Friday 23 January 2009

Million Dollar Traders: Profit And Loss


Warning: Plot-Spoiler ahead.

Episode Two yesterday, and as an aside, why is the programme not called Million Pound Traders? An example of the world's second superpower's cultural domination I guess.

I digress. A couple of comments on the show. One was where one of the traders had a position moving fast against him, and the voiceover guy said something to the effect that the trader didn't make the novice mistake of panicing and selling. Where did this piece of wisdom come from? What happened to the idea of cutting losses short and letting winners run?

Anyway, we saw the end of Croydon's finest, Simon, who was hopelessly out of his depth, and ditherer Cleo survived by the skin of her teeth.

There wasn' too much to take from this episode about trading, although the comment was made that if you do your homework before taking a position, then you will have more confidence in it even if it moves against you.

There was also a moment where Simon had no clue how to react to a situation, and it was stated that traders should always have a plan. Very true. How well I remember those 'deer in the headlights' moments in my early days where the brain stops working!

And there was a reference to the psychology section of their training, something I would like to have seen much more of. Knowing how the market will react to different scenarios is arguably the single most important element to making money on the betting exchanges.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Im glad you mentioned that Cassini (about the "novice mistake" of closing too quick) as I had the same reaction as yourself when I saw it.

The only thing I can think of was that the voiceover guys comments were correct given the context of the specific trade (although Im far from certain this was the case) given that it was meant to be made under the "hedge prinicples." For example, the ditherer opened a hedge trade (opposite to an already open trade in another stock) then closed it within 10 mins of opening it when it suddenly went against her.

In this case Id agree that she was wrong to cut her loss so quickly but only because of the context and reasoning behind it when it was first opened. Like the manager said, the longer it was open, the more correlation should occur between the hedge and the opening trade.

Apart from that, I fully agree that the voice over comment was a little surprising to say the least.

Other things I would say about the show is that I too would like to have seen more about the training, plus dont these people use stop losses? Also, cant people execute trades these days without phoning a broker?!

JPG

Cassini said...

Indeed JPG - but maybe if they buy/sell themselves, they get hit with a Premium Charge each week... Well, probably not, since they seem to be losing most of the time!