Suits. No, not your Hugo Boss, that’s for consultants. I’m talking Pal Zileri, custom fitted and tailored straight from Italy. Trips to Chicago, New York all paid for by your firm. Box seats to games and concerts… and working towards that F-you bonus. Yes! Trips in party buses from your billionaire clients to go see his favourite band. Five star food on board. $1000 bottles. More coke. … and the ladies, you don’t even have to tell them what you do because you look so good.
I loved it. I had enough.
I worked commodities. Commodities is F1 racing beside equities Fast Five rice rockets. If you’re not on your game EVERY. SINGLE. F***ING SECOND. You lose or clients lose. I’m talkin your net worth in 3 minutes for one client (happened) F***ing DAX.
You cant fake it in trading. Everything is taped. If its not the clients fault, (acknowledging and order repeated back even though he wanted something else done) it’s your fault. And you pay for it. Your boss asked for a rundown on certain figures and asks you in the most vague way.
For a certain time I worked overnight, trading the Asia and Euro opens. During the crisis in 2009 and 2010, it was exciting to watch the world implode before your eyes while everyone was asleep. Figure that out. He doesn’t care. That’s why he pays you. To know what he’s thinking.
Back to that billionaire.
One night. He was trading AUS/YEN cross’ (he sucked) and he didn’t like that his stop hit. Typically I pretended to call the trader, then put them on hold and pretend to yell at the trader for the hit (or bad fill). This usually satisfied his ego and it made it look like I was going to bat for him. Not this time. I took a 3 hour berating that continued on to the morning guys.
My boss asked me why I didn’t quit after he listened to the tapes. I was confused
“For what?”
“For the way he was yelling at you”
“That’s every night”
Every single rookie broker that I saw come in bright eyed thinking he’s going to be playing golf everyday and have liquid lunches, while the money rolls in, is gone. Ninety Nine percent of them were gone before their first 12 months.
One common theme with the vast majority of all of our clients is they all lost their money. The smart ones never let their emotions get in the way. There weren’t many smart ones.
The markets used to be orderly. It was either an up day, or down day. After 2008 it all changed. Gold can be down $40/oz and 15 minutes later be up $25. That’s a lot of money per contract. Accounts wiped. I did a lot of hand holding. Some of the most successful businessmen ever… Got crushed.
Moving on to the present.
In the Olympics past, there was a controversy that the Chinese women’s gymnastic team was underage. You have to be 16 to compete but they were forging their documents and 14 year olds were competing. They wanted this because the younger they are, the more risks they take. They fly higher, do bigger flips and spins, which wins them gold. To be a successful trader, you need to be a non-violent sociopath. Even more competitive than A-type Navy Seals.
I eventually made it to where I wanted as an Instutional metals trader with the largest trading firm in the world. I declined. After so many years in this race, I wanted different things. Its a young mans game, just like the gymnasts. I know too many that are still in it wishing they were out.
The lure of money forces them back in if they cannot control their lifestyle.
This is the sickest website on the Internet, so glad I stumbled on it. I’m a newb so what in the world is the DAX?
The DAX is equivalent to the Dow Jones 30. It is the German index consisting of 30 companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Just saw this how does a guy lose that much that fast though if it’s a composite shouldn’t that make it less volatile? Thanks for tha fast response!
Great post guys.
Trading futures seriously magnifies gains and losses. This wasn’t trading the index. It was trading the futures on the index. And it was also October 2009 when the credit crisis was in full swing.
Seconded on how someone loses all their money on the DAX. Sounds like an interesting story.
This website is so funny
Great post
This website brings tears of joy to my eyes.
Just donated can’t wait for more.
If money doesn’t buy you happiness you aren’t making enough!!!!!
For some reason I have the feeling this site is going to blow up soon. I’m passing this along to everyone I know.
Favorite line from this post:
“More coke. … and the ladies, you don’t even have to tell them what you do because you look so good.”
This site is great. I’m glad you guys are around. A great complement to the manosphere and the internet in general. Every new post is a window into a world completely different than mine, filled with people aggressively pursuing their desires.
I’m not living out the philosophy, but I know that’s because it’s not for me.
My theory is that 90% of the hate that this site gets – or successful Wall Street types in general – is because you guys are better than everyone else. The haters, like you, embrace the values of the modern world: radical individualism and materialism.
But they do it wrong. They misinterpret what it is, or tack on things that aren’t related. A materialistic world is a competitive one, and there’s no room for equality there. By definition, there’s no spiritual aspect to it, either.
Whether or not you abandon those rhetorical contradictions dictates whether or not you will be a success by society’s standards. Weird things occur when people don’t: they read Cosmo and buy designer jeans, but would support schemes to turn society upside down “to help the working class,” at least in the abstract, as long as they don’t have to make any sacrifices. To them, there’s no contradiction in this, until they find out how much money, paperwork and bureaucracy it takes to “maybe start a business someday” and maintain it. That is, whenever they get around to it (read: never). These are the same people who grapple with the fact that the CEO of Whole Foods is a pro-free market libertarian. They might even call themselves “spiritual, but not religious” or maybe they proudly wield the banner of atheism. In any case, they suck.
You guys cut the bullshit and have boiled it down to two actionable goals, for young men at least: money and pussy.
To this end, you have more effective strategies than anyone else.
You pursue those strategies more vigorously than anyone else, in both effort and efficiency.
You’re better than them, and this is why they hate you. If the modern world is the best possible world, or even better than the one that came before it, then there’s no reason not to be a Wall Street Playboy.
Keep up the good work fellas. I’ll send you a few bucks.
Damn Slayer you sure get the point of this website.
We’ll be coming out with something very interesting tonight. If there is something you’d like to see you let us know, money always talks. We’re here to help.
I love how this article ended:
“The lure of money forces them back in if they cannot control their lifestyle.”
Men, get paid and get laid. Keep your finances in check and save/invest 35%+ of your take home pay. You will be out of this rat-race sooner than you know it and able to semi-retire on your own terms while others continue to wonder where their money went.
Keeps up the good work gentlemen!
Can we stop needlessly praising this website? Okay, we get that you like it. I love it, and that’s why I come here. But honestly, me sitting here talking about how much I appreciate these guys adds nothing to the discussion.
On a side note, I’m an aspiring wall street banker. I’m 19 and I work my ass off everyday. I know it’s not easy and sure as hell not fun. If you could give someone in my position one “rule” to abide by, what would it be?
What school do you go to (target or non-target)?
What part of banking do you want to go into?
That’s all that is needed if you’re only 19.
“After 2008 it all changed. Gold can be down $40/oz and 15 minutes later be up $25. That’s a lot of money per contract. Accounts wiped.”
I traded ecbot and eurex prop and my own account. volatility like 2008 is how you make money. fuck orderly markets. You cant spread/scalp orderly markets very well. algorithms run those markets now. only bad traders blow up when shit goes crazy. volatility = money
you are 99% right.
Volatility is the money maker, but equally the loser. What happened during 2008/09 was the markets moved so damn fast that sometimes you didn’t have time.
Computers have time.
Humans have emotions
What’s the secret to be a good commodities trader?
Understand your market and read a metric shi*tton of books on commodities trading?
Sounds interesting.
Overnight – what was the sleep schedule?