Top prop trading firms

Discussion in 'Prop Firms' started by dfa, Feb 21, 2008.

  1. dfa

    dfa

    Hello,

    I'm just wondering if anyone can name or rank a few top prop trading firms. Thanks!
     
  2. Jane Street is well-regarded and very quantitative.
     
  3. Here is my assessment of the groups that seem to have come up most often on this forum. This is based on my impression of both the opportunity for success/edge/knowledge and how well-capitalized I perceive the group to be. Of course there are numerous smaller groups that are equally as good and perhaps as large but the ones below have come up alot on past threads here. These are mostly in chicago and mostly futures/equity options.


    Top Tier:

    -Susquehanna
    -Chicago Trading Company
    -Infinium
    -Transmarket
    -Peak 6
    -DRW
    -Allston
    -Eldorado
    -GETCO
    -Jump Trading
    -Wolverine

    2nd Tier:

    -Marex (formerly refco)
    -FNYS
    -Geneva Trading
    -Gelber Group
    -Breakwater

    3rd Tier:

    -International Trading Group/DE Trading
    -GHCO
    -Kingstree Trading
    -M&N Trading
    -SMW
    -Marquette
    -Harrison Trading
    -League Trading
    -Tradelink/TradeGroup
     
  4. Thanks, Pyramid - did you exclude Jane St since I had already mentioned it or for another reason?
     
  5. You should be specific in which Asset Class you are interested in trading, alot of these prop firms specialize in a particular Asset Class ie. equities, options or futures.
     
  6. That's definitely a good idea. It would also be interesting to see where these firms have offices...

    I think it's time for us to have a segmented Prop firms list (excluding 'arcades'!)... Would gladly volunteer myself, but don't know enough I'm afraid.
     
  7. Cash is king so who ever trades the CASH market is much much more capitalized than futures only firms and you have some of those firms in your 2nd or 3rd section. And some of your firms the traders are on salary and click to cover when a bot misses and/or program bots...thus not true prop which is making decisions on your own and taking a percentage cut of your P/L.
     
  8. good info
     
  9. Good point. From what I know Jump, Allston and Getco are mostly if not entirely automated, and im sure there are other groups on that list where there are "traders" doing as you described above. Most of the other groups, to my knowledge are mostly discretionary and many of them are entirely discretionary. I'm not entirely sure which of those groups trade the cash treasuries in addition to futures. Sorry:/
     
  10. In the spirit of public information, my experiences with the above mentioned firms:

    1) SIG/Jane Street - quick math skills, prob + stats, quantitative brain teasers.

    2) Wolverine - Head trader interviews and checks market experience, in terms of having traded any particular markets.

    3) FNYS - Just looks at school and doesn't ask any questions about prob/stats or markets. Casual chat format.
     
    #10     May 16, 2008