I spoke to Anton a few months ago about his mentoring program.
He talked to me on the phone for almost an hour, a very nice chat I must admit.
At the time he told me that his contacts in China were informing him that everybody was ditching iphones for samsung hence he was ready to be short $AAPL.
Well he was spot on as we all know AAPL recent price action.
My opinion is that the guy obviously knows his stuff but as in his example the edge IBs and HFs have is information (the most valuable commodity I know of!!). They talk to company CEOs, have teams of researchers and analysts who works 15hrs a day for traders.
Once you are out on your own it's just you, no info, no research and no analysis. You could obviously do it on your own but you clearly don't have the resources and if you were a trader you are not an analyst now!
I remember reading an interesting article on the FT saying that many if not most of the traders that left IBs or HFs to open their own funds were struggling for the above reasons.
Order flow is not an advantage any more imho as even that is public now even if subject to manipulation.
Anton was working as a trader but doing a lot on MM that is a different story from proprietary trading. He admitted going out with clients a lot and that means he was getting money from commissions more than his trading activity.
He was in charge of IPOs and so on. All activities that differ from proprietary trading.
Anyway for his mentoring program he wants 5-6 grand and all I was told I was given was a few spreadsheets, a couple of PDFs and him monitoring my positions so I said no thanks!
When I read mentoring program I was expecting to sit with him and see him trading and learn how to behave is certain situations. If not every day at least sometimes.
So there is not much one to one interaction apart from chat messaging and few phone calls.
My view is that trading is all about experience. Everybody is able to compare few indicators and ratios and pick a stock or the other but to be a trader you need to learn how markets behave and you do this just by watching it day in and day out constantly.
Now, about why he teaches instead of trading that's a good point. He is obviously after money and a smart guy so I think he pursues any viable way to make it. He seems to have worked pretty hard on the road to gain exposure and a reputation so he clearly saw an opportunity here and I wouldn't blame him.
I can also imagine that trading becomes a mechanical and repetitive thing after years of doing it and especially if you are sitting at home on your own I could be boring.
He also has a massive ego and he likes showing people that he knows more than you so teaching makes him happy I guess.
My concern is that from a guy who worked for 15 yrs as a trader at IBs and claims still making a lot of money trading I would expect him to be sitting in a luxury office in Mayfair while if you look at his recent videos, his office looks more like my bedroom when I was at uni!!!!!!
Bottom line is that he clearly knows what he is talking about than if his courses and program are worth doing I can't tell.
He talked to me on the phone for almost an hour, a very nice chat I must admit.
At the time he told me that his contacts in China were informing him that everybody was ditching iphones for samsung hence he was ready to be short $AAPL.
Well he was spot on as we all know AAPL recent price action.
My opinion is that the guy obviously knows his stuff but as in his example the edge IBs and HFs have is information (the most valuable commodity I know of!!). They talk to company CEOs, have teams of researchers and analysts who works 15hrs a day for traders.
Once you are out on your own it's just you, no info, no research and no analysis. You could obviously do it on your own but you clearly don't have the resources and if you were a trader you are not an analyst now!
I remember reading an interesting article on the FT saying that many if not most of the traders that left IBs or HFs to open their own funds were struggling for the above reasons.
Order flow is not an advantage any more imho as even that is public now even if subject to manipulation.
Anton was working as a trader but doing a lot on MM that is a different story from proprietary trading. He admitted going out with clients a lot and that means he was getting money from commissions more than his trading activity.
He was in charge of IPOs and so on. All activities that differ from proprietary trading.
Anyway for his mentoring program he wants 5-6 grand and all I was told I was given was a few spreadsheets, a couple of PDFs and him monitoring my positions so I said no thanks!
When I read mentoring program I was expecting to sit with him and see him trading and learn how to behave is certain situations. If not every day at least sometimes.
So there is not much one to one interaction apart from chat messaging and few phone calls.
My view is that trading is all about experience. Everybody is able to compare few indicators and ratios and pick a stock or the other but to be a trader you need to learn how markets behave and you do this just by watching it day in and day out constantly.
Now, about why he teaches instead of trading that's a good point. He is obviously after money and a smart guy so I think he pursues any viable way to make it. He seems to have worked pretty hard on the road to gain exposure and a reputation so he clearly saw an opportunity here and I wouldn't blame him.
I can also imagine that trading becomes a mechanical and repetitive thing after years of doing it and especially if you are sitting at home on your own I could be boring.
He also has a massive ego and he likes showing people that he knows more than you so teaching makes him happy I guess.
My concern is that from a guy who worked for 15 yrs as a trader at IBs and claims still making a lot of money trading I would expect him to be sitting in a luxury office in Mayfair while if you look at his recent videos, his office looks more like my bedroom when I was at uni!!!!!!
Bottom line is that he clearly knows what he is talking about than if his courses and program are worth doing I can't tell.
