A Day In The Life Of A Prop Trader

What's it like to be a prop trader at one of the fastest-growing firms in New York?

Michael Lombardo, Senior Trader for the Platinum Development Program at T3 Trading Group, recently walked Benzinga through his day-to-day process. He is currently getting ready for the company's next Open House, a catered extravaganza designed to introduce new traders to T3.

"This is certainly not the market of 2013," Lombardo told Benzinga. "Come in and let's talk. I'll tell you what I'm doing differently as opposed to 2013. You'll hear real experiences from traders who are seeing this change and have to adapt because what worked last year may not work this year."

Lombardo's Day Begins at 6:00 a.m.

No one ever said trading would be easy -- least of all Lombardo. By the time the market closes at 4:00 p.m. each day, he will begin planning for the next open.

"We're already strategizing what the open is going to look like," he said. "In the morning, I usually wake up around 6:00 a.m. and start looking at the futures, seeing what stocks are following through from yesterday."

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Lombardo takes special note of anything abnormal. He said that he will continue to check the newswires and newsfeeds when he arrives at the office at around 7:30 or 8:00 a.m.

Next, he holds a meeting at 9:00 a.m. before the market opens to go over what transpired in the previous day. He also shares his thoughts for what could happen today when the market finally opens.

"In terms of coming up with a game plan, a strategy, you really want to develop a routine," said Lombardo. "Developing a routine helps to develop consistency. After a while it should almost become second nature where there's very little thought and you're just kind of following through and you're just going through the motions. The more repetitive it becomes, the easier the whole process is."

When the market opens, it's game on!

"I have all sorts of traders around me," Lombardo added. "We're all kind of helping each other out. That's the beauty of trading in the office as opposed to trading remote."

T3's Open House is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 13 at 5:00 p.m. ET at the company's New York office. Those who are interested in attending can register here.

T3 offers a number of other courses in addition to the Platinum Development Program, such as the Active Trader course, Momentum Trader course and the Swing Trader course.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.