As a social experiment it was certainly interesting, as a piece of theatre it had its moments, but as a trading experiment did it offer much at all?
After procrastinating for the last two episodes, Lex and Anton (sounds like a couple of celebrity chefs) finally got rid of the blo*dy annoying Cleo.
"Do you think she'll cry when we fire her?" asked Lex
"For sure" replied Anton.
And she did not let us down! The floodgates opened and as she frantically wafted her hands around her face, it all became too much for her.
The response from the trading room was pure theatre, with Emile deciding to show solidarity he proclaimed "you can't treat people like that!" he picked up his bag and headeded for the exit. Amit and 'Social trader Dude' took this a signal to head for the door too - no doubt relieved to have an excuse to leave.
As the proverbial dust settled, it was interesting that the 3 remaining traders Oki, Mike and Caroline would have placed in the top 4 traders of the group (Emile being the other). Lex's $1million was swiftly carved up amongst the remaining 3 and Anton issued his now customary order "Lets go make money". With two weeks to go in the experiment and only 5 minutes to run on the episode, it was clear that not much happened in these last two weeks. Sure enough we cut to the last day and as the traders closed out their positions and cashed up, I did not get the feeling that much money had been made.
Perhaps surprisingly, Oki was the star performer with a 1% return, with Caroline delivering a 0.5% return and Mike posting a small loss of 0.5%. Not at all bad considering the market turmoil. It made them all feel better when Lex revealed he had lost 0.7% during the same period.
So, here are a couple of takeaway items from Million Dollar Traders
1. Having a point of view backed up with a clear rationale is key to success (Plan your Trade, Trade your Plan)
2. Build your portfolio - invest all your cash (Please note: This doesn't mean risk all your cash). I'd add to this - It's ok to have a cash element in your portfolio (or put another way, a low risk investment vehicle, like a bond or gilt)
3. If you don't have a plan, don't trade
4. It's harder to make money in a falling market
5. It's even harder with increased volatility
6. Emotional intelligence aids success (Eliminate Fear and Greed and try not to cry too much:))
7. Their is no substitute for experience
8. Not all city traders are ar*seholes!! (Personally I thought Lex and Anton were reasonable, logical and fair)
9. Trading can be taught, but really successful traders have natural character traits that help them succeed.
