AUTOREFRESH 
So you think bank traders are so sophisticated…
Most retail traders stand in awe of their professional counter parts. Those guys sit in Aeron office chairs in front of four flat-panel monitors with thousands of dollars of market data and and endless liquidity at their fingertips. They may have all the bells and whistles but most don’t even scratch the surface of the technological capabilities arrayed before them.
I’m fortunate to have been on both sides of the fence and can attest that it is far easier trading as the “house” rather than taking purely self-initiated proprietary positions. I can also puncture the image that many of you have of bank traders as all-knowing, all-seeing market sages.
For instance, one banker I speak with frequently was watching local TV earlier this afternoon since his colossal financial had been switched to digital cable service but no one bothered to install a cable box. What were they watching instead of CNBC or Bloomberg? Sports bloopers in which a fat guy playing beer-league softball lost his pants while rounding the bases.
In other words, you as a retail trader have far more in common with the big boys than you suspect. They get blindsided by the markets, just like you.
Keep that in mind the next time you wish you were working in one of the major dealing rooms.
You have some advantage over them. You get to keep all your profits. You get to keep your own hours. You don’t have daily, monthly P&L pressures to produce or get fired.
In some ways, you have the advantage. Use it!
You get me all teary-eyed Jamie.
Now go out there and kick some butt!!!!!
“You don’t have daily, monthly P&L pressures to produce or get fired”….HMMM what about the wife at the end of the month asking you for the paycheck?
As a matter of fact, I’ve been aiding in the CAD/JPY poo-storm since London. I slept for 4 hours today. I’d like to see a dealer cozy up in his Aeron chair for 4 hours between London lunch and NY open…
@Dcoios lol, there’s the catch! As long as you’re not full-time. If you are though, it’s like running any other business. You fire yourself if you don’t produce.
Hi Lenin… I am full time so I know first hand lol.
Yeah, trading full-time for income surely not easy, trading your own money and having to produce paycheck for family is not easy. IF you get fired from bank at least you’ll have personal money to trade? How does one become a bank trader?
And I bet their machines don’t crash at least twice a day either.
The big difference? “There is the plain fool, who does the wrong thing at all times everywhere, but there is the Wall Street fool, who thinks he must trade all the time.” – Edwin Lefebvre…. The secret to “bringing down the house” is the same one that the MIT guys used in Vegas, stay in the game with a little skin, and then when the odds are in your favor, put your real stakes on the table. Money management and risk/reward…
yes Jamie,you are right we have advantage
JR, like the 4hr channel top in EUR/USD last night? Technicals and fundies pointing in same direction, was time to put the real stakes on the table!
anyone got tagets for USD/JPY for today?
Hey Pipsniper, I like the eur/jpy trade better but, yeah, after the false calm of expiration friday and mutual fund monday we were due for a bit of a storm. We’ll see what Bernanke has to say tomorrow… obviously the Fed doesn’t want the market to tank, their goal has been reflation… and rule #1 is that you don’t fight the fed. but until then… whoa nelly!
*targets
89.7-90.5
You’re a very naughty boy
And who you callin’ nelly?
Lilac, pretend you are the market, bend over and say “thank you big brother may I please have another” whilst I whip out the ISU (I Short the Euro) Fraternity Paddle.
Eeek I’m long at the mo.
Spit spit, I know – watching M30 and H4.
Just by way of a change
I think the euro will see 1.38 again soon enough. The western powers don’t want the euro to implode and then for Russia to fill the vacuum. Behind the rhetoric and trade winds, there is a strong force holding the euro together. It’ll be interesting to see what frameworks and mechanisms Germany and France create to accommodate Club Med, and to continue to allow the former Soviet states to enter the union. Should be good for a short-able pop at some point. They’ll claim that they spanked the speculators- and we’ll get a better level to short at… The idea of having a euro so that there isn’t a string of competitive devaluations within europe still is valid. But it’ll take a long time to get political and economic union.
Thanks for the motivational speech Jamie! Do you live in a ‘van down by the river!?’ I’m with you on the long side Lilac, I guess we’re both taking it from Gabriel ATM
I waited patiently for .89 on A$ to leg the rest in. On a non-important note, anyone know why the new avatars show on my BBerry, but not PC?
Nope it’s just me and my ownsome, Zeke.
Not even a donkey to pat
*I meant, JR, whoops. And someday, I’ll get this donkey-patting joke…
jamie u know bankers also read this website, dont limit your audience!
Think I’m looking at a bearish pennant here on eur/jpy.
See, my donkey would know about these things.
They’re tough. They can take it!