Chat With Traders

High-speed trading veteran, Manoj Narang, originally worked on Wall St for the likes of Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs prior to founding Tradeworx, which became one of the larger trading firms in the U.S. (in terms of volume).He’s since parted ways with Tradeworx to start MANA Partners—an innovative quant fund which raised almost one billion dollars for it’s launch in January this year (2017).As a brief summary for some of the things we got to chat about; the value of technology which drives some trading operations, capitalizing on the explosion of data, plus why aspiring traders should be willing to buck the trend and think freely.--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

Larry Alintoff was a prop trader for Paul Tudor Jones, before running the largest group of traders on the AMEX (at the time). When he later went over to the NYBOT, Larry became the largest trader in the Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice pit, and now days, he’s CIO of The Toro Fund.During this episode, we cover; the thing which helped Larry to become consistent, why there’s great opportunity in knowing when things that “should” happen, don’t happen, and how he’s been able to successfully apply a similar trading style from the floor to the screens. Plus, how a market obsession has carried him this far… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sean Hendelman is the co-founder and CEO of T3 Companies.T3 is one of the larger proprietary trading firms in the U.S. And incase you’re curious, the three T’s of T3 stand for; trading, training and technology.A few of the things Sean and I spoke about, include; how he got his start, how he lost all his money twice—and why it was a worthwhile experience (in hindsight), and some of the great lessons he’s learned from the business of trading.Even as CEO today, Sean is still very hands on with T3’s automated trading, so we also had an interesting conversation around this—some of his comments and views may actually surprise you. And hand traders, need not feel neglected, because there’s something in this for you to! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Grimes has been a trader for more than 20-years, he’s traded all major asset classes, across various timeframes. He’s traded independently, with a prop firm, and he’s run other trading businesses also.The main focus of this episode is to explore some of the things which discretionary traders can adapt from quantitative traders, and vice versa—meaning, what things can quants take from those who rely on discretion.Then in the later part of this episode, Adam lays out a solid framework which can help struggling traders to move forward. As well as, the types of questions you should ask when you don’t know what you don’t know. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brannigan Barrett is a futures day trader—who trades a total of eight markets, across; bonds, equity indices, currencies and commodities. He was previously a trader at prop firm, Futex, but is now part of Axia Futures.The subjects we cover during this conversation, include; how to progressively become a bigger (and better) trader, how a “dogfight” attitude has helped Brannigan’s trading career, how he prepares going into major news announcements, his daily process for journaling and being ready for “one good trade.” Plus, how to think about and achieve your trading goals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Benjamin Small is an electrical engineering PhD. He’s worked in quantitative research roles since 2006, at UBS, Citadel, Credit Suisse and the stock exchange, IEX.Today though, Ben is head of market structure at Gemini—the world’s first fully licensed and fully regulated Bitcoin exchange, which is based in New York.During this chat, we get into; payment for order flow and high frequency trading, why there’s an incentive to normalize Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency ecosystem, potential outcomes for the future of Bitcoin, and becoming a cashless society. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jorge Soltero began as a floor trader in Chicago, where he was an options market maker. A few years into his career, he landed a position at Hull Trading Company (the renowned firm of legendary trader, Blair Hull).After Hull Trading was bought by Goldman Sachs in 1999, Jorge became more of an institutional trader—not only working at Goldman, but later, UBS and Merrill Lynch too, where he specialized in options and ETFs.Listening to this episode you’re going to hear about; the culture of trading pits, exactly what it was like to be a trader at Hull Trading Co., the transition to electronic trading, what makes ETFs an attractive product, and more…--Sponsored by Gemini.com: The first fully regulated Bitcoin exchange, for traders and investors. Register for one-month of FREE trading. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Returning to Chat With Traders for a second time is David Bush—first on episode 23.David began as a discretionary trader, more than 20-years ago, but over time he’s developed into a quant trader. And he’s exceptionally good at what he does; David’s been the first place winner of two (real money) trading competitions in recent years.Last time David was on we spoke fairly extensively about his path as a trader and a high-level overview of his process. This time around we covered plenty of new ground—exploring David’s process in greater depth. Also, I particularly liked David’s comments towards the end about, “Intensity, not time.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode, I’m joined by George—who goes by @RollyTrader on Twitter.George is an Australian equities trader, with a momentum/swing trading type of approach. In the past, George has held a few finance-related positions, but since late-2009 he’s mostly traded independently.During the interview, George and I got speaking about; lessons he learned early on, the effect that coaching and mentoring has had on his trading, specifics about the setups George trades, and also, his involvement with venture capital.--Sponsored by Gemini.com – The world’s first fully regulated and fully licensed Bitcoin exchange—for traders, investors & institutions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m not sure how to best say this, but Edward Thorp, is kind of a big deal…Not only in the world of financial markets, but he’s also a household name amongst the gambling scene. He’s the man who beat the dealer, and later, beat the market.It was during the late-50’s and early-60’s, when Ed, a math genius and professor at MIT, took on the challenge of discovering a way to get an edge playing gambling games such as blackjack, roulette and baccarat. Long story short; Ed won—and he’s now considered the father of card counting.From there, the next obvious move for Ed was to take on financial markets—which he also did with a great degree of success. His first hedge fund, Princeton Newport Partners, achieved an annualized return of 19.1% (before fees) over a 19-year period, with 227 of 230 months being profitable—the worst monthly loss being less than 1%.Ed’s most recent book, A Man For All Markets, is now available on Amazon.--Sponsored by TradeStation.com – The online broker for professional market monitoring tools, an award-winning platform and low trading costs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices