Global Macro Trading Journal

[ralph00]

Great profile of Louis Bacon ... instead of arguing with one of his traders when he disagrees, he goes back to his office and places an opposing trade.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/13/louis-bacon-moore-capital/

 

[Martinghoul]

Quote from ralph00:
Great profile of Louis Bacon ... instead of arguing with one of his traders when he disagrees, he goes back to his office and places an opposing trade.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/13/louis-bacon-moore-capital/

A lot of managers do that, actually (i.e. run a hedge book that offsets the risk they don't like which their direct reports have gotten themselves into). Occasionally, risk managers also are given a mandate for that, but I believe that's reasonably rare.

 

[CPTrader]

Quote from ralph00:

Great profile of Louis Bacon ... instead of arguing with one of his traders when he disagrees, he goes back to his office and places an opposing trade.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/13/louis-bacon-moore-capital/

Thanks ralph, for sharing this wonderful profile. Bacon, Druckenmiller, Jones, Kovner, Soros were the greats that inspired me.

Are there any new traders in the mold of Bacon, Druckenmiller, Jones, Kovner, Soros?

 

[Martinghoul]

Quote from CPTrader:

Are there any new traders in the mold of Bacon, Druckenmiller, Jones, Kovner, Soros?

I don't think you can be a new trader and be in the mold of Bacon, etc...

 

[CPTrader]

Quote from Martinghoul:

I don't think you can be a new trader and be in the mold of Bacon, etc...

I mean "new trader" as in traders who came into limelight within the past five to ten years not a brand new rookie trader!

Perhaps Alan Howard of Brevan Howard and Michael Platt of BlueCrest fall into this category of "new traders in the mold of Bacon, etc"?

 

[Martinghoul]

Quote from CPTrader:
I mean "new trader" as in traders who came into limelight within the past five to ten years not a brand new rookie trader!

Perhaps Alan Howard of Brevan Howard and Michael Platt of BlueCrest fall into this category of "new traders in the mold of bacon, etc"?

Alan Howard has been around forever (not necessarily running his own fund), so he's probably one of the old ones. Mike Platt, yeah, maybe he's a newer one.

 

[CPTrader]

Quote from Martinghoul:

Alan Howard has been around forever (not necessarily running his own fund), so he's probably one of the old ones. Mike Platt, yeah, maybe he's a newer one.

That's true Alan Howard is an old Credit Sisse hand...

Alan Howard & Michael Platt teach me three things (that frankly any good trader should have learned form Paul Tudor Jones in the 1990s. Have a laser focus on losses, cut losses quickly, focus on risk management very very strictly.

many traders seek triple digit monthly returns; the allure of day trading and leverage makes one think you can return 50% every month. You look at these guys and their performance would be subpar by ET standards. 10-20% annually. However, when you can generate 10-20% annually with low drawdowns and volatility, you could probably raise and manage all the money you want!

 

[ralph00]

Quote from Martinghoul:

A lot of managers do that, actually (i.e. run a hedge book that offsets the risk they don't like which their direct reports have gotten themselves into). Occasionally, risk managers also are given a mandate for that, but I believe that's reasonably rare.

Cardiff Garcia (from the FT) on Bacon: "Lessons for hedgies from this article: Hire a few idiots and use their thoughts as contrary indicators."

 

[ralph00]

Quote from CPTrader:

That's true Alan Howard is an old Credit Sisse hand...

Alan Howard & Michael Platt teach me three things (that frankly any good trader should have learned form Paul Tudor Jones in the 1990s. Have a laser focus on losses, cut losses quickly, focus on risk management very very strictly.

many traders seek triple digit monthly returns; the allure of day trading and leverage makes one think you can return 50% every month. You look at these guys and their performance would be subpar by ET standards. 10-20% annually. However, when you can generate 10-20% annually with low drawdowns and volatility, you could probably raise and manage all the money you want!

Remember, it's hard to get massive returns managing as much money as these guys do. Jones has said if you returned him to managing $1M, he would expect to double it in a year.

 

[CPTrader]

I don't question that larger returns can be obtained on $1MM as opposed to $10B. I just think that too many new traders focus so much on generating incredible returns that they assume undue risks which prevents them from even having the viability to continue to trade and generate returns of 10% to 20%.