Anyway, I'm a 23 old futures broker trading for clients.  I use a lot of the same prospecting as people in advisory/planning roles, as well as those who trade in equities for clients.

 

Found a guy who had a small boutique brokerage who used the same strategy in his managed futures program, and we hit it off.

 

If you know 'Gaddock' from around these parts, I use essentially the same type of strategy he uses, except I know he has developed software for it, I find my trades manually right now(hopefully I can get something programmed in the future!)..and of course, my trades are in commodities instead of equities.

 

 

 

Im at a small Indy in Chicago, small enough where its a single branch company and I would rather keep that confidential.

 

We run a single managed futures program...$50,000 minimum investment, using a very effective options strategy.  It was started in Feb of 2009, has returned +47% since then, and +11% YTD...I would estimate that on Jan 1st we will be at +57% since Inception and +21% for 2010.

 

Managed futures fund-raising is a big draw to futures brokers...our program offers $5 a trade executed in the program(this can add up...trust me), and a 5% profit incentive.

 

 

 

When I trade options for clients, I am sure to use a wide array of markets to further diversify and lower standard deviation.  For example, I might have a position in gold, crude oil, natural gas, corn coffee, the british pound, wheat, and 30 year treasuries all at once. 

 

I am also able to take short positions just as easy as long positions..and in other cases I can strangle the market and take both sides.

 

Although I am not too familiar with index funds, I am assuming these pertain only to equities...which would obviously correlate with each other.

 

Although people are more familiar with working in traditional investments i.e. equities, bonds, etc., I can generate a lot of interest by asking: "are you prepared for a year like 2008 in your future?"

 

Think of the 'Flash Crash' last May '10...I think the S&P 500 was down like 8-9%, and even though we had positions in index futures, those losses were offset with our other markets that were not correlated, and we were in the green that month.  Its all about lowering standard deviation of a portfolio.

 

Upside to being in futures: you get a lot of interest because of the diversification, and interest because people are unfamiliar...educating them gives a lot of closing opportunities.

 

Downside to being in futures: You work with less money than in equities.  I usually recommend anywhere from 10-20% of a portfolio being diversified into commodities.

 

 

I find my opportunities by picking a spot in the market where the market wont go...much easier than trying to predict the future...

 

I actually know pipefitters who are working at CBOE...they are installing cooling units on the old floors where trading activity used to be in order to cool the computer systems being used now...or something like that

 

by index funds i meant programs focused primarily on equities, like a mutual fund.

 

we trade index futures in our managed futures program, like SP futures, Dow futures...along with currency/interest rate futures and all US commodities (grains, metals, softs, energy, etc).