Best/ worst colleagues you've had in trading?

Discussion in 'Trading' started by pinetboltz, Feb 2, 2022.

  1. pinetboltz

    pinetboltz

    there's a saying how people are the average of 5 friends they're closest to

    but given the time we spend at work, it figures that the habits/ perspectives/ thought processes of colleagues probably rub off as well

    just wondering what are some of the best or worst colleagues you've had over the years and how did that affect your trading?

    a decade into this for me, some of the best so far who helped my own approach:

    - guy who had all these complex positions no one else understood, but it made sense to him somehow, and he knew that specific segment better than most, which gave him the confidence to put a lot of size behind his ideas. i learned early on from observing his success it's ok to do things with your own flavor/ plan of attack as long as there's a legit reason

    - there was also a history major who got into tech stocks, who was never about the minutiae etc but focused on the big picture and overall narrative and more often than not got those right. he was real savvy in the sense of reliably predicting what the market wanted to hear at which point in time, and never let any of his perceived weaknesses stop him from winning in a competitive arena like trading tech stocks

    - younger dude who came from lower middle class background who was extremely motivated, put 100% of effort into everything, figured out ways to make money that was creative and the byproduct of him having done so much homework, that kind of energy was infectious to say the least

    and then the not-so-good ones:
    - there was a (relatively) successful guy who had huge swings in PnL, and whenever he had a drawdown in his strategy there'd be like a toxic cloud around him...yeah more so than within "normal" range lol...everyone else probably noticed it too bc his workspace eventually got moved to a separate area
    - and another person (analyst, not trader) who had like the reverse midas touch, in that you knew any idea she pushed was going to flop within a relatively short period of time. those of us who realized this started to avoid those pitches, as didn't want to get our own thought processes affected
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2022
    vanzandt and Axon like this.
  2. On my discord I mercilessly mock anyone who trades on hope. That has kept the discord full of winning traders who can take a joke.

    Other than that I've never traded with anyone.
     
  3. Guy who interpreted every fed minutes wrong and went boatload betting on it, despite us saying he got it wrong or even to at least wait for clearness. 4 times in a row. Stopped only when margin called.
     
  4. The guy in the prop firm a few seats further up who would bang the desk in frustration at his frequent errors. Caused me to click the mouse once with a cursor hovering over the DOM. Much shouting ensued.
     
    maxinger likes this.
  5. zdreg

    zdreg

    You should have loaned hmoney to continue
    What is DOM?
     
  6. maxinger

    maxinger

    actually, that is a good way for him to neutralize his negative emotion.
    But it is at the expense of you.
    His negative energy / toxic Fengshui ... is radiating ~ 50 meters from him.
    so keep a distance.


    I am sure he has a sledgehammer ready to smash his computer
    when his negative emotion is at the extreme (perhaps due to massive trading loss).
    that's good as he will not be able to trade for the next few days and hence
    zero trading loss over the next few days.

    If he is carrying a gun or a samurai sword, you'd better change the prop firm.
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2022
  7. maxinger

    maxinger

    Depth of Market / trading ladder.
     
    zdreg likes this.