well, i went. dopey me forgot to write down what booth maverick was at. duh. yeah, i should have posted something like "wear a dark blue sticker over your nametag, = ET" or something like that. there's no ET booth, just a media partner or something like that. lots o' stuff geared for commodities and currencies. realtick didn't have a huge booth; a smaller one outside NYMEX, NYBOT, CBOT there...nasdaq (is someone buying their new platforms?). there were several areas where there were chairs and sofas to sit down when there weren't booths...and some booths empty, so they were taken down. i talked with a few people just to see who was there. a lot of people who are newer to the markets and/or unsuccessful. i didn't hear many non-presenter people who were successful over a period of years. i contacted a couple people on ET i was hoping would be there, to say thanks and hi; neither would be there, and i understood their reasoning. the big 'theme' that i detected is that stocks aren't trading as cleanly as they used to, that the other markets tend to be where things are better. of course, with the PDT rule, people are more likely to move from stocks to (grains, forex, etc.), take on huge size where there's more significant moves than stocks, and blow themselves out faster than in equities. yet another unintended consequence of a terrible rule. a real tight supply of freebies being given out. i wasn't looking for them (in fact, 2 of my few ones came from one of my vendors, when i stopped by to thank them for the job they were doing). my gut is saying the money from these things comes from newer/unsuccessful traders who don't know what they want but a clear path to success, and will pay for multiple things to find what they perceive is the right one. it's a lot cheaper than it was (5, 10, 15, 20) years ago, but i think that's what keeps this show going. at 7+ years on my own, i never think of myself as experienced, but compared to most of the (non-vendors, presenters) i obviously was. and as a final note...WD-50 tasting menu was very interesting. tons of unique flavors / combinations i'd never expect. expensive, but i know the time to prepare each one is substantial, so worth the bill. one of my friends paired the tasting with the wine menu, and said each one was very good.
i am still amazed that in this day of "freeflow of info " some futures brokers (whom i wont embarrass) think they can quote outragiously expensive commissions .......amazing ?????????????
i am here now using the amazing sprint EVDO network from the bar. its pretty much the same old same old-- met some cool trading media industry people, saw maverick several times and several hot females--well, one ultra hot one-- HA! woodie is here with the same old follower looking people milling about him. what i found interesting is the number of FX dealers who have absolutely no differentiation from the next one. One of these guys had a huge booth full of bunnies and expensive looking swag--- however there is no difference between them and the others. what there business model is, I have not a clue. How can these guys compete, they are all the same. its a commodity in an of itself--- they should all merge to survive. there must be a tremendous amount of money in that business, but i dont think its coming from US based traders. best, surfer
The Best: Altucher. He was great this morning on his quantitative strategies. he writes for thestreetdotcom, FT, wrote the book "Trade Like a hedge Fund" and he manages a fund of funds. The worst: Sunny Decker and his Best Choice Software. All he does is quote satisfied traders who made 100% in a few weeks of his bogus system. Aronsen did a great neural net presentation and the think or swim guys were great as usual Best eye candy: the forex booth on the 6th floor to the right as you enter. Wow
The presentations I caught were OK, (which is pretty much what I expected), but the blonde at the forex booth, yeah, 11 out of 10 easily, and the others were at least 9's! JJ
If anyone's interested, I sat in on a couple of Thomas Stridsman's presentations. He has some interesting views on how volatility, range, momentum and price dispersion are the optimal determiners of price action (Up/Down) direction, strength and duration. http://www.thomasstridsman.us/aboutus.html I enjoyed the talks because his was a more scholarly approach (he's original from Scandinavia) to trading, and while many traders disagreed with his findings, I found that they made a lot of sense (i.e., I have come to similar conclusions myself through my experiences and observations). He has alot of his presentations on his website, and you can contact him there also. Good trading, JJ