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The risk management and alpha generation part of the job is not going to get automated away any time soon. The roles that get eliminated are glorified sales people.

You obviously never worked on Wall Street. While it's as close to a meritocracy as it is possible, the deck is stacked against women. It's a structural issue and will take years to correct.

Not true. If you have a strategy that has capacity of 5mm and Sharpe of 3+, you will make more money working for a fund then trading your own account. Payout for higher Sharpe stuff could be as high as 30%, you have capital to draw on and you have a support system. It only makes sense to run...

Actually, Sharpe ratios of 3 and higher are pretty common in high frequency trading. It's also not uncommon for these guys to achieve RoC of 30%, since they turn their capital a few times a day. Main issue, of course, is capacity and half life of the strategy.

Why not buy specific local stocks instead of the index? You can pick industries that will benefit from the recovery more.

In that case I don't understand why they felt they could make more money being an independent trader. If there is one clear drawback to being a PA trader it's capital constraint. Last I check, we spend dollars and not percentage points - so if you are taking home 10% of your P&L and your capital...

I think you are confusing a market-maker in a large sell-side shop with a PM/trader at a buyside institution. A market maker has to be very good at managing risk, but he is sitting on a natural edge - order flow, technology, models, information flow. Most sell-side MMs fail as proprietary...

http://www.hunmcc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/OLIVE-CONFIDENTIAL-April-2016-Kidnap-For-Ransom-Newsletter.pdf http://latinalista.com/columns/globalviews/mexico-fight-end-kidnapping Both links have some stats. The recent numbers from Mexico are rather underwhelming, like 2 to 4 thousand over a...

Problem is that almost any product that has an unlimited upside and limited downside will be statistically rich unless there are natural barriers to entry of some sort. The old adage is that "the cheaper the option, the more overpriced it is". A lottery ticket is an ultimate example of...

My point is that it's a hobby. In that regard it's not any different then my passion for rock climbing or my neighbors love for making model airplanes. It costs money but it's fun and you feel like it's improving your life. I guess if you get good at it, you can come up with professional quality...

Well, there are two sane ways of thinking about it and unfortunately we rarely see it here on ET. Way number one - you are working a regular job and trying to do a little bit better then buying passive index ETFs. You start looking at maybe doing this or that, but you still have another source...

I am not, so I can tell you that despite all of the above (Bloomberg, good data sets, solid IT resources) it's hard to make money when your expected revenue is in tens of millions. My experience has been that people who figure it as private traders do it by using the edge of being small. Once...

I know a dude that trades long/short from home. His entire book is composed on the stuff that no institution would touch (you know, "shit names" with 20mm in market cap). He is able to get the type of information and mis-pricing that disappeared from the pro environment some 15 years ago - stuff...

I am trying to see what information advantage you are talking about. If anything, there is a great advantage to being small - if you figured out a way to track down inside(ish) information, you not gonna leak and chances of getting caught (or, chances of prosecution if you do get caught) are...

That and maybe technology and market access (e.g. I have access to OTC products, while small size traders do not). Small traders enjoy tiny capacity requirements, low liquidity needs, no yearly reset of P&L, no regulatory framework etc.

I am still catching up on Season 1... and I will never talk about At The Money options the same way ever again...

Indeed it's beyond the scope. However, let me translate this into my own language and you tell me if I am understanding you correctly. Are you selling vol as a part of some sort of relative risk premium strategy? And so you feel that in a low vol environment it's easier for you to find some...

Out of curiosity, how does that work out with vol being mean-reverting? E.g. when you are selling vol at extreme (say selling 3-month variance at 25), you know that your downside is limited, at least somewhat. On the other hand, when selling vol at historical lows (say selling the same tenor...

Yes, but how much did he pay for it in real estate taxes and maintenance? If you look at the numbers I posted, per decade total return of an average home did beat the S&P, especially if including average rent savings. The real estate taxes and maintenance make a big difference though - for...