This is just a slight, random aside. I have no issues with Mr. Trout... never met/spoken to the man, and know little about him besides what was in the Market Wizards book. But why is it just about every other manager (usually trend-following) I've met, not to mention all those wanna-be marketing guys touting their capabilities.... always manages to toss out the fact they worked with Monroe Trout in some capacity?
1) Since Trout, I believe, lives on a "distant" island, it's tough to verify the truthfulness of the remark directly. 2) He may have traded through many, many, many, many different brokers as a way of "obscuring" his trading methods.
Trout is a true master of the game-- managed 400 million at 28 y/o-- first mentored by victor niederhoffer right out of college-- another world class trader from VN's tutelage. surf http://www.boyplunger.com/share/3.html <i>Some interesting vignettes of his trading life can be read in "Markets Wizards", like the day he was at the floor when Secretary of State James Baker had a meeting with Iraq's Foreign Minister, Tariq Azziz back in January of 1991 trying to prevent the "Gulf War". As James Baker started a press conference after such meeting announcing that "Regrettably..." markets exploded, gold, crude and refined products surged while stock indexes went catatonic and Monroe was off of $9.5 million in seconds. Which does nothing to cloud his amazing record of over a 5 year period averaging 67% per year! In the book, he explains how stops and a strict watch over limited drawdowns have contributed to his success as per one of his rules: "Close all open trades and stop trading for the rest of the day/week/month when a pre-determined portfolio drawdown is reached". Many believe Monroe has the best sharpe ratio. In January 2002, Reuters published the following about him: Monroe Trout, one of the world's most successful hedge fund managers, plans to retire from the money management business and will hand the reins of Trout Trading Management Co.Ltd. over to its CEO. The 39-year-old hedge fund manager leaves the firm after it posted a 13.6 percent gain in 2001 because he wants to spend more time with his family, the firm said on Thursday. Last year, the average hedge fund rose 4.4 percent. Matthew Tewksbury, Trout Trading's chief executive officer, will take control of the $3 billion Bermuda-based hedge fund on April 1. Tewksbury, 32, is already running the day-to-day business and Trout will continue to act as a consultant for the firm. Trout has delivered one of the industry's most enviable records, posting an average annual gain of 21.5 percent with no losses since he started the firm 14 years ago. Trout Trading trades currencies, bonds and stocks around the world.Its founder leaves the industry just as so-called global macro hedge funds are delivering the types of out-sized returns that made them famous years ago. In 2001, global macro funds topped all other strategies with an 18.4 percent gain while the average hedge fund returned 4.4 percent, according to the CSFB/Tremont Hedge Fund Index. Global macro funds turned in a dismal performance in 2000 when the industry's biggest players, George Soros and Julian Robertson, both suffered big losses. Trout -considered by some as a quant trader while others think of him as a discretionary one- is also leaving at a time many high profile hedge fund managers are closing their doors. Last year, Bowman Capital's founder Larry Bowman said personal preferences and market pressures led him to close down his fund. But in Trout's case "this has nothing to do with bad performance, quite the opposite," a source close to the firm said on Thursday.</i>