Triantus Shango
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listen carefully:
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ex Goldman Sachs trader Anton Kreil speaks to wannabe traders
- Thread starter Triantus Shango
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Why is he an ex-trader at GS (sorry if he mentioned it in the clip, but I am not a big fan of those)? In general he can say what he likes and it is his opinion (good or bad). I am sure he will find people who agree as well as disagree. In my opinion he is not an expert on that matter, but hey that is my thought only.
Triantus Shango
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could it be that he is an ex GS trader because maybe he moved on to another job and then another and eventually retired? and yes, that's what happened according to the people who introduce anton. he also has (had? don't know if it is still running) his own show on BBC called 'Million Dollar Traders': here's episode 1: .
what is interesting about this interview is some of his comment on the retail industry, the art of trading and so on, coming from a guy who was on the inside. always good for a newbie to know these things.
as to being an expert, unless everyone who presents him has been lying, the guy IS an expert. he started trading at the age of 16 and continued all the way throughout his university years making good amounts of money year after year. he was so good at trading that all he had to do was show his track record to a GS recruiter to get a job in NY almost on the spot. and from there is career just took off. then retired, age (not: 34) 27.
if you think that that does not qualify someone to be considered that s/he knows what s/he is doing, then i don't know what more you want.
what is interesting about this interview is some of his comment on the retail industry, the art of trading and so on, coming from a guy who was on the inside. always good for a newbie to know these things.
as to being an expert, unless everyone who presents him has been lying, the guy IS an expert. he started trading at the age of 16 and continued all the way throughout his university years making good amounts of money year after year. he was so good at trading that all he had to do was show his track record to a GS recruiter to get a job in NY almost on the spot. and from there is career just took off. then retired, age (not: 34) 27.
if you think that that does not qualify someone to be considered that s/he knows what s/he is doing, then i don't know what more you want.
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Triantus Shango
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yes, fringFX, you are correct. 6-part interview and there is obviously a conflict of interest in the sense that he teaches at the institute of trading which is actually conducting the interview. that being said, i thought that what he mentions, even indirectly, regarding retail brokers/trading could be interesting to newbies. also, from a human interest POV, it is good to know what the life of a professional trader is like, as opposed to all the stereotypical BS a lot of people seem to entertain. up everyday by 5 am? ouch! lots of hard work. no trading in a reclining chair on the beach from acapulco sipping coronas. ;-)
also, it's interesting to hear anton comment about the financial crisis, which, if i am not mistaken, was when this show was shot. can you imagine? giving 1M/USD to total noobs and training them during the worst financial crisis ever? unbelievable.
i thought it interesting that in episode 1 he said re the housing industry debacle that the US would be in the toilet for a generation, reminiscent of jim rogers and marc faber and peter schiff when they say that if the power-that-be don't let market forces clean things up instead of letting the government call the shots, the economy is gonna be screwed for a long long time
also, i just noticed i made a mistake in the first post. anton retired at the age of 27, not 34. crazy.
also, it's interesting to hear anton comment about the financial crisis, which, if i am not mistaken, was when this show was shot. can you imagine? giving 1M/USD to total noobs and training them during the worst financial crisis ever? unbelievable.
i thought it interesting that in episode 1 he said re the housing industry debacle that the US would be in the toilet for a generation, reminiscent of jim rogers and marc faber and peter schiff when they say that if the power-that-be don't let market forces clean things up instead of letting the government call the shots, the economy is gonna be screwed for a long long time
also, i just noticed i made a mistake in the first post. anton retired at the age of 27, not 34. crazy.
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Triantus Shango
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damn right. 5 am in the office somewhere dreary. dundee or leeds come to mind.
Triantus Shango
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i looked at this anton guy again, and i came to realize more and more how self-serving that interview was, as well as the BBC show. the institute of trading, of which he apparently is the CEO, was opened after the show aired. all great PR. but that's SOP when it comes to business, i guess.
what puzzles me though is that he says that we, retail traders, make the mistake of focusing on only 1 or 2 FX pairs, maybe an additional couple of CFDs and that's it when there 40,000+ tradeable instruments in the market. and therefore we miss giant opportunities, trying to make it rich the slow way and getting burned in the process because we listen to advice given by the brokers (you know, all the simplistic broker sponsored education sites who explain you must sell or buy depending on where the RSI crosses the line, for ex, which is right on the money).
i always kept hearing that prop FX traders focus on becoming experts in only 1 or 2 pairs. so why is this guy saying you should be trading all over the map, especially to noobs?
i mean, there is no way in hell one can be a purely technical trader and juggle 10s of multiple instruments simultaneously in different asset classes on multiple timeframes just on a technical basis. first, you'd need a wall of screens. second, you would need an IQ and multi-tasking ability off the charts. all studies into multi-tasking have shown that humans are very bad at it--the more you throw at someone, their error rate goes up and productivity down in a linear fashion. so no matter how many screens in front of you, probability is now slowly but surely working against you.
probably that's why that institute emphasizes a fundamental approach to trading rather than a technical one.
but what really puzzles me is that his institute gets the students to set up a trading account with SAXO Bank, of all brokers!! it may be great for the total breadth of instruments offered, BUT
1- the Danish tossers are as much a bank in the traditional sense of the word as Dukascopy Bank is, i.e. they are retail broker-dealers trying to give themselves an aura of trustworthiness and credibility by applying the term 'Bank' to their commercial name, as if being a bank is a guarantee that your money is safe!! so totally preposterous. just look at what the Dutch bank ABN AMRO did to their customers who wanted to get their hands on the gold they owned: ABN squarely told them to f#*k off because instead of keeping their customers' gold safe, the gold just vanished!! WTF?!?
2- to make sure i wasn't BSing myself, i spent last night going through the legal docs available on the SAXO site and, lo and behold!, what did i find out? they admit (i'd be really surprised if they would disclose it if the law didn't force them to) SAXO acts as a market maker in the OTC FX and CFDs market, they have a proprietary desk, and plenty of conflict of interest. bottom line, they totally trade against their clients--still!
you should read the fine print: the way it is phrased sent chills down my spine; basically, if you are a retail trader trading an OTC market, it's open season and they will take you down; they even come up with ridiculous 'supporting' arguments such as sometimes due to market conditions, trading needs to be switched to manual because sometimes the computer can't keep up!!! WTF? what kind of computers do they use over there? 1980 era commodore 64s? give me a freakin' break!
god but this makes me so angry.
what puzzles me though is that he says that we, retail traders, make the mistake of focusing on only 1 or 2 FX pairs, maybe an additional couple of CFDs and that's it when there 40,000+ tradeable instruments in the market. and therefore we miss giant opportunities, trying to make it rich the slow way and getting burned in the process because we listen to advice given by the brokers (you know, all the simplistic broker sponsored education sites who explain you must sell or buy depending on where the RSI crosses the line, for ex, which is right on the money).
i always kept hearing that prop FX traders focus on becoming experts in only 1 or 2 pairs. so why is this guy saying you should be trading all over the map, especially to noobs?
i mean, there is no way in hell one can be a purely technical trader and juggle 10s of multiple instruments simultaneously in different asset classes on multiple timeframes just on a technical basis. first, you'd need a wall of screens. second, you would need an IQ and multi-tasking ability off the charts. all studies into multi-tasking have shown that humans are very bad at it--the more you throw at someone, their error rate goes up and productivity down in a linear fashion. so no matter how many screens in front of you, probability is now slowly but surely working against you.
probably that's why that institute emphasizes a fundamental approach to trading rather than a technical one.
but what really puzzles me is that his institute gets the students to set up a trading account with SAXO Bank, of all brokers!! it may be great for the total breadth of instruments offered, BUT
1- the Danish tossers are as much a bank in the traditional sense of the word as Dukascopy Bank is, i.e. they are retail broker-dealers trying to give themselves an aura of trustworthiness and credibility by applying the term 'Bank' to their commercial name, as if being a bank is a guarantee that your money is safe!! so totally preposterous. just look at what the Dutch bank ABN AMRO did to their customers who wanted to get their hands on the gold they owned: ABN squarely told them to f#*k off because instead of keeping their customers' gold safe, the gold just vanished!! WTF?!?
2- to make sure i wasn't BSing myself, i spent last night going through the legal docs available on the SAXO site and, lo and behold!, what did i find out? they admit (i'd be really surprised if they would disclose it if the law didn't force them to) SAXO acts as a market maker in the OTC FX and CFDs market, they have a proprietary desk, and plenty of conflict of interest. bottom line, they totally trade against their clients--still!
you should read the fine print: the way it is phrased sent chills down my spine; basically, if you are a retail trader trading an OTC market, it's open season and they will take you down; they even come up with ridiculous 'supporting' arguments such as sometimes due to market conditions, trading needs to be switched to manual because sometimes the computer can't keep up!!! WTF? what kind of computers do they use over there? 1980 era commodore 64s? give me a freakin' break!
god but this makes me so angry.
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