learning, innovating, getting the sh*t kicked out of you you pick it up.

Dont have any concerns about trading from home performance not being great, i know people that make 6 figures a month prop trading that dont make much on spreadbet accounts and the like. Most of what professional traders do is very different and use strategies you cant really do at home.

Play up the Poker thing, there are huge parallels between Poker and trading. I can think of at least 5 guys that have been hired on poker skills.

I def concur with what you have written here. having a degree basically shows you could be ar5ed to get one, nothing more.

'Adaptability (demonstrate times when you have been out your depth and had to quickly adapt to a new situation or problem)' - I would say this is key. You need to recgonise when you are going down the wrong path esp with things like confirmation bias. Many people including myself can waste time on fruitless methods systems (99% of vendors dont help) which are damaging to your psych and account. The speed at which you can recognise what is wrong and adapt is crucial imo.

I dont 100% concur on 'Most of what professional traders do is very different and use strategies you cant really do at home' - perhaps tommog can expand on this. If you are trading for an IB and working of flow from the IB's customers then clearly you cannot do this at home but other methods should be fine from home?????

 

[tommog]

Major Dutch,

Regarding what people do in prop firms they cant do at home mostly is because in my years prop trading ive only known a handful of traders that look at a chart, draw in a level buy it and hold it for 3 hours. (incidently the guys that do this are also the biggest traders i know, like SERIOUSLY big, 100k days). But 90% of them exploit a tiny edge (that a home trader would never have access to) 30-40 times a day. Strategies that make 3k a day in a prop firm would lose you 3k a day from home just on the round turn costs you have to pay. A lot of prop traders are spreaders also and without direct lines to exchanges and other infrastructure you are going to get legged so much the strategy wont be profitable

 

[actwen87]

thx

 

[Malt]

Well!!!I read out your honest advises about the trading.If we follow these
advises then we make a good trader...I do appreciate to you for these
advises...