If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be in the trenches as a hedge fund trader, or simply wondered how your day as a trader compares to others, then you’ll want to read a recent Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader, rumored to be run by John Thomas.
A detailed look at his day of trading during a stormy period was recently featured on Resource Investor. A busy Monday at work actually began on Sunday when the head of the foreign exchange desk at one of Japan’s big banks called to tell him the Bank of Japan was intervening on the price of the Yen. US Treasuries took a nosedive.
By 9:00 p.m., after ferrying his kids to a movie, he gets a call from a friend the People’s Bank of China in Beijing wanting to know whether they should start dumping their Treasuries. The Mad Trader takes a nap after that, knowing it’s going to be a bumpy ride all night.
Sure enough, at 2:00 a.m., a former colleague at Morgan Stanley calls from a private bank in Geneva to mention that outgoing European Central Bank President, Jean Claude Trichet is not supporting a financial stability initiative. The Euro is in freefall, which is good news for the Mad Trader, because he’d gone short on the Euro in a previous trade.
And so it goes. A 3:00 a.m. call from a New York trading house about the impending (at that time) demise of MF Global. A 6:00 a.m. call from his website administrator about a hacker attack on his website. By 6:30 a.m. the MF bankruptcy story is confirmed.
His trading day kicks in around 8:00 a.m. with a call from a leading hedge fund in London. Should they continue to short the Euro overnight? And so on.
It’s a fun look at the day’s activities for a busy and well-connected hedge fund trader and author, with a sizeable Internet following of investors and advisors following his prognostications. It’s also filled with charts that show the trends he’s following on screens as they play out during the day. You can read the whole post at Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader.
What’s your take? Does the excitement of having your finger on the pulse of world financial markets get short shrift in most media accounts of hedge fund trading? Add your comments below.
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Being involved in the World Financial Markets is pulsating. One needs to stay balanced and focused. Do not get caught up in all the NOISE!! Manage your risk to be able to come back another day and trade.
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