Block Trading is the absolute worse place a SOESer can trade...
Block offices are closing left and right, and the reason being is that the clowns who run Block are incompetent (at best), and downright sleazy (at worst).
The real SOES trading shops provide a host of services for traders (for example, Spotter - a software tool that tracks market direction - and a Bloomberg reader - an actual person who reads news off the Bloomberg terminal. Most Block offices either don't have these very basic helpers, or they charge traders extra for the "service."
Block's daily trade reports (how much one made or lost the previous day) suck. Reports are not uniform to every office, and they are often very difficult to interpret and full of mistakes (such as overcharges on trading fees and, on occasion, incorrect execution prices). I know many, many, many Block traders who have found constant mistakes in their accounts. (And, guess what? These mistakes are always in Block's favor...)
Block does not run each and every office; it's a franchise. And, generally speaking, franchisee's get reamed. 25% of all trading fees go straight to Block, yet Block provides very little support to franchisee's. As a result, the majority of people who open a Block office NEVER make any money, and many are closing down as a result.
Training: Block jobs out it's training to an outfit called Quanto, based in Texas. Pay $3,500, and what do you get? Two weeks of some trader explaining what a bid and an ask is, what a market maker does; etc. In short, no real in-depth analysis of how to be a successful trader. I know quite a few people who have paid $3,500 to take Quanto's "course," and I have yet to meet a single person who has felt the course worthwhile. And Block continues to do business with this outfit...
Bottom line: Block is a piss-poor operation. They seriously suck! Anyone considering SOES trading should look elsewhere.
Trader SOES |
