WHO WE ARE
AXIA FUTURES LIMITED is a trading education firm built upon the idea of developing trader training that models the best practices and skill development techniques of a group of top performing futures day traders based in our London Trading Floor. This elite group of traders form the core of the AXIA Trading Team which is cleared and risk managed by our proprietary trading partner firm FCT EUROPE LIMITED.
At Axia Futures we pride ourselves in delivering pioneering trader education as our training team engages in continuous interaction with our top performing traders. Our primary motivation is to help, guide and develop traders into top performers. As we are incentivised to source talent for our trading partner firm FCT Europe, we always strive to make sure that our training and development is always evolving and is of the highest standard in the industry.
THE BIRTH OF THE AXIA TRADING TEAM
In June 2016, one year before the official launch of Axia Futures, was the birth of the Axia trading team - a team of six traders who all had to start from zero after their previous trading accounts disappeared overnight as the trading firm they used to trade at had mismanaged traders capital and was ordered to cease trading. So after many years of successful trading they found themselves having to start all over again and were in search of a credible, well-capitalised and trustworthy trading firm. This led them to the FCT Group of Companies owned by Legendary Options STIR trader Roger Carlsson.
The team started trading with FCT the week before the Brexit Referendum. On the Brexit night after the results started indicating that the Leave vote was going to prevail, all futures markets were shaken with extreme volatility with GBP/USD plunging over 10%, US equity futures tanking to limit down and safe haven futures exploding. The team of traders all managed to capitalise big during this event, which marked the kickstart of their new trading journey.
From there onwards, all six traders went on to keep increasing size, growing their accounts and achieving record-breaking days. The team of six has grown to over 25 traders in London and another 20 traders remotely. Many of them continue to reach personal best milestones each year that passes.
PERFORMANCE CULTURE AND LEARNING PHILOSOPHY
Everything we structure within our trading premises is based upon an open environment of communication and shared information. We ensure that there is a strong collaborative ecosystem among all traders of varying experience. Our younger graduates and junior traders will regularly engage in mentored sessions with our senior and top traders, to make sure the knowledge, experience and best practices are shared.
Furthermore, at AXIA we promote a culture that encourages hard work, continuous growth and ultimate performance with the aim of becoming the best traders we can be. While the proprietary trading industry in London has been steadily shrinking over the last few years as traders find it increasingly challenging to be profitable in today’s markets, most of our traders have pushed through performance boundaries and achieved their best years to date.
We believe trading is a skill pursuit and as such we build all our training programmes around cultivating skills in these core areas:
Our top traders are involved in the development of our training material that is delivered by our educators and mentors. None of our top traders are educators but we have exceptionally experienced educators who consult constantly with our top traders to ensure our training is dynamic and world class.
- Market contextual landscape
- Order flow auctioning dynamics
- Market psychology and the underlying global Macro Narrative of the market
HISTORY OF FCT GROUP OF COMPANIES
Founded in 1984 by visionary Roger Carlsson as a Chicago local market making firm, the FCT Group of Companies has grown into a globally recognized firm with offices in Chicago, Limassol, London and Singapore as well as a presence in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Dubai, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia.
Past group company FCT Group LLC was a clearing member of the CME and LCH Clearnet, while other companies in the group are past members of CME, EUREX, HKEX, MATIF and SGX. The group was regulated by CFTC, SEC, FSA and MAS.
During FCT's peak it had 25% of the open interest in the CME Eurodollar Options market, clearing 1 out of every 11 trades on LIFFE, and clearing $2 billion in customer funds.
Over the years the Group's business has evolved into many other areas including private equity, venture capital, hedge fund and real estate but has maintained its presence in the proprietary trading space utilising the same risk management ethos in these new areas.
FCT prides itself on evolving with the times and believes its unique approach to business, 30+ years' experience, and special partnership with Axia Futures has positioned it perfectly to continue to assist its traders to grow and develop their skills even further, consistently pushing the bar higher.
The relationship with Axia complements FCT's business model perfectly as a natural vertical supply chain of a great new pool of talent which are educated to the high standard they are looking for.
FCT Europe Ltd (FRN 786372) is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and is one of the companies in the group that houses traders that sit in Europe.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Trader Development and Training
What is the training philosophy of Axia Futures?
We know that trading is an incredibly challenging journey that very few succeed due to the skill set demands and emotional capital that one needs to draw upon to be successful. Our approach is first in skill set development in core areas we deem important to become a successful futures trader. Large part of our training is in pattern recognition methodologies and approaches to identifying skew in the market by utilising the information inputs from the Price Ladder, Market/Volume profile and the auctioning health of the market. We also focus on Geopolitical and Central Bank event trading. This event trading as a group is one of our core competencies and we focus a large part of training in strategy development.
How are the Senior traders involved with the development of all your training programmes?
All our mentors and trainers consult daily with a professional team of traders regarding best practices and approaches to trading the Futures markets around price ladder execution and volatility event trading. The continuous feedback loop between our training and the performance hotspots of our team on a daily basis ensures our training is dynamic and broad to cover various approaches of performance within Futures trading.
What education is best for me?
For those wanting to really give their trading career the best possibility for success with regards to accelerating your skill sets in the areas that we model our traders in then our flagship 8 week career program is the best option.
https://axiafutures.com/lp/career-trading-course/
For those unable to commit the time we do offer alternative EDGE online courses so that they can develop their training in their own time. All our training focuses on skill development and how to cultivate one’s own EDGE based on modelling the best practices and techniques of our group of successful traders.
https://axiafutures.com/trader-training/?wpv-course-cat=edge-courses&wpv_view_count=4387
What is the structure of your trading premises and trading operation to ensure new talent learns from the experienced traders?
In our AXIA/FCT trading premises we have three trading floors. The first floor is where we house our top performing senior traders. On this floor we have a rotating desk for our new up and coming traders to experience the environment, information flow and approaches in real time of our top traders. The second floor is a mixture of senior traders and junior traders. Third floor is a new trading floor which we will use exclusively for talent development. All three floors have an open door policy so traders of all experience can learn from each other so there is a mutually beneficial relationship between the enthusiasm of new talent and experienced traders. In the same building on the lower ground floor is our training room where the students train on the 8-week Career Training Programme.
Do you provide strategies in your training?
Our training covers three main areas of the market. Order Flow auctioning dynamics, Market/Volume profile technical idea generation and Geopolitical and Central Bank trading. For each of these core areas we evaluate many strategies but most importantly we help you develop an approach to cultivate your own strategies in the market
Do any of your courses have free modules?
Yes all our EDGE courses have free modules so people that are interested in specific areas of market development can see if the material meets their development needs and learning objectives.
Does AXIA training courses guarantee that I will become profitable?
None of our training courses guarantee that you will become profitable as success of a trader is dependent upon his/her unique edge development. We understand that this game is not for everyone and that trading requires many attributes to become successful including sheer resilience and a commitment that is essentially an obsession to becoming a successful trader. Although we can provide you with a world class training environment and infrastructure it’s up to you to use the foundational approach to become successful. We know how to push individuals who show all the necessary qualities to become successful by surrounding them by our Elite performing traders so in essence we accelerate the learning curve with those with the right ingredients to become successful.
Why do you charge for your education?
Like all service offerings there are costs in human resourcing and fixed costs for delivering world class training and development. We assure you that we try to offer the most affordable training so it is accessible to most and where possible we offer scholarship programmes to highly driven young individuals. We also have a very active YouTube channel where we offer as much learning material including live execution lessons for free from our community of traders, trainers and mentors.
Who are the AXIA community of traders?
The AXIA community of traders includes all the traders that trade under FCT Europe Ltd umbrella
Do you offer sponsorships or internships on your various trading floors?
Every year we offer 2-4 places to young traders. These places are generally offered for full sponsorship on the Career Programme after the 2-level interview stage.
How many students do you accept on your in-house 8-week Career Programme?
We accept 8 students per intake and we have 4 intakes a year. Our intakes are small so that we can leverage student learning and development in a concentrated deep learning environment.
How is Axia Futures training material different from other providers?
What makes Axia Futures’ education truly unique in the industry is the fact that our learning framework is built upon the success of not only our most profitable traders but also on some of the biggest day traders in the futures markets space. As an example, in our AXIA Elite Trader videos, our trainers analyse the execution of one of the industry’s biggest traders, by showing a recording of his screen and going through his strategy, methodology and approach while he was trading big Geopolitical and Central Bank events. This is unique and pioneering in the trading education industry and benchmarks best practices for new traders to have a higher level of approach and strategy development in the markets.
Proprietary Trading
Is AXIA a proprietary trading firm?
No we are an Educational company that develops educational material for the trading community within the Futures trading space. We do provide a path into the proprietary trading industry through our relationship with FCT Europe Ltd.
Is FCT a regulated company?
There are a number of companies within the group that are not regulated but the entity that houses the majority of traders is FCT Europe Ltd which is regulated in the UK by the FCA; their membership number is 786372.
What is the relationship between AXIA Futures and FCT?
- Axia Futures provides educational support with a knowledge sharing and learning environment for the AXIA introduced traders, who are cleared by and trade for FCT.
- Axia Futures sources and develops trading talent for FCT.
- Both companies are located in the same premises which promotes mutual support for traders from both parties. The key areas of support are: talent development, team learning culture and performance management.
Does FCT accept client capital?
No, FCT does not have clients; all the capital used to trade is company money. Traders are set up as independent contractors and are authorised to trade FCT’s funds under a profit sharing agreement
Does FCT own AXIA Futures?
FCT is a shareholder in Axia Futures.
Do you fund traders and what is the process for a trader looking for funding?
Axia Futures does not fund nor is legally allowed to fund traders but we provide the facility to pass on potential talent from our 8-week in-house Career Training Programme for recommendation to the FCT trader management team. Depending on availability on the trading floor, those traders that show potential, work ethic and trading acumen could be financially backed by FCT Europe Ltd or mentored and supported by one of our Elite Traders. Only traders that participate in our 8-week in-house training are eligible for financial backing.
Do you offer tours of and/or workshops at your trading floor?
Yes we host a number of free workshops during the year especially during the summer season where we host open BBQ events for people to come and meet our team and share within our community.
How many traders get funded from your training programs?
This varies as we are highly selective and have limited space on site. We usually select between 1-2 trainees for invite to the trading floor once they complete their 8-week in-house trader training. Then those that show ability to be profitable with the right professional approach to markets, will be offered a place on one of the trading floors.
What is the success rate of the traders that complete your career program and then become consistently profitable?
Firstly, some traders perform early on whilst others develop much later. Each case is unique and every trader has a different time frame of performance. We have traders becoming consistently profitable within 6 months of the start of their training and one of our top traders took almost three years to start becoming a profitable trader. For traders who complete our 8-week training programme and are then selected to stay on longer on our floor, the success rate is 15-20%. For those who are selected to join one of our Elite traders mentoring team with constant contact with a senior trader, the success rate in approximately 40%. Again, success rates are highly dependent on the individual but many of those exposed to an environment rich in success and good trading practices, increase their odds drastically for potentially becoming professional traders.
Do junior traders who have potential receive any salary before they become profitable?
There are no salaries which are standard in the European proprietary futures industry. However we do offer financial support in circumstances where we feel the trader shows strong ability but still needs time to fully develop his/her approach and in such situations we offer financial assistance by way of paying the trainee for any services he contributes towards the Educational development of Axia Futures.
Do you provide broker statements of your traders and trainees?
We have no legal right to show traders statements as they are in private partnerships with our partner trading firm FCT. Their individual performances are not for public records. We focus our training and development on developing skills and offer enough free material for people to make their own informed decision about our credibility, performance, learning ethos and whether it resonates with them.
What futures products do the majority of AXIA traders trade and which products are covered in the Career Programme and Edge Courses?
Most of our top level traders are trading multiple products mainly in bond, commodity, equity and FX futures space. The most popular products that are actively traded by our London trading team are Bund, Gilt, BTP, S&P, Gold, Oil, Euro-FX and GBP futures. Our junior and trainee traders tend to first spend a lot of time mastering 2-3 markets before they expand their limits to more products. The futures exchanges in which we are most active are Eurex and CME.
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Axia Futures
World class trader development program.