Sounds like a wordy version of "variant perception", used by one of many Market Wizards from Jack Swager's excellent book. Basically when the herd believes something to be true, you position for when reality checks their math, and weighs them wanting..... I'm not smart enough to do this. The only time I make money is when it's basically raining from the sky, when it's so easy to just get a bucket and sit there catching it. 90% of the time this does not happen, and it's better to do nothing.
why? It’s an interesting story of one day of one guys experience on the city rates desk. a slice of life.
Once again, traders only tell their best stories. That wanker probably lost that amount and way more, otherwise he would be famous.
Of course traders only talk about their best stories, especially if you are selling something. Supposedly, he resigned at the age of 26 because he got burnt out. If his comp numbers are real, he would be in the top 1 or 2 of his analyst/associate class.
Not really, he didn't tell much about how he made that trade. I guess that was just the bait for the book. It would be a lot more interesting to see the process for choosing those overnight indexes. Telling that he lost some amount and then recovered because of a catastrophic event is just luck. Essentially it was a revenge trade looking to offset some loses. He was really lucky.
I too read this book. Well, about halfway through before literally throwing it across the room. This dude just incessantly drivels on and on about the boring ass drama at work. Maybe the other half might have something of value, but I have no wish to find out. If you're out to find a trading gem, I say look elsewhere.
Well, given the nature of his trading (FX swaps), and where he was doing it, I didn’t really expect to learn anything that would apply to me. It was strictly for entertainment and a glimpse inside a world to which I would otherwise not have any access.