Pro NY trader goes from 200k salary down to 25k

It's all about the dangers of low liquidity... Instead of cash, he's stuck with a NY condo, a highly illiquid asset right about now, which he's unable to fund.

The moral of the story is that home ownership comes with a downside that has been neglected, but is now, for many, realized.
 
Quote from joemiami:

Read the story in the link....

If a guy is making $200k a yr trading crude and then loses his job, how in the world is it he doesnt have 5-10k and/or the skills to trade on his own as a daytrader and make it?

:confused:


http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/107145/From-Ordering-Steak-and-Lobster-to-Serving-It
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First of all, ANYONE who earns a $250,000 income but doesn't stash enough away for his own trading made some wrong moves.

Didn't he learn anything @ the Merc??! ::Incredulous::

I HATE AMERICAN CONSUMERISM & although I do well I buy very little.

This guy should've read Kiyosakis' RICH DAD, POOR DAD, so he could learn the difference b/w liabilities & assets.

What's he got?

Mortgage debt; KIDS; a wife...etc.

Where's the margin accounts? physical gold/silver? CDs? Rental income, etc.?

Nothing but liabilities.

AND THAT OTHER GUY! 'I USED TO HAVE THREE CARS'

Great job, buddy. Three cars is MUCH better than an extra $20-$50k at an FCM where you can PLUNGE OIL, GOLD & STOCKS!!!!

If these negative economic trends continue, only the successful futures traders will be able to buy anything.

I feel VERY BADLY for these people who've lost jobs; yet I'm skeptical that they've learned much.

ASSETS ARE BETTER THAN LIABILITIES.

$200 bottle of wine is a waste of money, regardless of your income.

Sorry for venting, but this article's really not a human interest story; it's a lesson about the difference between liabilities & assets.

A good trader should be able to take $50k and make $25k / year off it.
 
Everyone that I knew from an exchange wanted to get out of there at all cost.

Many had blown-out several accounts before they were profitable.

This story is just another tuff luck. Too bad... Many of these so called traders are just order takers with no great insigt to the market and it's movements.

Sorry you lost your job, how many people lost money because of your market activities.

Best Wishes

Greg
 
Quote from jeb9999:

The WSJ article refers to Mr. Araya as a trader, but the reality is that he was not a trader, he was a floor broker filling customer orders.

"He had a knack for the Merc job. He could gauge from the roar of traders' voices how the market was faring. He gained loyal clients, and was confident enough to engage in profane shouting matches with them on the phone. Mr. Araya still has dreams about the hand signals traders use to indicate orders."
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Exactly.

Floor brokers don't know how to trade. All they can do is try to jump in front of another guy and get a few pennies or find a way to unload crap on some unsuspecting customer account so that his boss' account look golden. They don't know how to trade until they have to think sitting behind a desk staring at a screen.
 
It looks like he's a floor guy; Besides, not all institutional strategies are portable. Try to lease an oil tanker like JPM just did for doing basis arb and see how that works out for a IB account.

Quote from nkhoi:

This guy doesn't know how to use a computer to find out all he needs to know to get back into the game.
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the guy with 200K salary ordering $200 wine ,spending every penny, thinking that he is the king of the world and the salary can only go up and it will last forever is an idiot.
idiot x2 if he can't trade his own account..ooh...i forgot..he doesn't have one..
 
He was selling buggy-whips. Paper was moving to the screen. He had no business getting entangled in a 1MM property under the guise that his commute was reduced. I feel for his kids as you can't choose your parents. The guy will never earn half what he did as a floor broker.
 
Quote from cstfx:

Exactly.

Floor brokers don't know how to trade. All they can do is try to jump in front of another guy and get a few pennies or find a way to unload crap on some unsuspecting customer account so that his boss' account look golden. They don't know how to trade until they have to think sitting behind a desk staring at a screen.
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Agreed.

He was not a floor TRADER.
He was a floor BROKER executing orders for customers . . . some of whom were hedge-funds who are no longer around anymore.

He was probably executing a couple of thousand contracts a day for the little 3-4 man brokerage outfit that he was working for as a floor broker. When order flow "dried-up" their revenues got slashed and so did his SALARY and BONUS.

Unfortunately, his resume does not have any skills that can be realistically transferred to an upstairs TRADING position with the commodities division of an investment bank, or that of a hedge-fund.

And let's not forget how much of your income gets eaten up by taxes in NYC, including the 4% New York City tax . . . My guess is that his actual take home pay from the $200,000 was in the vicinity of $110,000

That's the cold, hard, stark reality of being a floor broker on one of the more successful commodities exchanges in NYC when the hedge-fund community goes through a HUGE contraction.
 
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