I have a trial with a prop firm!!

Hi everyone,

Some of you may know i have been on these boards a while searching for a way to break into trading. Its a tough industry to break into but i've had a break through today.

I sent a firm a copy of my trading record (i've been trading spot forex on a private account) this is something i have never done before, and they liked what they saw (about 18% increase in capital since Jan this year) and after a few initial questions via email and phone i am being sent their trading platform which i have to trade for 2 weeks to progress in the job process.

I would just like to know if anyone else has done anything similar to this? And if so how did you perform on the trial fortnight?

Thanks

Tom

How have you got on with this Tommog?

Hi Arbitrageur,

Thanks for the interest. The trial was originally for 2 weeks however i am into my third week of the trial, due to technical reasons i couldn't trade for a few days of the original 2 weeks so they have asked to see me trade for another week.
On the whole i feel i am doing ok, however it is a strange situation to trade in, having every trade analysed makes you pick your entries very carefully and i think i am being a little over cautious. Having said that i have finished all but 2 days in profit and am consitently achieving the same profits/loss ratios off of trades. If they are looking for consistent managed trades im doing very well. I'll be dissapointed if i don't get a position with them but i have learnt a lot and know i am a consistently profitable trader under pressure, its a good learning experience.

I have only traded 10k positions before this trial but i am trading 1mil positions now and it took a while to stay calm when running just a slight loss as im not used to seeing an account down several hundred dollars, but its fantastic trading off a 1pip interbank platform, i think its ruined me for trading with retail brokers again tho ;-)

Tom

I have only traded 10k positions before this trial but i am trading 1mil positions now and it took a while to stay calm when running just a slight loss as im not used to seeing an account down several hundred dollars,

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Always best to condition yourself to think in terms of ticks or pips, rather than $$ amounts - that way you can in theory trade any size in the same way.

its fantastic trading off a 1pip interbank platform, i think its ruined me for trading with retail brokers again tho ;-)

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lol - I can imagine.

well, let us know what happens next!

"Always best to condition yourself to think in terms of ticks or pips, rather than $$ amounts - that way you can in theory trade any size in the same way."

Thanks, this is what i have had to do, however the firm won't tell me what the account balance is of the account i am trading so in terms of risk management it was hard to figue out what percentage of capital is risked per pip, obviously a million pound account wouldn't warrent too much concern over small account fluctuations, but if i was trading a 100k account i wouldn't want too many days of losing over a 20 pips. However as the weeks progressed they told me what an acceptable days profit is and what an acceptable days loss is and i have never been near reaching an unacceptable loss, just could do with a couple of bigger wins to bump my profit target ratio up which are quite ambitious

Will keep you posted,

Cheers,

Tom

Hi Tommog,

Just out of interest, what is the name of the Prop firm?

Hi spunkoid,

the firm is propfx, hope that helps,

Tom

seems like a very small outfit. how many traders and how many trainees? is there a lot of guidancec and tuition?

tommog said:

Hi spunkoid,

the firm is propfx, hope that helps,

Tom

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Thanks Tom. Do the prop firms basically divide into two types? One sort just giving desk and facilities and you put up your own margin and the other sort coming into back your expertise and sharing the profit with you?

Trading Arcades/Bureaus can be separated as follows:

1.Proprietry Trading - basically trading with the firms capital. It is possible to get extremely high leverage compared to the actual funds in your account.They will expect a profit share arrangement

2. The Basic Arcade - as you said , you put up your margin and pay your fees. ofcourse you are not likely to be giving anything back to the firm on P&L

3. The Mixture - which is where most fall into : they accomodate for both 1 & 2 above

Also check out these pages in the Traderpedia:
http://www.trade2win.com/traderpedia/Trading_Arcades
http://www.trade2win.com/traderpedia/Trading_for_a_Firm

You can update them yourselves, plus this week only - stand a chance of winning $100.

bullcar said:

Trading Arcades/Bureaus can be separated as follows:

1.Proprietry Trading - basically trading with the firms capital. It is possible to get extremely high leverage compared to the actual funds in your account.They will expect a profit share arrangement

2. The Basic Arcade - as you said , you put up your margin and pay your fees. ofcourse you are not likely to be giving anything back to the firm on P&L

3. The Mixture - which is where most fall into : they accomodate for both 1 & 2 above

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Thanks Bullcar, you confirmed my impressions.

What is PropFX? A division of FXCM designed for arbitrageurs and scalpers ...

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FXCM have fingers in lots of pies, don't they?...