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Propex Derivatives

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Propex Derivatives Reviews

2.8

41% would recommend to a friend

(30 total reviews)

28% positive business outlook

Propex Derivatives has an employee rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars, based on 30 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Propex Derivatives employee rating is 25% below average for employers within the Finance industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

30 reviews
1.0
16 Apr 2017

Waste of time and money

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If are an experienced trader, with a proven and profitable trading record, Propex is a great option for getting more size and less risk in your trading. The office is nice and support staff are friendly. In terms of perks there's a fruit bowl, Nespresso machine (but no capsules provided), and monthly pizza night.

Cons

These guys sell their training program as 'proven' and 'successful'. In reality the vast majority of trainees (10+/20ish) admitted to the current training program (focused on trading AU bank bill and 3yr bond futures on an intraday outright basis, or bank bill spread positions over several days) who have been there 6+ months have not been paid. Given most trainees are currently university educated people putting in 50 hour weeks, it makes you wonder... The training content covers data and economic fundamentals well enough but doesn't help traders make money off this information. There are no in-house statistical or macro models to help traders identify long term opportunities, most of them just look at Forex Factory like your average (unsuccessful) retail trader. It is also taught by people who have not actually had any long term success as prop traders. There is no real mentoring or coaching. Management look at average/max/min daily PL and winning vs losing day count at a monthly review meeting, and will encourage trainees to lose less money and make more trades without looking at their process/strategy/idea generation process in depth. Any successful trader knows you don't put on a trade until you know an idea/framework/process/strategy has a positive expected return, but over here there's more of a 'get in there and have a go' mantra, as if your profitability will magically increase by churning volume alone. Market experience is essential but without any serious mentoring or coaching most of these trainees fail. The sad part is that while trainees start on a $200-$300 daily stoploss to ensure they barely lose any of the firm's capital, they will lose tens of thousands in both opportunity cost and real personal savings while trying to make this opportunity work. Finally the office culture isn't there. Most successful traders keep to themselves or simply trade from home. And honestly even if they did share their trading methods, they will almost always be either be trading markets that trainees simply will not be given access to (e.g. emini, oil, us bonds), or running large positions that require sizing and risk exposure beyond what a $200 stoploss can run. At least the retail guys trading their CFD accounts at home know they are alone. Over here you join the company expecting that if you take onboard what they say and teach you will be successful, when in reality it gets you nowhere.

5.0
3 May 2017

Great Opportunity

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you are someone passionate about trading and looking to develop a career in it then Propex is a wonderful place to start. From my personal experience the trainers are extremely knowledgeable, approachable, empathetic and supportive. You are given classroom based learning and presented with a lot of valuable information regarding different instruments, from which you can expand your learning and focus on improving your strategies. In terms of some negative reviews presented, they really reflect the attitude of the reviewer more than the competence of the trainers. The trainers and management do their best to support you when you are experiencing a rough period, and are approachable anytime for those willing to listen or learn. Limits and progression are much more rapid than certain other prop firms, and if you are profitable management has no qualms in sizing you up and letting you achieve your goals. If you are passionate and sincere about trading and put in the effort, you will definitely receive a very solid foundation and continuous support from Propex.

Cons

No base salary, purely commission structure

1.0
24 July 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Weekly free fruit - Some nice guys on the trading floor - Guys in risk are friendly - Good infrastructure

Cons

The other negative reviews are generally true especially the one with the title "waste of time and money" sums it up rather well. - Management is supremely arrogant from the trainers up to the ceo. - Training program offers no value from a money making perspective. It really is a try to figure it out yourself culture. - They do have the attitude where they want you to trade daily and do a lot of volume. - They want you to focus on front end of the yield curve where it seems it would make more sense if they created an automated algo to run instead of having trainees stay in front of the screens for 10 hours daily pretending to do something. My advice is dont bother about getting into prop trading in general or at least in Australia. Nothing worthwhile here. They are selling emotion and hope to the young guys who want to reach models and bottles but in reality the large majority of people will fall short of coming anywhere close to that level. Its a waste of time for the large majority of people. Trading is overtaken by AI more and more as time goes on and only the big players with the computer scientists and math phds who are able to create algos can do well in this space. There are obviously exceptions to this but those are the outliers. Propex's training program probably did create some successful manual point and click traders but those were several years ago. In terms of long term success a lot of these guys eventually burn out/aren't successful anymore due to change in market conditions etc. Longevity in trading is little to none these days. It was easier years ago but it is not the case today.

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Glassdoor has 35 Propex Derivatives reviews submitted anonymously by Propex Derivatives employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Propex Derivatives is right for you.