You've no idea what you're talking about, I'm afraid.
Firstly, banks derive almost none of their income from prop trading, so that part of your statement is irrelevant.
Secondly, what makes you think hedge funds make money in the same way that an outfit like Futex does? Again, there is little correlation.
Delivering scalable excess (risk adjusted) returns is in fact very difficult, to suggest otherwise is naive.
Ok, Obi-wan Kenobi, teach us your wisdom. Ehr...Banks and Hedge funds don't hire traders? I don't know what world your coming from. I have many friends trading for either or, except those who trade (invest) their own accounts. And where on earth did I claim they trade like
Futex, the losers??
Futex is a training company. They claim to train people
in trading to enable them to 'trade anything' whether it is Forex, Stocks, Options etc. and is supposedly"the best". My poor impression of them is only from brief meetings but I can guarantee there is nothing close to "the best" going on there! If you're not making money, why stay there?? If I don't make money on strategy 1, I go to strategy 2. I certainly don't hang around for almost two years using the same losing strategy, and continue with it.
On that note, I don't have extensive knowledge like you in trading, Obi-Wan Kenobi. But I invest my own money and I make money. I currently run three test accounts for my own strategies trying to build it to about £1 mil to see how long it would take, and would it actually work or not. One of my accounts started with £5,000 and is now at £104,254 in 48 trades (including losses). May not be a fortune for the 'smarter' people like yourself, but its been less than eight months so its faired all right. A second account with a starting pot of £3,000 is building up nicely too. The third one is too early to tell. My accounts all have disciplined strategies, money management, and strict loss control in mind so they don't go haywire. Just the basics.
I'm self taugh for a year, plus I got some 'tricks of the trade' friends of mine use (successful traders and investors). In honesty, I am surprised at the comments that so many traders fail. The traders I've been around - even the novices - have acceptable percentage of success. Some of my friends are really wealthy but mainly from investments (trading) in stocks - not from daytrading. They're the ones who inspired me. I am more interested in investments in stocks. But since I thought it may give me some benefit to train with a "professional" company and get the official certificate I applied with
Futex (=:yawn). But a company like
Futex??? No way! I want to learn from people who actually make money, who can prove they have created wealth, and not from people who struggle to manage!
Futex is clearly the latter and if that's one of the better props, its pretty darn sad.