Experienced, successful traders, how did you get started?

Discussion in 'Trading' started by bmoney, Nov 12, 2019.

  1. Overnight

    Overnight

    I think you're drinking the chivas. I was telling IAlways to not follow your resume' of...

    "I trade vol all through college. I also.."

    ...with "meep meep". Sorry you missed the context.
     
    #11     Nov 12, 2019
  2. destriero

    destriero

    omg, you had to re-quote the entire post?

    I was stating that it smacks of elitism. It's not. I am a degen.
     
    #12     Nov 12, 2019
  3. Overnight

    Overnight

    K, I fixed it for you! Jeez, we're off kilter tonight. Usually we gel. :) It's all context, man. Oi.
     
    #13     Nov 12, 2019
  4. destriero

    destriero


    I don't drink. "Drone strike incoming Amazon delivery inbound!"
     
    #14     Nov 12, 2019
    Overnight likes this.
  5. IAlwaysWin

    IAlwaysWin

    Not everyone can be a Jordan Belfort like destriero. I come from a simple background.
     
    #15     Nov 12, 2019
  6. destriero

    destriero


    I'll take simple. My dad had two families (wives) and two separate households for decades. Found out about the half-siblings after he went debit for $6MM.
     
    #16     Nov 12, 2019
    zghorner, Snuskpelle, orbit23 and 2 others like this.
  7. fan27

    fan27

    Man...when is "@destriero the movie" coming out? Lot's of interesting material there! I am envisioning a scene where one of your half-siblings shows up on your door step asking you to teach them how to trade vol :)
     
    #17     Nov 12, 2019
  8. bone

    bone

    Started trading the evening pit session at the CBoT whilst keeping my day job as a Nuclear Engineer for Commonwealth Edison. I leased a Full Evening Seat for like $200 per month or something. Cleared TransMarket Group and was mentored in spread trading by Ray Cahnman. Things really took off for me when Project A and the evening Globex electronic trading sessions started - all of a sudden I had all of these inter market spread vehicles available to me and electronic FIFO order matching was a hell of a lot better for me than the old boys club in the pit.

    What helped tremendously was keeping my full time job; it allowed me to learn at a reasonable pace without forcing trades and pressing. I learned how to buy bids, sell offers, make markets, and get into and out of the market like a mechanic before I started spread trading futures and occasionally options.

    I'm of the opinion that it's a disaster in the making for someone to just take a wad of cash, quit everything, and then decide they're going to trade as a full time job without any sort of background or viable trading system.
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2019
    #18     Nov 12, 2019
    raVar, trader99 and comagnum like this.
  9. bone

    bone

    There was a bizarre bit of fortune that got me started in the OTC energy field.

    Tom Donovan, the CEO of the CBoT, asked the CEO of Commonwealth Edison (James O'Connor) to sit on the Board of the CBoT (Irish Mafia). As luck would have it, Ray Cahnman (TransMarket), Bobby Corvino, and a couple of floor brokers who worked the evening pit session were also on the Board. James O'Connor shows up at the first meeting, and out of nowhere half of the Board of Directors tells him that they know a Nuclear Engineer that works for him. (My badge name was "NUK"). And I am told he was perplexed.

    A couple weeks later I get a page at Zion Nuclear Power Station - it's James O'Connor's Executive Assistant telling me to report at the nineteenth floor in the First National Bank Building the following Monday morning - and that I am no longer a Nuclear Engineer and that I am going to help a recent executive hire from Lehman Brothers start up an energy trading desk for Commonwealth Edison.

    So that's how that happened.
     
    #19     Nov 12, 2019
    TooEffingOld, raVar and Real Money like this.
  10. gaussian

    gaussian

    Energy? As in Electricity?

    I've always wondered what that was like. The local energy company regularly hires for their hedge desk. I have no idea how you even sell a future in electricity.
     
    #20     Nov 12, 2019