LOL. Yeah. Though he does trade and has held live trading seminars. So, he's not a MAVEN. Would you settle for "quasi-wizard?"
I have heard of other interesting bond pit folks other than Baldwin - Gelber, Kenyon, Steidlmeyer... I am sure there are other legends... any stories about non-Baldwin wizards - or semi-wizards?
Steidlmeyer (the developer along with the CBOT of Market Profile) never traded in the bond pit. He was in the grains. Gelber talks about his pit trading in Wizards (2?) but he was MUCH more of a desk jockey with a primo lineup of commission heavy institutional biz. Kenyon was of the 90's generation and traded HUGE. Very much a one tick processor. There were a few guys who traded Baldwin type size. Dick Pfiel.(sp) Dick was a superb trader who traded around levels and he'd single handedly keep a lid on things if he thought sellers would later respond to higher prices. The Moore brothers were also huge. John Moore was Baldwins college roommate and made about 13 mill one year and then retired. Rob Moore is partners with Jim Heinz in Marquette Partners. Heinz and R. Moore were both 2 mill a year type guys who've made tens of millions with Marquette.
Pits are obviously the same no matter where they are. This is typical pit behavior, and if you wanted to succeed, you had to go with the flow. After 5 years in the pit, I know I couldn't take it anymore. The worst part, to me, was the constant fighting over nickels and dimes and size. Wasn't for me.
cool, Pabst - just googled Marquette - looks interesting... I like how they describe themselves as "liquidity providers".
I have met Tom Baldwin at the CBOT cafeteria once. No affair, relationship or romance was ever in the cards.....sorry
hi pabst you did not mention Charlie D ? I heard he was baldwin's equal but he passed away at a young age due to cancer
stevie cohen (sac capital) was a client of mine...everything you ever heard or read about him and the firm is only half right...the BIGGEST animal trader i've ever encountered...covering them was a full time gig...with no room for mistakes...they would move the market in a blink of the eye..if they were wrong...they'd buy more until they were right...it was as if they knew stuff that the rest of the world didnt...everyone there is very intense..the most intense was stevie....he didnt place his orders..he had 2 assistants do that for him..you could here him in the backround yelling orders...and yelling at his assistants if the orders weren't executed the way he saw fit...and god forbid you did a bad job and stevie got on the phone..you'd go home in tears...overall it was amazing covering them..and he and his staff truly are "market wizards"
well in SAC's heyday of awesome returns (as opposed to just really really good) didn't they insist on getting analyst calls first? and therefore, they did know stuff before the rest of the world; basically, that a stock would be upgraded or downgraded but I've heard that analysts have to treat everyone equal now... I think being high up if not #1 on analysts' call lists was a key edge that Cramer had at one point too... please correct me if I'm way off base here...