TV show about trading

[Jaydee]

Its a pity he didnt select a group of "market experts" as a control sample against which to compare the groups results. Perhaps they could have also included a group of chimpanzee's who selected stocks at random.

Quite how money can be classified as "safe" when its being managed by a group of people with zero knowledge of risk management, nor the faintest idea of fundementals or technicals is a bit beyond me, but Im sure it'll all be OK in the end

Totally agree with this, if anything it has only proved that trading is gambling for pros or a form of risk management not even the professionals understand.

 

[oiltanker]

warning spoiler warning spoiler warning spoiler warning spoiler warning spoiler warning spoiler warning spoiler warning spoiler warning spoiler warning spoiler warning spoiler warning spoiler

well not much of a spolier but it does give some stuff away about future events in the show.

Million Dollar Traders TV gamble for Emile Coleman - Liverpool Echo.co.uk

 

[dkfinkbone]

This is basically a modern day Turtle Traders experiment. Makes for interesting watching.

A guy I know is a VP at Nomura. He's been a massively successful bond trader and now runs a whole team. He is by the far the most laid back bloke i have ever met. you'd think he was stoned if you didnt know and were introduced. With only a couple of GCSE's to his name he got his "big break" working on the stock exchange as a YTS trainee electrician in the late eighties. The service company with whom he was serving his apprenticeship lost their contract with LSE and with a few weeks of work left he asked one of the traders if there were any jobs going at LSE and the guy sorted him with a position as a runner. At 16 he was earning £40 per week. At 22 he was earning £300k plus £400k bonus. At 27 he took home £2million for the year.

The city used to be awash with "boy done good" types with no formal education. It's really been the last 8 years that have seen such a focus on quants with PHD's in quantum physics.

My point is that before 2000 the city had already proved many times that you can take an ordinary guy and make him a successfull trader providing they have some key attributes. The ability to manage your emotions is 90% of the game the rest is just having an opinion that is right more than it is wrong.

 

[pengeshark]

BBC 2 show on newbie traders

I watched BBC 2 on Monday night with great interest as they had a programme on a group of newbie traders who where given hedge fund money to trade with as proceeded to lose it with alarming speed. It was interesting to see how quickly they lost discipline, traded with no plan and where overwhelmed by their emotions. You quickly gained a sense of how hard trading is.
I was thinking that a possible trading strategy would have been to place the exact opposite trades that these people where trading??
It would have been very profitable.
'Make me a trader' Continues next Monday.

 

[ramrob]

I watched BBC 2 on Monday night with great interest as they had a programme on a group of newbie traders who where given hedge fund money to trade with as proceeded to lose it with alarming speed. It was interesting to see how quickly they lost discipline, traded with no plan and where overwhelmed by their emotions. You quickly gained a sense of how hard trading is.
I was thinking that a possible trading strategy would have been to place the exact opposite trades that these people where trading??
It would have been very profitable.
'Make me a trader' Continues next Monday.

That sounds great! I wish the bbc streaming iPlayer wouldn't discriminate against me because my IP address is not from the UK.

 

[oiltanker]

yes emotions.

the rise in quants looks related to the rise in algos that now account for the majority of trading in many markets?

they were always on a loser. making money in a bull market with little volatility where nearly anyone can buy and hold is not the same as trying to make it during a bear market with violent swings? which is why out of 1000 plus hedge funds only a handfull made money last year?

 

[mauzj]

A lot of quants are just idiots with pumped up egos.

I don't think this is like the turtles as they don't appear to have a systemetic way of choosing their trades. They're just like small home traders taking semi-educated punts. Hopefully they'll improve over time though.

 

[oiltanker]

some think the show is not a smart idea

...allowing in the cameras only shows what a pointless and fickle occupation hedge trading is. It exposed the short-termism of a parasitic sector of financial services where profits are expected in minutes rather than weeks.....

Director of Finance Online - Blogs - The Edge Blog Archive TV show makes hedge funds a loser

is trading parasitic? or does it supply liquidity to the market?

 

[arabianights]

Dunno, if you were a parasite what kind would you see yourself as?

I'd quite like to be a tapeworm.

 

[oiltanker]

it would have to be some kind of blood sucker? those mosquitos whose bite only starts to itch long after they have bitten are smart?

before the war i heard stories about how people use to put the bed legs in tins of parrafin to stop the bed bugs. what they found was the bed bugs would climb the wall crawl along the ceiling then just drop onto the sleeping person. eek.

 

[oiltanker]

isn't every way of earning money some kind of exploitation of something? or some kind of gamble?

 

[Skill Leverage]

Its a pity he didnt select a group of "market experts" as a control sample against which to compare the groups results.

This would have been a far better TV show.

 

[mauzj]

hmmm. i love it.

some think the show is not a smart idea

...allowing in the cameras only shows what a pointless and fickle occupation hedge trading is. It exposed the short-termism of a parasitic sector of financial services where profits are expected in minutes rather than weeks.....

Director of Finance Online - Blogs - The Edge Blog Archive TV show makes hedge funds a loser

is trading parasitic? or does it supply liquidity to the market?

You could argue it many ways. I take a load of cash from the Eurozone and pay UK taxes. So what I do definitely benefits my country.

But overall, I view trading as neutral in terms of its benefits. I make money from the mispricings of other willing participants. It's not like property, where richer people exploit those below them by buying up a limited commodity and then holding it to ransom and forcing the poor to rent off them.

I have not convinced anyone to take out a loan that they could not afford.

I do not claim benefits and complain that the government does not do enough to help me.

 

[Skill Leverage]

I really wish people would read the boards before they post. 150,000 traders or people interested in trading, there's probably going to be 7 or 8 posts on this topic already, yes? Yes.

 

[gamma]

Having read the article it shows that the general public have no idea of what a hedge fund is, or does. Richard Northedge is even less informed and has no idea about what he is talking about. He is trying to impart a biased view about something he does not know the first thing about.

 

[PokerBrat]

id much prefer to be robbing the rich (hedge funds, investment banks etc etc ) and giving some of my profits to the poor (charaties, homeless people, myself ) then being happy and proud im walking away with some pensioners heating and eating money.

Dilesh, hedge funds and investment banks are trading with everyone's pensions, so wherever you take it from, someone is suffering. And believe me, it aint the hedge fund manager.

 

[rickoneeleven]

I got to page 16 of this post before I found my answer and lost the will to continue. Could someone please answer a no doubt silly/easy question for me please?

In the 'millionaire trader', are they trading CFDs/Spreadbetting or something else altogether?

Thanks
Ryan

 

[pengeshark]

I really wish people would read the boards before they post. 150,000 traders or people interested in trading, there's probably going to be 7 or 8 posts on this topic already, yes? Yes.

Skill, I did use the search function quickly by typing in BBC 2 and nothing came up. It’s not like a book where you go to the chapter and the info is just there, there will unfortunately be many things repeated on a net site like this. I can understand your point but I don't particularly like posting and this is one of the reasons why. I will just stick to my own thoughts and just read from now on.

 

[Skill Leverage]

On Page 1 right now there are three separate threads on the subject, and I know there are more on subsequent pages. No need to get your knickers in a twist, I was merely observing that forums are far more useful when people actually read them before posting.

 

[oiltanker]

...I did use the search function quickly by typing in BBC 2 ...

a good way to find out what is going on is try using the new posts function which show what is current across the board?