Highlights: The best part of the trip, no doubt, was meeting up with fellow traders from ET, including Lescor, tntneo, Dustin, Jaan, Shreddog, PatrickQ, Szeven, RedInk, mnx and Wayne. Many of us also brought our wives, and a good time was had by all, chatting in lounges, eating in restaraunts. Several of us took the Maverick helicoptor tour of the Grand Canyon => Very nice and highly recommended. The Hotel at Mandalay Bay was very nice and Strip Steak serves the best steaks that I have ever eaten. I made a few bucks on the poker tables, as well, although the new Expo schedule of Wed thru Sat morning was a bit more difficult for those (like me) that planned to trade all day Wed/Thurs/Fri. Lowlights: The Expo itself sucked. I can say this conclusively, as I've probably been to ~12 of them, dating back to the first one in Ontario, CA back in the tech bubble days. I walked through the Expo booths on three occasions, twice on Thursday, and once on Saturday morning. It was probably the smallest number of vendors that I have ever seen at an Expo. In addition, the vendor selection was the poorest I have seen, in terms of interests for a successful professional trader. The discount brokers were there (E*Trade, ScotTrade, Ameritrade, Fidelity), the snakeoil salesmen were their (VCM, Pristine, and too many others to mention), the number of FX firms represented probably reached a new Expo high, many probably wanting to give you the secrets of easy wealth in the FX markets. Several options firms were in attendance, but since I'm not an options guy, that didn't interest me. Overall, the Expo was a big disappointment. In the past, I have found the great value in talking with the ECN's and exchanges (EDGX, ARCA, INET, Nasdaq). And while Nasdaq was there, none of the ECN's were to be found. In addition, I didn't see a single equity daytrading firm, not Bright, Assent, Genesis, Echo, nothing, prop or retail (except the discounters and option firms like Think-or-Swim). The software firms were no in attendance either. Firms like RealTick used to be Expo regulars (and reliable free T-shirt providers, I might add). Speaking of which, it was a very disappointing year for free T-shirts. I got one (from Trading Markets) and it was one I had to sweet talk out of the girl, as you weren't supposed to get one without buying their DVD (cool shirt though: The Internet - Not Just for Porn Anymore - TradingMarkets.Com). It would have been nice if Baron had organized an ET gathering in a lounge. ET'ers could have worn nametags with their ET nicks and chatted with one another (seems like ET organized one of those at the Marriott Marquis for the Expo in NYC a few years back). I also was looking for an invite for Don to buy some drinks and provide free Bright Trading T-shirts (which I would have worn - free advertising), but no luck with that, either. Anyway, to summarize. I had an awesome time meeting and chatting with friends. I don't regret the trip in the least, and I'll almost certainly be back next year, regardless of how worthless the actual Expo might be. Hopefully, the economy will improve, and the Expo will be more useful next year, as it's been in the past. I have had quite a few Expos, that paid for themselves 10x over, with money saved from what I learned at them, but 2008 in Vegas was not one of them.
Ahh, yes, Timmay was there. All dressed out in a suit. I had to chuckle under my breath as I walked past. Seems he was hawking some sort of low priced stock service (subscription based, I would guess). Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the Expo itself.
they should publish how many vendors bought how many other vendors things. Idayo was my favorite, that guys been making 50% a year for 10 years, and before that was a broker that made his clients 100% a year. Tim Sykes should just go sign up there, work 15 mins a week, and start working what hes got left at 50% a year. Dual income baby! Eric was accurate though, great to meet people, expo terrible, had the Kobe Beef steak (yum!) and drank too much...
he is top ranked on covestor.com AND 12 of his students are in the top 20.... sounds pretty sweet to me. surf
I would have loved to have met that group. That must have been a good time. Uh, did you say, "brought wives to Vegas"? :eek: