Question Of The Week

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ProfitProphet

To all you money makers and money-fakers. Our profession incurs more stress than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. This is true whether one is profitable or not. So it is time to bring out your inner Al Capone and think long and hard on this one.

Question: How Would You Run A Criminal Enterprise?


Fact is, I used to be a petty criminal. It occured to me recently what I learned as an oultlaw helps me greatly in my trading. The most important three being..

1. Know ALL the risks for the profit you're seeking.

2. Always Always Always follow your own rules. More than likely, a certain rule was established after a hefty cost.

3. Know when to cut your losses. Is this worth 10 years in the Clink? No? Then get the fu*k out now.




Some things to consider. Would your empire encompass all criminal activities, or just a few favorites? Is there an "ethical" line you would not cross? Ex: Selling drugs to children. Would you prefer to operate more from guile, violence or both?



I think crime does not pay. However, if ones makes profits very quickly, uses at least 50% of all gains in the very beginning to pay off and hire the right people. Once that infastructure is in place, then you might have a chance. And once established, KEEP IT LOW KEY. No flashiness a la John Gotti. Flaunting only attracts attention. You don't want the people on your payroll to be forced to act against you from public outcry.

Bring out your inner Al Capone. It WILL make you a better trader.
 
I dont know what to say, I think this isn't appropriate for this board. However, you have guts saying you were a petty criminal in your post, but why ask a foolish question like this. Think like a trader!
 
Welcome to the big time!

There are a lot of criminals on Wall Street and in the corporate world so you will feel right at home. They dont steal someone's television set from a house. Instead, they backdate options, trade on inside information, fraud etc.

Then there is the biggest criminal, Jim Cramer. This guy is in a league of his own. He somehow steers ignorant retail investors into these lightly traded equities, his buddies then benefit off of the trade and days later the stock comes crashing down. Some of the retail investors lose thousands of dollars.

Dont worry about being a petty criminal before. You really didnt do much harm. A few dollars here, a few dollars there. All you did was hurt someone's feelings and their loss was not that much in dollars.

This is the big time where you can steal millions in front of everyone and get away with it.

I am glad that you have moved up in the criminal world. Just dont be pumping some penny stock on the Yahoo message board. That is really low in the world of stock trading. Instead, find some way to get into a company and backdate the options. Thats what you should do.

Watch out for that Elliot Spitzer.
 
You guys miss the point completely. I am NO LONGER a criminal. What I learned as a petty outlaw greatly applies to the markets.

Get off the moral high horse and think it through. Organized crime is like any other business with the added risk of being pursued by the government and/ or being offed by a competitor or ambitious insider. Crime is a business. Trading is a business. Trading stocks is analyzing businesses.

Let's put this another way.. How would Al Capone run Wall Street?
 
Profit, fun thread, you are either very young or very inexperienced.
Rule # 1: If you can think of it somebody else has also thought of it.
Rule #2: Execution is all that counts, not the thought, the work is in bringing it to fruition, that process is what will reveal the real potential of the thought.
As to your postulates:
One can never know ALL the risk, there is another thread about trading and gambling on ET, trading is controlled gambling in the sense that the space shuttle liftoff is an controlled explosion. There will sooner or later be that moment when something is not in hand that was believed to be in hand, It's called cherry picking. We all cherry pick the facts we want to believe the most ardently.
Followowing our rules is paramount, don't complicate the rules.
Cutting losses, I offer you a lofty example. Rent the film Heat, there is scene where Deniro's character and crew are in a precious metals heist and he hears the cops that are hiding, he just walks leaving everything behind.
proving your rules 2 and 3. He had no losses. The planning equipt etc. are just overhead . He didn't suffer, that would be a loss. True artist in the game don't ever suffer, they just pay some overhead for the opportunity to play.
Wall street is great example of criminals playing by the bought and paid for rules. How much money did Henry Blodgett cost people, did he see the inside of a jail?
Capone opperated thru hard violence, the street opperates thru soft violence, the violence a rich man can inflict on a poor man in the legal system for instance.
 
How wouls Al Capone run the market?

Let me think...

First he would split the market in to two parts. Part One would operate under a different set of rules from Part Two, the 'retail' side, which would be open to the general public.

Part One would be able to do things like buy at one price and sell at another, or buy treasuries with the proceeds from short boxes.

Whereas the public side of the market would assume most of the risk while paying exorbitant transaction fees in the hopes of gaining casino style profits.

Then he would position his people in the regulatory appartus to ensure the continuity of operations for the inner circle at the expense of the taxpayers.
 
Quote from bcreech:

How wouls Al Capone run the market?

Let me think...

First he would split the market in to two parts. Part One would operate under a different set of rules from Part Two, the 'retail' side, which would be open to the general public.

Part One would be able to do things like buy at one price and sell at another, or buy treasuries with the proceeds from short boxes.

Whereas the public side of the market would assume most of the risk while paying exorbitant transaction fees in the hopes of gaining casino style profits.

Then he would position his people in the regulatory appartus to ensure the continuity of operations for the inner circle at the expense of the taxpayers.
More...

LOL! You beat me to it. Al is running the market.
 
Most ETers take themselves and the business of trading a little too seriously. This thread is an attempt to inject some levity to the ramblings and sniping of the majority of threads.

Its been my experience that I can usually solve one problem by focusing on another, related one. "Pereferal reasoning" I call it.

The plus side of an underground business is unlimited tax free profits. The negative is literally brutal competition from inside and out and the unlimited resources of Uncle Sam coming after you.

One needs to see the big picture at all times, as per trading. I use the analogy of Russian Matryoshka dolls. How one cycle fits within another.

It does not matter if one can see the parallel of crime to trading. I do and use it to my advantage.

But what I am most interested in, is if, one chose to operate an undeground business, would you choose to capitalize on human weaknesses (gambling addicts, lustful husbands) and/or extreme depravity (child prostitution, snuff films)

Are you afraid to explore the dark side of your own psyche?
 
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