How is Futex doing these days?

[Trader_0101]

Just wondering how Futex is hanging in there with this current market environment. In the states prop firms are scaling back big time and p&l is down across the board. Do we have any Futex insiders here that wish to comment? I think this environment is a great tell for how well a firm will do going forward.

 

[Pento]

Well they've opened a new office in the city of London so they can't be doing that badly.

 

[Trader_0101]

I thought they always had a city office. Where is the new one located?

 

[Pento]

6th Floor, Harmsworth House, 13-15 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8DP.

Not sure how long its been there, but they do still claim it to be their new London office.

 

[Trader_0101]

So no Futex traders on this board with any comments? What about MET traders?

 

[PualoP]

I thought Futex moved out of the city to a smaller, cheaper office?

 

[Trader_0101]

I don't know if the lack of response means everyone is gone for the summer or if there is really nobody out there. I'm sure many of you guys saw the letter Steve Schonfeld sent to the Wall Street Journal about having to let go of 50 traders and saying that trading as we knew it from the earlier part of this decade is over. But they are a mostly stock firm.

Just wanted to see how other firms who trade other products and styles are doing. The problem is correlation. Everything has gone to one. Everything moves with the S&P in terms of price and volatility so everyone seems to be in the same trade even if you are in a different market.

 

[donaldduke]

member 'skill leverage' was the resident futex fanboy/cheerleader.. i think he trades there, or atleast he did six months ago. He hasnt posted on trade2win since feb of this year.

 

[Black Swan]

member 'skill leverage' was the resident futex fanboy/cheerleader.. i think he trades there, or atleast he did six months ago. He hasnt posted on trade2win since feb of this year.

harsh...but funny...

 

[UK2004]

Also interested if anyone has an insight to Futex? They are still recruiting so presume some guys there are still doing well, how good is their training program? PM's welcome.

 

[arabianights]

member 'skill leverage' was the resident futex fanboy/cheerleader.. i think he trades there, or atleast he did six months ago. He hasnt posted on trade2win since feb of this year.

spooky

 

[Trader_0101]

So is it safe to say prop trading in London as we know it is over? A year ago you could have started a thread on Futex or any of the more popular firms and you would have people coming out from all corners either defending the firms or attacking them. Now, both sides are completely gone. Just crickets chirping.

Just curious if maybe any of these firms or traders left London for Switzerland over the taxation issue.

 

[FUTEX]

Maybe I can help. We are doing just fine thank you.

We still have an Office in Woking.
We have a new office in London where we are consolidating our traders (who were sub-letting in more than one location).
We still sponsor candidates to become traders (and yes last year we introduced a payment scheme for those who are not sponsored).

Our door is always open to visitors and we are as always completely happy to show anyone around our premises and speak with any of our traders.

I hope this sort of helps answer the original question.

Futex

 

[shadowninja]

Good to hear you're doing well.

Maybe I'll pop in one day just to soak up the trading environment. Never really experienced it first hand. Hey, you could host a T2W meet at your Woking offices and recruit a couple of people. I'm far too lazy to commute to Woking, though, but I'd be up for free drinks.

 

[Trader_0101]

Futex, my question was a more broad one about the industry in general. The reason I directed it towards your firm is that your firm is the one most mentioned on these threads. But I appreciate you taking time to respond. I was not trying to imply that Futex was not doing well, rather was curious what the state of the industry is now. It seems the industry is at a major inflection point right now between discretionary traders and high frequency automated traders. Just wanted to get an insiders prospective on how the manual discretionary trader will fare going forward at firms like yours. Thanks again for your participation in this thread.

 

[FUTEX]

There are new challenges from Algo. We have are our own program traders too. But yes, the environment has changed, BUT IT ALWAYS DOES CHANGE, and it ALWAYS WILL.
We are growing nicely, but we have to continually adapt to Market conditions. High frequency progam trades and other Algorithms are nothing to be fearful of. You need to be aware of them, how they impact your market and adapt accordingly.
Remember, the market is the driver, not the programmer.

 

[Chartsy]

There are new challenges from Algo. We have are our own program traders too. But yes, the environment has changed, BUT IT ALWAYS DOES CHANGE, and it ALWAYS WILL.
We are growing nicely, but we have to continually adapt to Market conditions. High frequency progam trades and other Algorithms are nothing to be fearful of. You need to be aware of them, how they impact your market and adapt accordingly.
Remember, the market is the driver, not the programmer.

As long as volatility is there...fluctuations, up or down....there's money to be made...

it's when it's flat and boring you lose $$$....though you could argue selling options....shut up.

 

[weakpunter]

let me add my 2 cents , generally speaking for the discretionary manual trader the enviroment is harder the competition on what you would usually deem to be a good price is immense due to the algos and its hard to compete ,thats not to say theres no money to be made , but like futex mentioned you have to adapt i.e when looking for an entry point nowadays often you will be beaten to the punch so to speak so you often have to force yourself to get in at a slightly worse level than initially anticipated to avoid not trading at all.....alas increasing your risk,the other option is to change your time frames which is what Iam trying to do with a little success,but would have to agree with our chicagoan friend in that correlation has gone out of the window.........used to be an arb,box,fly trader ......nowadays Iam in the long end naked 15 min charts.......never thought id have seen the day id be trading this style ,but like the man said you got to move with the times or hang your boots up!

 

[cmcu3]

off topic but in response to weakpunter, i agree and am doing something very similar to yourself

i trade base metals for a fund and have gone from jobbing 5's and 10's with 10-50$ ranges to taking a view and sitting on my trade

whilst i am not getting stopped out as much and i am trading lower volumes, my down days are bigger (but so are my up days)

wholeheartedly agree that its hard to get hit at your price if you take the bid/offer at market and i often found myself simply not trading, getting frustrated, getting impatient and then making the wrong trade simply because i wanted SOME exposure.

nowdays i will choose my levels at the start of the session, leave my orders to work and only adjust them based on macro events/large currency/commod moves which could change my outlook. Yes its hard to go short and remain short when the Euro is rallying but there will always be a correction and more often than not you will never be more than 20$ offside from a currency move anyway.

just my input in dealing with algo's/black boxes and how to beat em. the key is balls and self control.