Recent content by Bill Pro

Thank you for reading my post and being so open about your struggles. First, you are not alone. Trading is an endeavor that can suck you in and spit you out. A little of my story might offer you some hope. In late 2004, we all on the trading floor could see that our time on the trading floor...

The best (yet still imperfect) analogy I can use is that of Texas Hold 'em. When you traded on the trading floor, you were virtually guaranteed a pair of jacks dealt as hole cards at least once per day. It was still up to you to manage the hand well - a profit was not guaranteed. But the edge of...

I often forget that most traders today have no idea what the trading floor experience was like. The objective was the same - make money. The strategic process was immensely different from trading on a screen. I will unpack this in a future post.

Your 1, 2, 3 approach is excellent!

No regrets in trading? You are indeed a rare commodity. If you are up for it, would you unpack this a bit? Do you have a process to set regret aside after it arises or do you just not experience regret in trading at all?

I like your take on Phil actually being the content person in the pit. I never considered that before. PS: My books are free for the asking.

It’s a Miserable Life – Trading and Depression By now you all have heard of FOMO; Fear of Missing Out. Let me talk to you about FOMO’s cousin, AMO; Another Missed Opportunity. In my previous post, “Back to the Futures – Trading and Accountability”, I spoke about how the nearly 20 years I spent...

Thank you so much for those kind words. I'm not sure how to answer your question as to what was the effective maximum risk of that trade. Any answer would be backward looking because maximum risk exposure calculations certainly did not get made at the front end of trades. I know that sounds...

I actually saved my monthly statement. It was Friday September 3, 2004. March 2005 Eurodollars. (EDH05).

For clarity, 40 and 60 were not the "handle". In this post I am recalling the last two digits of the price that traded. The full price would have been something like 9640 and 9660. I honestly don't remember what the handle was. But I do clearly recall the last two digits of the price that I sold...

Keep in mind that the front-month Eurodollars are the equivalent of the 30 day interest market. So when the short end of the yield curve was locked in at virtually 0.25% for all those many months, the EDs barely moved from April of 2020 to December of 2021. As soon as the fed started to indicate...

Fair warning - this is a VERY long post. It’s been almost 15 years since I left the trading floor, and I still dream about it! I count the 20 years I spent on the trading floors of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the Merc) as among the best years and also the...