Recent content by fat chance

It's so hard (in the sense of being random and unlikely) getting a trainee position at a decent prop shop... so many similar applicants... that maybe the "earn the spread" philosophy could clinch it. Better a competent market maker that manages his risk than somebody who _thinks_ they can...

Yeah, I was referring to the typical London mostly-intraday STIR/bond futures shop. There's some considerable talent involved in capturing the bid-offer spread of course, especially if risks are being well managed - I don't regard it as being an "inferior" way to make money. I bet you regret...

Prop traders tell their trading managers that they make money by: (i) reacting to data releases and news, (ii) using advanced technical analysis (way too complex to explain to the trading manager), (iii) exploiting blatant mispricings ("when my spread does this, it always comes back"), (iv)...

I'd be very interested to know why your friend doesn't want to execute via CQG's trading facility - has he tried it and had problems with speed or reliability etc?

If it's a .NET program you can disassemble it into microsoft intermediate language I think, though I've never tried it... try googling for MSIL disassembler.

Sorry if this is patronising but maybe you haven't come across it: Getting Started - tutorial pages, online help, user guide, web demos

The standard connection to CME can give you around 30 orderbook updates a second, LIFFE slightly less I think (though they now offer fully un-netted at their co-lo I heard... must look into this) but still much better than the standard Eurex connection. For manual trading, 10 updates a second is...

My (limited) understanding is that the "standard" Eurex connection can give you orderbook updates four times a second, but that they have an "enhanced broadcast solution" available that gives you un-netted data. I don't know of any arcades / prop shops that offer the enhanced solution (does...

The index and the future open and close at different times. The difference between the two can be regarded as constant for intraday trading, and I think it changes by 10 points on a timescale of weeks.

I think you are wrong here. I went to school with people who got Cs in A level maths, and they were pretty useless at maths. That was ~20 years ago but I don't believe standards have improved since. I also went to University with people who got 2:2s and most were either thick or lazy or both...

No, you will just fail at a later stage of the hiring process. Also, I doubt that gaining further qualifications will be useful for you - ask yourself "Is any qualification that I'm capable of getting likely to be considered sufficiently prestigious that it will compensate for my previous...

This thread is hilarious. - totally inadequate for any non-trivial job in the financial sector... CV rejected by HR's secretary.

Even for a fresh graduate, 25 - 30k is a bit low for London. If you want someone with decent coding experience and all those skills you mention, you're talking 35 - 45k graduate, 40 - 60k for 2 yrs experience. For a first rate candidate you could add 10 - 20k to those numbers. Nothing will waste...

I wonder who would be expected to earn the most money over their lifetime: somebody whose first job is as a quant in an investment bank, or somebody whose first job is as a trainee trader in a prop firm. I'd bet on the quant.

Congrats on your new position, I hope it works out for you. There is a danger though that if this is the sort of trading house that I'm familiar with then they will set you off manually scalping the bond/stir futures, you will try it for a year or two, and then you will find out that you're not...