At Real Trading, we specialize in trading floors. To date, we have trading floors in many countries. Most of our traders have achieved significant success with many making hundreds of thousands of dollars every week. We have operated for more than ten years. During this time, we have had the chance to interact with many trading floor owners. Some have made it while others have not been very successful. In this article, We will highlight a few tips that will be very important for you as you start and run your trading floor.
Table of Contents
Start early
One of the most important tips We will share today is on the need to start your trading floor early. Most of our trading floor partners started their floors before they hit 30 years old.
By starting their trading early, the traders were able to experiment different things. Some succeeded while others failed. Some of those who failed ventured into other careers where they achieved success. Therefore, the earlier you start, the better it is for you.
Have a plan
When starting a trading floor, it is very important to have a short-term and long-term plan. We discourage many people from having visions about their trading floors. In fact, I discourage many floor owners from having their mission statements. This is because having these visions will hinder you from doing something tangible. Remember that anyone can have a vision but not everyone can succeed in business. Therefore, you should have a well-written plan that explains your strategy and the goal you want to achieve. Without this plan, chances are that you will not succeed as a trading floor manager.
Hire the best team
Having a trading floor is like having a business. A trading floor is a business. Therefore, you should do the best that you can to have the best team. Like other businesses, if you don’t have a good team, chances are that you won’t succeed. Therefore, you should do a lot of work to ensure that you hire a team that shares your vision and ideology. The team should not be made of your friends or family members. This is because you want to hire a team of people that you can fire at any time without having regrets.
Have a set of guidelines
When you hire your trading team, you should always ensure that you have set guidelines. The guidelines will be the guiding principles of your floor. For example, your guidelines should indicate the rules of engagement with the traders. They should also define the specific consequences of failing to adhere to the rules. For example, if a trader fails to come to work in a certain day, the guidelines should state clearly what you are supposed to do. These guidelines will help you fire traders who don’t meet a certain criterion.
Conducive environment
You don’t want to spend a lot of money on the trading floor. For example, you don’t need a fancy address to house your floor. However, you want you and your traders to have an excellent time. The best way to go about this is by using the small space that you have and optimizing it. For example, several of our traders have converted their garages to effective trading floors. Others have converted their spare rooms in their houses as their floors. In short, you don’t want to increase your costs to run the floor.
Mentor the traders
As a floor owner, you want the best of your traders. You want them to succeed. This is because when they succeed, you succeed as well. When they fail, you also fail. Our research shows us that trading floor owners who motivate their staff are often more successful. It doesn’t need to be much. You can spare a few minutes every week to talk to your traders. To give them hope. To show them that you appreciate them. To reach out to their families. To buy them lunch. To go to bonding trips. By doing all this, the traders will have a special place for you in their heart.
Remunerate your traders fairly
The reason the traders are working for you is because they want to make money. Some want to pay their bills. Others want to pay their college fees and others want to buy a car. Therefore, it is very important to remunerate them fairly. Apart from their retainer, you should do whatever you can to give them bonuses depending on their performance. By doing this, they will be highly motivated to do more for you. Remember, if you fail to remunerate them well, they will soon go to other traders who will pay them better.
External Useful Resources
- To find out more, please go to Investopedia;
- Discover more information on the matter on OrderFlowAnalytics;
