Same people roughly so the same capabilities. Americans have the advantage of learning of certain inefficiencies due to being nearer to the big trading centers. On the flipside it's much easier to start as it's common in the culture and overall it's much more accessible but the attitude is also more casual which isn't a good thing. Most of the traders in Europe I know are typically quite dedicated, even obsessive - nothing casual about it for them.
If you are asking about results -- to wit: "Do European traders get better results than American traders?" -- that would be a rather simple empirical question. But to ask whether European traders are "better" than American traders -- that's not so answerable. Think of it as a Nature v. Nuture query: • To ask whether the Nature of a European trader produces better results than the Nature of an American trader is silly: we're the same species, eh. • To ask whether our Nurturing differs? The first cut there is to take a so-called European trader and switch their environs with a (typical) American's trading environs -- and vice versa, of course for the (typical) American trader, and then look for differences in results. If any prior discernible differences survive the switch of environs, then you can begin to point the finger at the trader(s), and less so at the markets traded, the circadian rhythms, the order of news cycles, etc. Not to anticipate the answer too much, but my own straw man a priori would be "No. No discernible difference not more robustly ascribable to markets, news cycles, et.al." I just can't science that one for the life of me. The markets wouldn't allow it.
tommcginnis, i thought of your points when constructing this thread/poll. I purposely left it ambiguious. This is an opinion-driven, close-minded, haters and lovers type of forum we all know as ET. ElectricJadedSavant
Can't it be because you're dealing with the cream of the crop? Similar story with Indian IT people - many achieve high ranks in the industry but in reality they are the best of the best, the average IQ of the country is low and with 1.2 billion people there's a lot to choose from.