| Topic Name: |
Proprietary Trading |
| Message Name: |
depends |
| Date Posted: |
05/25/2000 |
| In Reply To: |
What exaclty does a proprietary trader do? Do proprietary traders (at BBs) only trade for the house and are they consequently not required to make a market in a particular sector or security? How hard is it to get one of these positions? Who is known as the best at it? How much $ do they make? Thanks. |
| Message: |
Prop traders take prop positions utilizing firm capital and putting it at risk rather than performing as solely an agent in a trade. In some less liquid products (less liquid than stock or treasuries), making markets requires taking prop. positions (i.e. high yield or emerging markets) and putting capital at risk over longer periods of time. But some desks have exclusively prop. trading personnel that does not make markets at all. They are more like arbitrage groups...researching securities, companies, and scouring the markets for inefficiencies and opportunities. On the Equities side, firms sometime have these subgroups within Derivatives, Convertibles and even NASDAQ/Listed. On the Fixed Income side, likely Commodities, Derivatives and credit products have these functions as well. Mortgages maybe too. These are tough groups to get into-usually people pursue more traditional trading functions before getting the opportunity...
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