What behavior should a prop firm reward?

BellaGeneral Comments7 Comments

After the close one day this week I encouraged our traders to CALL OUT awesome potential trading opportunities.  Shark called out SXCI into one close and the firm and individual traders caught a very profitable trade.  I got our Floor Manager into ILMN for an opening drive play at the start of the week.  He sent me an email of thanks.  The trader to my right got me into GILD on Thursday for a solid trending short trade.  Of course then there was GMan who got us all into HGSI.  Ripper 🙂

The highlights of my talk went like this:

  • If you are shy, don’t be
  • If you talk in a low voice, speak up
  • Don’t be scared to call something out and be wrong
  • Call outs make us all more money

Back in the day if you had an awesome position and you didn’t call it out, good luck to you.  No seriously, you would get a good talking to by other guys on the floor.

“WTH did you not call that out?”

The younger generation of traders loves to chat (share ideas via a chat) but not call out their ideas.   Most trading floors sound like a church. Yeah so stop with this.  You see something of note, call it out so other around you can monetize the opportunity.  They will reciprocate, and if you can trade, will improve your PnL.

I was on a call talking behavior that a prop firm should reward.  Call outs is one such behavior.  Perhaps a firm should reward a trader for the best call out of the day with a bonus?

The single most important behavior a firm must encourage is the mindset of daily improvement.  But there is other behavior that improves firm PnL.  An experienced trader chatting with a Newb during lunch for example.  An experienced trader offering market guidance.  @sspencer_smb is wonderful at calling out market levels for traders to respect.

So I ask you: What behavior should a prop firm encourage to improve firm PnL?

Bella

One Good Trade

no relevant positions

7 Comments on “What behavior should a prop firm reward?”

  1. How bout call out of the week shared on the blog? A 90 sec video from the trader explaining what he saw to prompt the trade perhaps. A little recognition + would also help blog readers to recognize the different styles at SMB.

    When I traded on a floor, if you were a stealth trader or didn’t call out your trades, you were not a team player. I’d look into ways to incentivize the call outs (free lunch next week for this week’s best?) and ensure recognition is given.

  2. Thxs for sharing Jeff.  Love your ideas. Being on a trading floor with a good group of people is one of my favorite places to be.  

  3. Great Post. I try and tell the new traders on our trading floor the same.

  4. “The younger generation of traders loves to chat (share ideas via a chat) but not call out their ideas.” The big plus on chat call-outs is that you can check how much ideas someone has and you could analyse if the trader has the right focus.
    Maybe it is useful for every trader to have a spreadsheet where they note all their ideas so they can analyse their intra-day ideas. (a connection to the chat with a sound for a new idea would be great)
    In this way the chat that is preferred by some traders will be used at his optimum.

  5. “The younger generation of traders loves to chat (share ideas via a chat) but not call out their ideas.” The big plus on chat call-outs is that you can check how much ideas someone has and you could analyse if the trader has the right focus.
    Maybe it is useful for every trader to have a spreadsheet where they note all their ideas so they can analyse their intra-day ideas. (a connection to the chat with a sound for a new idea would be great)
    In this way the chat that is preferred by some traders will be used at his optimum.

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