John Henry closes shop

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by tortoise, Nov 11, 2012.

  1. the1

    the1

    Pardon my post if it sounded as though I was using 20/20 hindsight as a means of just knowing it was a "just buy" market. Naturally, we all know that now and your point about 2007/2008 is well taken. That being said, however, there was a point in 2007 where I was pretty darn sure the market was going to be volatile for a long time, given the news and such as that time. Fast forward to say...2010, there was a time that I just knew the market was going to keep going up because of Fed intervention. 2009 was a difficult year for me even though I finished in the green. I'm not referring to hindsight; I was referring to experience. Henry has been around for a while and I would think someone in his shop would develop a strategy that would work going back a few years but it seems that wasn't the case, likely b/c of what emg posted above. Old habits are hard to make and no one like change. As I mentioned in an early post....the market eventually gets everyone. Just when you think you got it figured out.....

     
    #21     Nov 12, 2012
  2. He is the first domino to fall, the other big trend followers will be close behind..... mark my words.

    surf
     
    #22     Nov 12, 2012
  3. well, it doesn't get you if you are trying to figure it out, but I will agree, it gets you if you think you have it figured out

    the market isn't any smarter than you are

    as a matter of fact, it's probably stupider, since a lot of dumbshits are trading it

    but it's a helluvalot better to be wrong than it is to be broke

    and I've been both

    and I'll take wrong everytime

    I can recover from being wrong

    But once you are broke you have to get a real job

    There comes a time in every traders life when it makes sense to risk a whole years profits on a big opportunity

    But it's not like it happens very often, and you probably won't make money doing it all the time

    maybe once

    but then get back to trading
     
    #23     Nov 12, 2012
  4. the1

    the1

    Well said OT. Your wisdom and experience is clearly evident!

     
    #24     Nov 12, 2012
  5. d08

    d08

    In that case you were smarter than him. Although, I think his mind was elsewhere by then - there's a point at which you're rich enough to spend most of your time on social juggling and enjoying the riches while the lemmings do the work. When motivation stops but you still have assets, why not keep receiving the fees. He only quit when there was a danger of not being net profitable (management fees). I only saw a few talking heads saying that sort of volatility was expected, volatility that breaks all the previous rules for the decade. What you said is still hindsight, until you really publicly told people to sell in 2007 or took major short positions. What is your view for 2013, soft buy, hard buy, soft sell, hard sell?
     
    #25     Nov 12, 2012
  6. I suggest we be careful with assumptions of HFT. While they do a lot of scalping, they are branching out into other kinds of trading using AI.

    I think that the reason that low volatility markets are tough is that scalpers and market makers have the edge. Volatility stops are too close to random noise and it is tough to separate legitimate moves from fakes
     
    #26     Nov 13, 2012
  7. So you are saying that a general hedge fund rule is: the more money you manage, the older and uglier your girlfriend should be!
     
    #27     Nov 13, 2012
  8. d08

    d08

    I meant the football teams :)
    But all kidding aside, it's not great to "make it" because destination is the fun part, or so I imagine. Although, an upgrade from 1 sexy young wife is 1 sexy young mistress if he didn't have that yet.
     
    #28     Nov 13, 2012
  9. when I started out, my friends/clients were young and unmarried. They opened with 5k (sometimes less) and they liked big risks. Over time, we all got more conservative. That's just the nature of the beast. I think some of these guys just took OPM and had a midlife crisis with it.
     
    #29     Nov 13, 2012
  10. ============
    I wonder why Mr Henry did not consult you before he retired?????

    Maybe because a 63 yrar old trend follower has a'' bias????''

    Keep wondering, you may find an answer in 60 years??;
    Hope this helps ;it helped me

    LOL:D :cool:
     
    #30     Nov 13, 2012