You get hired for June on a trading desk.
You take The Foundation, a 6 week course. You learn everything you didn’t learn in school, the internet, blogs, cable TV (just kidding), your uncle, and/or trading gurus about the markets necessary to place professional trades.
Then it’s on to Trader Development where for the next 6 months you experiment with different trades, build a PlayBook, find your niche, build habits of best practices, attend mentoring sessions, watch trading film, share notes with fellow traders, learn to leverage technology thru filters, scanners and autotrading. You are expected to show an edge in some niche of trading. Nothing big. Just an edge. Something that shows you might have it.
But really you are just learning who you are as a trader. What your niche could be so you can focus on your strengths.
And then you interview for Team Trading. You take that PlayBook, you discuss your habits, you show that edge, and you hope to become mentored by a successful trader.
You sit with that veteran trader and copy his best practices, and learn some of his trading, and receive his feedback from your questions in real-time. You will hone that edge, leverage technology to trade it more often. You will work with your coach on increasing your book- your risk. And getting accustomed to all this is another 4 months of adjustment.
So it’s a year into your trading career after all of that- Foundation, Trader Development and Team Trading.
Now it’s August. A month of slow summer trading, shortened work weeks, veteran traders heading out early to the beach, vacations, and lighter volume. And then it’s September with all those holidays interrupting that young upcoming trader eager to apply his skill. Who can get any real trading done then?
So it’s not until October, 16 months into your trading career, until you will face your first test as trader. It will be earnings season. You will know what type of a trader you are. You will know your edge. You will have received mentoring and coaching on it. You will have more buying power and risk to express your edge.
That’s 16 months in. That is your first test.
And I write the above because how many of you think your first test is Day One? How many of you expect results just three months in? That is ridiculous. How many of you trade with large size in Month One? That is dangerous. How many of you never leverage technology? That is prehistoric. How many of you never train at all before you trade live? That is fantastical.
16 months in at a professional proprietary trading desk is your first test.
That is 361 live days of trading prior. That is 1083 trader mentoring sessions later. That is 361 detailed trading reviews after. That is thousands of one-on-one conversations with pro traders in real-time. That is 361 PlayBook trades archived. That is hundreds of hours worked on building filters. That is hundreds of hours working on backtesting completed. And much much more.
16 months in is your first test.
Related posts
SMB Capital visits Indiana University
This trader is ready to trade live
*no relevant positions