Chat With Traders

Victor Haghani began his career at Salomon Brothers in 1984, starting out in a research role before joining their prop trading desk. In 1992, Victor left Salomon to become one of the founding partners of Long Term Capital Management…LTCM was an incredibly successful hedge fund, up until 1998, when it failed in a spectacular fashion. Causing the Federal Reserve to step in and organize a bailout, in order to prevent the possibility of a collapse in the global financial system.Victor took a ten year sabbatical after the dust settled, and in 2010 he founded an active index investing fund, Elm Partners.For this episode, much of our discussion is in reference to an experiment Victor carried out (with some involvement from Edward Thorp), on the patterns of how 61 participants would bet on a biased coin.--Sponsored by TradeStation: Very few online brokers offer the services, the tools and the technology (all-in-one!) – for active traders – like TradeStation do. Learn more and get started here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andy has been an active stock trader since the early 90’s, and in 2001 he founded Kershner Trading Group—a proprietary trading and technology firm in Austin (Texas) and, through a partnership with SMB Capital, Kershner Trading have a second office in Midtown (Manhattan) too.So, what did we talk about? Andy's ability to take pain on adverse positions, whether or not this has been a key ingredient to his trading success, and do traders with higher risk tolerances make more money. Andy also shares his daily habits and critiques a trade which didn't go so well from the session prior to recording this episode. And naturally, we cover a few other things too...--Sponsored by TradeStation.com: Very few online brokers offer the services, tools and technology (all-in-one!) – for active traders – like TradeStation do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though not a trader herself, Nell Sloane has been in and around markets and exchanges for roughly 30-years, mostly working in roles that assisted commodity traders and brokers in one way or another.Then since 2006, Nell has been the Principal of Capital Trading Group—a Chicago investment firm, which she co-founded with Patrick Lafferty. And this is the reason why I asked Nell to come on the podcast; because the role of CTG is to support traders who wish to expand their operation by managing money for others as a CTA.CTG do also offer services to professional and individual investors to help them navigate managed futures. But for this episode, we focus on…What does it mean to be a CTA, the incentives to become a CTA and where to begin, fee structures, the requirements and regulations, how to attract capital from investors, and other related subjects. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Hoyle was once a trader, or more specifically, an options market maker. And he started at a very young age, on the exchange floor in Amsterdam. But since 2003, he’s been in the headhunting (or recruiting) business. His firm, Matthew Hoyle Financial Markets.Essentially, Matthew finds the best candidates for hard to fill roles. He’s contracted by banks, hedge funds and all sorts of trading firms—for example; Tibra, Optiver, Tower Research, Citadel, Millennium Partners, amongst many others.Matthew’s deeply knowledgeable on the industry, and he’s won many awards for doing what he does…During this episode we get talking about; tips for getting hired, the skills which are most in demand, what firms are looking for, also, how firms attempt to attract and retain talent, various compensation structures – and everything in between! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Max got into trading about six years ago, after a co-worker pulled up in a brand new Lotus Elise—paid for with gains from trading BP stock. Working as an engineer at the time, with average pay, it wasn’t long before Max opened his first trading account and got to work…Having now developed a unique style of his own, which he describes as a scalping method—focusing on NASDAQ listed stocks, Max has become very consistent and profitable. (If you’re interested, max regularly posts PnL on his Twitter account.)To mention a few of the things we discussed; how traders can benefit from being independent thinkers, the nature of scalping strategies, optimizing your workflow, mindset and improving your psychological game, and plenty more.--Sponsored by TradeStation.com: Very few online brokers offer the services and technology (all-in-one!) – for active traders – like TradeStation do… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Darren Reed (@LiftTheOffer) has been a stock broker, the head trader at a $300M hedge fund, and an active prop trader at Australian firms, Propex, Aliom and Gensis. At the later two, he also mentored traders as part of his role in trader development.But this year (2017), Darren has returned to Perth—on the west coast of Australia, to establish a new proprietary trading firm with a few partners; Cygnet Trading.The main focus of this episode can be summarized with just a few words; grit, hustle and intent. Further, Darren speaks about paying your dues, why environment is everything, and a window into the life of a discretionary prop trader. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doug Cifu is the co-founder and CEO of Virtu Financial, one of the largest electronic market making firms in the world. Around the clock, Virtu are trading in 12,000 instruments, across 235 markets and 36 countries, with only 140 staff.Virtu often trade more than 4.5 million times a day, and prior to their IPO in 2015, Virtu reported the firm had made a profit 1,277 out of 1,278 days—losing money just one day between 2009 and 2014.And in recent news, Virtu made headlines 20th April (2017), after announcing their acquisition of rival, Knight Capital Group for $1.4 billion.Doug is also the co-owner of NHL team, Florida Panthers—with the second owner, being none other than his Virtu co-founder, Vincent Viola. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Mauboussin is a Managing Director and Head of Global Financial Strategies at Credit Suisse. He’s also a professor of finance at Columbia Business School, and the author of several books, such as; The Success Equation and More Than You Know.Michael is widely-recognized as a thought leader on the subject of decision making, as well as thinking about things in the way of process over outcome, and skill vs luck.And it’s these three things which are the over-arching theme of this episode. So hopefully, you’ll pick up a few good tips from Michael, that will help to improve your ability of making better decisions (and creating better processes) as a trader.--Sponsored by TradeStation.com: Open an account with online broker, TradeStation, to enjoy; low-cost commissions, no software fees, free real-time data and free professional-grade scanning tools. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mebane Faber is the founder and CIO at Cambria Investment Management, where he manages Cambria’s ETFs, separate accounts and private investment funds. He’s also authored numerous white papers and five books now, on various investing subjects. Meb’s a budding podcaster too, his podcast; The Meb Faber Show.The main reason why I asked Meb to join me for this episode, was to share some simple ways that active traders can capitalize on the opportunity and compounding effect that (somewhat passive) longer-term investing has to offer.So, I ask Meb about; where to start out, how to set expectations, various types of portfolios, when to enter the market, what to do during drawdown, what things new investors struggle with most, so on and so forth…--Sponsored by TradeStation.com: Open an account with online broker, TradeStation, to enjoy; low-cost stock trades, no software fees, free real-time data and free professional-grade scanning tools. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex (@TAGRtrades) is a 27-year old day trader, from Texas. He’s been trading full-time for four years, and has really begun to hit his stride. Alex closed Q1 of 2017 with a $49,000 gain, after going into the year with an account balance of $32,000.He’s a small-cap momentum trader, but unlike most guests who I’ve had on previously that play in this space, Alex takes the majority of his trades on the long side. So naturally, we chat about his reasons for this…We also chat about; the leap into full-time trading, key lessons Alex learned in the early stages of his development, how he manages trades, and why journaling has been immensely helpful. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices