The world's best trader worked for Bernie Madoff

<b> this is an incredible story from my friend James Altucher with some great trading lessonS. I am barred from posting direct links so go to jamesaltucher dot com for the rest of the story </b>



The Best Trader In the World Worked for Bernie Madoff

Posted by James Altucher on June 21st, 2011 at 4:29 pm Comments: 11 Comments
The night Bernie Madoff got caught for running a $60 billion Ponzi scheme I got a call from my friend “Eddie” (not his real name) who for many years worked for Madoff. I couldn’t tell if he was crying but he was very upset. “I can’t believe it,” he said, “Bernie was like a father to me. Mark Madoff was like a brother to me.” We spoke on and off all night as more news came in and he came to grips with the new world he was living in.

I called Eddie yesterday and said I wanted to write an article about him and how I thought he was maybe the best trader I ever knew. I’ve met and worked with over a thousand traders. I traded for hedge funds. I ran a fund of hedge funds. I’ve written five books on trading.

He laughed. He laughed for two reasons. One is that he never thinks he’s a good trader. Two, he was afraid his name would be used. “I can’t have my name out there. I can’t be associated with Madoff at this point.”

Eddie lived right next door to me for years. We met_ in 2004 or 2003. He always wanted to work with me because he had read my articles and books about trading. I always said no. I never told him the real reason I didn’t want to work with him. The real reason is I would’ve brought his results down. I wasn’t as good as him by a longshot. [See, 8 Reasons Not to Daytrade]

Every day he wanted to talk his trades with me. He’d stop by and we’d chat for an hour or so about his trades. Sometimes I avoided him for a few weeks at a time. Because that’s the moron I am. I don’t really know how to talk to people. My daughter, Josie, would see him in the street and say, “hey, there’s your friend, lets talk to him.” And I would be like, “Josie, shut the F up and keep walking so he doesn’t see us.” But 6 years olds don’t understand. “Why, Daddy, why?” And I wouldn’t explain, leaving a volcano sized hole in her brain about the way humans interact. Oh well, she’ll figure out shame eventually. And it won’t be a pretty lesson.


(I dont know what to make of this. But the resemblance is uncanny)
Eddie worked on the prop trading desk for Bernie Madoff. Not the hedge fund that was later exposed as a total Ponzi scheme. One time we were riding into the city together. He said, “James, what am I going to do? I want to move to the hedge fund side but Bernie won’t let me. He said, ‘you’re not ready for the hedge fund side’ and I can’t understand it. I’ve put up good results on the prop side. I’ve had 35 up months out of the past 36. I’m up a huge amount of money for him. Why won’t Bernie put me on the hedge fund side?”

Since I’m always thinking I came up with a brilliant idea right then and there. One that would not only solve Eddie’s problem but would benefit me immensely. That’s the way I think. “Why don’t you ask Bernie if you could set up a feeder fund into the hedge fund side. I can help you raise the money for it. With Bernie’s results I can raise over $100 million no problem.”

What a stupid stupid man I am. Thank god Eddie just laughed and said, “I don’t know, James. I just want to trade.” _Else maybe we’d all be in jail or suicided by now.


(this guy ran a feeder fund into madoff's fund. He killed himself. His family traces its wealth back to the 1600s. Doesn't matter.)
So, on Bernie’s advice, Eddie left the Madoff firm and went working for other hedge funds where he continued to rack up successful year after successful year, proving that it didn’t matter whether he was at Madoff or sitting at home, or sitting anywhere for that matter. He knew how to trade. I saw him trade everything from stocks to carbon credits, to electricity futures to fish oil futures over the years. He’s married to a beautiful wife. Has beautiful kids, lives on a farm with views in every direction. Collects beat up race cars and fixes them. He escaped the misery.

Some stories. One time Eddie brought me in to meet Madoff. I’ve written about this before and why they rejected me. But one thing Mark Madoff (R.I.P.) told me was, “See all these traders out there”, and he pointed out all the prop traders sitting on the desks outside his glass office. “Most of them are useless. Computers are better than them.” I think Mark Madoff was legit and didn’t know what was going on. Maybe he was also stupid and turned a blind eye, which one can argue makes him just as illegal. But he seemed focused on just building up the prop side, which I knew through Eddie was completely legit.

[See, 10 Reasons You Should Never Invest in Stocks again]


(Mark had it all. Then killed himself)
Another story: the night Madoff got caught Eddie was telling me, “oh man, if I had stayed there I probably would’ve lost a million dollar bonus. I can’t even imagine what all those guys are going to do.” A few weeks later I ran into “Meade” (not his real name). He had earned and then lost well over a million dollar bonus when the Ponzi scheme was revealed. I think there’s a trial still going on because he once ran Andrew Madoff in the street and beat the crap out of him. A lot of pain happened. Eddie was lucky. But there’s always a reason people are lucky.

One time a woman from Minnesota called me after I wrote an article about Madoff. She had lost her entire $800,000 savings. She was 57 years old and retired. She was crying on the phone. “What am I going to do now? I have no money.”

Its horrible. I told her. But let’s just focus for a second. Do you have any interests? “I used to love designing furniture,” she told me. Ok, I said, Do you believe in God? I do, she said. Ok, I said, now we have to get real for a second and you have to do what I tell you: put your house up for sale immediately and get the equity out of that. Then you’re going to have to work. You have to understand this. The world is different now. The money is gone. And all throughout this, you’re going to have to pray every day to God. He wants you to do well.

She was crying. But she agreed. She said, “And what is it with all the jews? They keep saying in the newspaper that the jews lost all their money with Madoff. They forget about all the Christians who lost money with Madoff also. We’re all good Christians in Minnesota.”

Another time I ran into “Howard J” (who I wrote about in “All You Have to Do is Ask”) and he said to me, “Jimmy, what are these people going to do? They’re 80 years old. They play golf every day. They thought they had $3 million with Bernie. Now they have $0. Their only choice is to kill themselves. You’re going to see non-stop suicides in the next few months.”

I followed Eddie’s trades almost every day for years. I can tell you what I thought made him a great trader.

A)____ He’s probably the most humble trader I know. He never thinks he’s a good trader. He moved into the smallest house in the world, a thousand ...........


<i> I'm not allowed to post direct links, so go to jamesaltucher dot com to read the rest on how the world's best trader trades </I>

 

Have not read the whole thing but Kudos to James Altucher for not releasing Eddie's real name....










but releasing enough info instead for many to figure it out on their own

 

For fuck's sake Surf, if you copy limited lines at least copy the relevant part. Half of your post wasn't even about the trader...

But anyhow, it just shows Madoff was an idiot, if he had such a good trader there was no reason to run a Ponzi...

 

Succinct would be nice. "Best" is a strong word. Lacks credibility.

Q. More importantly, why bring 2 year old shit?????

A. Content

Altucher looks like somebody I would have dicked around in junior high. In high school he'd been pulling my jersey over my shoulder pads. Daily. Like an unpaid personal valet.

Not too long ago he was on Kudlow (mother's milk better than cartoons) and the clown Altucher was on extolling the virtues of Apple along with quantified projections. LOL He admittedly didn't have a position. Bit of a paradox, eh?

Content. Not cun tent, ..............con tent.

Might try eating some of his own cooking.

 

I knew Eddie and used to talked to him and meet him personally. He was a confused trader who was constantly burning money in the market. I am surprised he is called the best trader. Word is cheap. Let's call him the best in history of human being.

 

A Writer Writes - Always

 

Let me explain,

Marketsurfer is a selfpromoter so he has never been in a company of anyone just average. Everybody who talks to him get rewarded by " THE BEST " title forever.

 

LOL

 

James Altucher

* Throwing big names around
* Acting superior
* Promoting himself on ET
* Talking big money

If it quacks like a duck then it probably is a duck: self promoter. Remember, he tells you don't invest but pay someone like himself to invest for you because he's sooo smart. Maybe he'll share his wealth of knowledge for $29.95? I'm expecting something like that soon. This is the lead up.. all the posting articles, etc.. we'll see it.

 

James Altucher wrote and titled that article, not marketsurfer.

Surf.