40 years on it'd be interesting to see if those three guys are still around. I've been in this business nearly 15 years and it eats people alive. This is also a great example of how documentaries used to be made and aimed at intelligent people, with none of the phoney 'drama' and dramatic music they have today.
So I guess I’m a kid relatively speaking (mid 20s) and I’ve been working on trading algos for a while but I’m just wondering if you have any tips for what I can do to avoid getting “eaten alive” by this industry. Thanks for any insights you can share.
So I guess I’m a kid relatively speaking (mid 20s) and I’ve been working on trading algos for a while but I’m just wondering if you have any tips for what I can do to avoid getting “eaten alive” by this industry. Thanks for any insights you can share.
And today Retail traders get emotional not realising they only make money if they only they are on the right side of the market movers like these guys It’s not your methodology that shifts the market. Important to learn the game It’s beautiful when you master the psychology and understand how the machine works and who moves it
Yes Contribute not move. Most retail traders believe when they win its because their strategy was right. Huge error in thinking But that’s because the so called internet trading gurus make the traders believe it’s all about the system
In finance, but definitely couldn't withstand this level of alertness. Much respect and admiration. I especially liked William in HK. There was a sort of intense grace and timing with which he co-opted his buddies.
Shows the diversity of approach - London guy taking 3 pips profit in 3 minutes, Hong Kong guy holding for several hours, New York guy happy to hold overnight if necessary.
8.50 all the excitement is the selling of millions of pounds. I'm more impressed by that dude continually flicking his pen and catching it without looking.
Wow 750 million traded for a 100,000 gain. Nuts just 1 or cents up or down. Luv it l. Just shows you how hard it is to make money in any market. So many players
I love this, as a very specific and visceral slice of the 80’s. I love how the British fellow somewhat resembles Christian Bale, the era and vibe of American Psycho. Also love the glimpe of a future TEXTING WHILE DRIVING epidemic, checking his ticker between gears down the county road. And my goodness the chain smoking!!! Thanks for posting!
Wondering how a video about todays trading would look like, compared to this one, and how many people will watch it in +40years calling it "super retro cool" and "how they miss the good old time" ;-)
To summarized this video of who were the biggest winners and losers since there are only 3 players, the biggest winner was the London trader, 2nd Hong Kong and 3rd American. Thanks!
It did look like the Russian was using some kind of code, prompting Richard to buy 35 million GBPs. Why would you ask others for a range when you can see it on the screen? Seemed more like a heads up "hey we're gonna buy, you should also". They promptly sold what they bought. It couldn't have been planned better.
@@Gunzee Even during the height of the Cold War, the fact that Ivan and Boris were subtly giving Richard and William a nudge and a wink when buying and selling currencies never fails to make me chuckle.
I was working in the currency futures pits at the CME at that time. The atmosphere was electric. Every month when the government would release the merchandise trade balance figures the place went absolutely bananas. It was like the Wild Wild West with all the old robber barons trading in the livestock pits and all the hot shot young guns trading currencies. It was marvelous
@@prathmeshyadav4914 The old Eurodollar Options pit is still open. As of about two weeks ago they're trading a different contract in that pit. I don't know what they call it now but the last euro-dollar contract traded two or three Fridays ago
@@charlesandrews2360 I did MSc financial mathematics quite a few years ago but never got into trading. Worked in investment management for quite a while and now want to do some option trading in my own account. Is it true 95% lose money (retail traders?). Any tips to start out or not worth it?
@@dac8939im a day traders my self doing it for 8years now all i can say is absolutely only 5% are profitable because you really have to be exceptional human to be consistent and deciplined that's where the problem for most people is
These jobs still exist in title, but their job is not trading, but overlooking the robots to make sure they do not do anything stupid, market making and risk management.
He is not “risking” 21m, that is merely his notional exposure. His risk is on percentage changes on the FX rate, which is 2100 GBP per pip (100th of a pct). The rate moved 0.1% or 10 pips and he made 21k, which is not a big number in any professional FX book. Well done nonetheless.
13min10sec “Doesn’t look like there’s much of a trend at the moment so we’ll just play the market based on people’s positions. Take a bit of profit out of it” (Presumably the other institutions massive orders that they can see? The order book?) “They could be buying a little to push the price up before selling a lot” well there we have it gentlemen, the institutions that bust across our retail tight stops. Brilliant docco this one.
Sept 19, 2020: For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it. Psalm 50:10-12
What a wicked documentary. Abit like Trading places but real life. That W. Wong is a very very clever guy....Once a dealer always a dealer and beats the market lol
Its a dealerboard. You press a button and it connects you to a counterparty such as another bank or broker. I used both physical button dealerboards and the touch screens and I personally preferred the physical buttons.
As a currency trader, this is fascinating to watch before trading became fully electronic. It's like watching the era when commodities were traded in the Pits.
As a trader, I question whether you really should even approach it like this... I challenge you to seriously consider it and maybe adjust your trading behavior as to not do this... something about this smells like angst to me, and normally that's not very good... these pros in the video come from a time when it was reasonable to do it... nowadays we have so many automation tools for orders and following PA that we can certainly go without driving and tradingview-ing... don't jeapordize your life over a buck... drive safe! Just this month I had to slam on my brakes on two separate occasions as some asshat drove 50mph straight through a red light without even slowing down, literally clueless, right as I was about to cross their path... luckily I was a professional driver before I became a professional trader... would have been dead today had I not habitually checked left and right as I was entering the intersection on a green light. The red light in each case was red for the other driver for at least 30 seconds. Just think about how crazy that is... that is what not being present at the wheel does to people... think of the market the same way - if you're half in the car and half in the market, are you really even doing yourself any good? Just something to think about... do you but I challenge you to ponder it a bit.
People had to pick up a phone every time they wanted to check on the price, buy news paper and watch the news on TV in order to know what is happening, and we are here getting all of that information live in one simple application on a computer doing our trades while eating popcorn lol. Wonder what these guys could have done with today's format.
Was thinking the same thing. It’s amazing the change and how technology has revolutionised it for the smaller retailer traders. We have no where near the power of these individuals but it’s amazing to see the difference
@7:54. I don't understand. How does William know the price has peaked without looking at the charts? Second, if indeed the price has peaked, Why doesn't William just sell by following the trend? Why does he have to convince his associate to sell 5mil of pound before he can sell his 21mil pounds?
Because these are clueless boomers that pure gambled and only made money front running trades (that took minutes instead of milliseconds to complete). Just like everything else they do, it's entirely a joke/sheer luck/ firm handshake. Nowadays you need a PhD to be the "sandwich boy" these dudes started as off the street, while they sit as the boss in the back collecting a majority of the cut (and still cant read a chart or constantly say something nonsensical about their made-up levels).
I have worked as a quantitative (using sophisticated mathematical models, not technical analysis nonsense) trader for large investment banks since 1994 so hopefully I can answer this more sensibly and accurately. This is all to do with liquidity in the markets he is trading and the ability for the market to absorb his trade. He needs to close out his position. He will do this through a number of brokers or directly with similar dealing desks at other banks (as things were done back then) His trade will be broken up as buyers buy chunks of his 20 million. However, once the market becomes aware that he is selling, the price will start falling dramatically. So he gets his desk to break it up in little pieces to limit what is called the market impact. By selling in small chunks the price will hopefully , for him, not drop too much. We often used to do this when I was a junior and it was know as a fire drill as we would try and close out a large position (we would be doing several hundred million in one go) Up to ten guys would hit the market with small pieces simultaneously. Eventually, banks would get wise to this so if we needed to sell a large amount we would instead try and fool the market by drip feeding lots of small buy orders before hitting it with our sell. My strategies sometime trade several billion dollars across a number of currencies so market impact is critical to the success of these systematic models. As for charts - he doesn’t need them. It is in his head and you will notice he is constantly looking at the prices coming from the broker market. He will also have knowledge of other large positions in the market which might trigger large stop loss order if the price hits a certain level. Spot FX traders used to be thought of as I’ll educated market traders. In fact they had incredible focus and attention to detail. Back then, it was a very demanding job and even though I had a PhD, I had the greatest respect for them and learnt a huge amount from the way they traded and what they knew about what we now call maker microstructure. Hope that helped!
The charts won't tell you that the price has peaked. If the trade goes into profit they hold it and get out when it looks like price is losing momentum or if they feel nervous about holding it any longer.
They are trading millions literally just by waving hands and making 70 thousand dollars in just 3 mins that too in 1985.... I wonder how much they are making now in that scale... Unbelievable skill🎉
I was somewhat taken aback to learn that the USSR and Eastern Bloc countries were engaged in currency speculation, in some cases even outmaneuvering traders in London, New York and Hong Kong, although none of this seems to have come as a shock to any of them.
The western world has no clue about Russia in general... unfortunately westerners have an ideology that causes them to see the entire world through their own lense instead of acknowledging the various shades and types of humanity within humanity... for example, communists are for some reason evil to westerners when that couldn't be a more dog shit simpleminded opinion... same thing for the constant bombardment of anti-Russia propaganda in the west that effectively makes people think its some sort of 3rd world country meanwhile it actually rivals America and Europe in a great many things with a fraction of the cost and no international meddling having payed the largest price of WW2... it's a very strong and intellectually developed nation. The Russians know the US and EU economy better than the US and EU... as they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Yes, the interesting thing about those countries is that they traded internationally in hard currencies, and that they didn't accept their own currencies for the purpose of trade. Things like the Polish złoty and the Soviet ruble were essentially just accounting tokens, while trade between themselves was handled in a fictitious ruble that didn't exist - the so called 'foreign trade ruble'. This was actually based on Western hard currencies, and provided a way for the socialist countries to trade amongst themselves. But yes, they needed hard currency to buy things internationally, and they did sell products in various hard currencies. The only surprising thing is that they had enough foreign currency reserves to play the markets like that, although the Soviet Union was selling energy to Germany and beyond in hard currency.
If William alone tries to sell 20M in one shot vs a counterparty, they will quote him a worse price for the large size. As a result he uses the other dealers to sell in clips of 5 million. So instead of selling 20m$ to one counterparty, he might for example sell 5m$ all at the same time to different counterparties (1,2,3,4). By enlisting the other dealers, he can also execute faster, instead of having to ring each counterparty in turn.
Just fantasised about going back in time and wiping all these guys out with a modern laptop. Imagine having to call up some guy to make a trade, they didn't even have charts!
Brokers dealers and distributors are essential for formidable ground operatives. Coding branding and scaling are marketable tools for check and balance systems operations.
Not a single chart in sight, just pure price action. Incredible really. Looks super complicated.
You can still trade price action using charts though.
@@unknownsolza of course. And you should.
The difference is that their purchases could move the price
@@sbtopjosh4098 cuz they go in with millions of dollars
@@Siegefya price action traders unite
That pen flipping at 8:50 is fucking boss
One of the benefits of taking NZT
if you think thats boss you've never been in a taiwanese middle school
Compare it to the dits pen flipping at 27:30 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I don't even think he knows he's doing it
@@ericmetts2289can I go on break now
8:50 Institutional pen flips
27:32 Retail pen flips
Lol
Lololol. You can feel the disappointment through the screen
😂😂😂😂😂
Omg hahah true af
hahah that was awesome catch man!
40 years on it'd be interesting to see if those three guys are still around. I've been in this business nearly 15 years and it eats people alive. This is also a great example of how documentaries used to be made and aimed at intelligent people, with none of the phoney 'drama' and dramatic music they have today.
What types of securities do you trade?
@@manuelmanuel3968 I don't, I am on the software side, but I see what it does to people!
Totally agree on how documentaries are made these days
So I guess I’m a kid relatively speaking (mid 20s) and I’ve been working on trading algos for a while but I’m just wondering if you have any tips for what I can do to avoid getting “eaten alive” by this industry. Thanks for any insights you can share.
So I guess I’m a kid relatively speaking (mid 20s) and I’ve been working on trading algos for a while but I’m just wondering if you have any tips for what I can do to avoid getting “eaten alive” by this industry. Thanks for any insights you can share.
And today
Retail traders get emotional not realising they only make money if they only they are on the right side of the market movers like these guys
It’s not your methodology that shifts the market. Important to learn the game
It’s beautiful when you master the psychology and understand how the machine works and who moves it
When retail traders become the market movers robinhood and friends haults trading for the day.
@@willytodd2750 retail traders don’t move the markets
But they do contribute to the larger collection of market movement caused by the big players
Yes
Contribute not move. Most retail traders believe when they win its because their strategy was right. Huge error in thinking
But that’s because the so called internet trading gurus make the traders believe it’s all about the system
In finance, but definitely couldn't withstand this level of alertness. Much respect and admiration. I especially liked William in HK. There was a sort of intense grace and timing with which he co-opted his buddies.
Shows the diversity of approach - London guy taking 3 pips profit in 3 minutes, Hong Kong guy holding for several hours, New York guy happy to hold overnight if necessary.
*30 pips
Watch this quite often. So well done. Always wish it was longer.
I didn't know touch screen technology existed back in 1985. (3:40)
im more impressed by the pen flipper
He made 1800 three percent of 20k. Divided out by 3 partners. His salary is 25,000 so that is a nice rip. Amazing how things were back in 1985.
this is the most 80s thing ive ever seen
the chav hell yeah boy
The Good Old Days!!
Yeah, smoking inside the office 🤣
I'd like a ticket back there please, the 90's would also be acceptable.
Yep. Touch screens. Very 1980s.
(3:30)
Sat on a certificate of deposit dealing desk in 1987-88. We had phones, pencil, paper, and bank CD rates on whiteboards. Different times for sure.
they thought they were at the cutting edge of technology lol.. in the same way as we think we are at the moment.
fascinating huh, so imagine what its gonna look like in 50 years.
They were though. The cutting edge is time sensitive
30 years from now there will be AI robots
@@davidc4408 there already are AI trades going on.
"He's got no ego. If it's wrong, he knows it's wrong and he'll cut out. That's why he's so good."
No Ls Just Lessons 💯🔥
A touchscreen!? O_o I am impressed
Ha, I thought the same thing.
Yup, they were since the 60s on the British air force, I'm impressed about the smart phone exchange rate thingy
“Not much of a trend, so I’ll likely just play the market out of peoples’ positions, take a little profit out of it” - incredible
Now I know the phrase “ Don’t Trade against the trend “ you are competing with banks and very smart guys. I won’t try to outsmart the market 🤣
Nothing but pure price activity is shown, not a single chart. Really amazing. Looks quite difficult.
Fantastic documentary, very entertaining
Oh the good old days😊 You could smoke a cigarette on your desk while the computer beeped.
I miss the sounds of all television so much
Also, I used to watch this while learning how to trade and here I am 20 years later about to retire
8.50 all the excitement is the selling of millions of pounds. I'm more impressed by that dude continually flicking his pen and catching it without looking.
Total recall. Was in dealing rooms during the 80’s. The mood was electric. All very real Brings back memories.
You were living the Gordon Gecko life..
It was similar to this even as recently as 2010- loved it most days but hated when lost for the day! Awesome memories
Money never sleeps!
Gordon Gekko
We watched this in my college econ class in 2002. As it was ending, the prof said, They must've cut the footage of everyone doing coke. 🙃
😂😂
8:51 that’s some serious pen flipping skills
This whole thing oozes 80s aesthetic.
Wow 750 million traded for a 100,000 gain. Nuts just 1 or cents up or down. Luv it l. Just shows you how hard it is to make money in any market. So many players
23:43 These guys showed us why we should stay away from news when trading 😂
who watching this in 2020?!
Grimace at 17:48 is coz he bought (hand signal ‘mine’) expecting a 63 offer not the 58-68 quoted
I love this, as a very specific and visceral slice of the 80’s. I love how the British fellow somewhat resembles Christian Bale, the era and vibe of American Psycho. Also love the glimpe of a future TEXTING WHILE DRIVING epidemic, checking his ticker between gears down the county road. And my goodness the chain smoking!!! Thanks for posting!
15:45 Never knew Paul McCartney went to become an Investment banker after leaving Beatles.
11:30 not an economic scholar but a financial athlete
Wondering how a video about todays trading would look like, compared to this one, and how many people will watch it in +40years calling it "super retro cool" and "how they miss the good old time" ;-)
To summarized this video of who were the biggest winners and losers since there are only 3 players, the biggest winner was the London trader, 2nd Hong Kong and 3rd American. Thanks!
The beauty of this is the amount of insider trading that went on 😂😂
Phone calls to give heads up about trades and moves 😂
It did look like the Russian was using some kind of code, prompting Richard to buy 35 million GBPs.
Why would you ask others for a range when you can see it on the screen? Seemed more like a heads up "hey we're gonna buy, you should also". They promptly sold what they bought. It couldn't have been planned better.
@@Gunzee Even during the height of the Cold War, the fact that Ivan and Boris were subtly giving Richard and William a nudge and a wink when buying and selling currencies never fails to make me chuckle.
Imagine being able to drive around empty streets in the City of London and just park your car on the road!
When this programme first aired it was promoted with free shoulder pads and a Phil Collins LP.
Interesting
Just watching the way the markets worked then is addictive.
“Don’t get mad. Get even.”
So true
Anymore docummentals that youd recommend to learn more about the market ?
11:42 "...and with that swipe of the cloth, she just made twenty five and a half thousand dollars."
8:49
Can we all acknowlege the fact this GUY CAN FLIP A PEN LIKE THAT!!!!
Lol, moi impressed.
The American has a million dollar home and a $5 shower head.
that sounds about right
I was working in the currency futures pits at the CME at that time. The atmosphere was electric. Every month when the government would release the merchandise trade balance figures the place went absolutely bananas.
It was like the Wild Wild West with all the old robber barons trading in the livestock pits and all the hot shot young guns trading currencies. It was marvelous
I thought pits are closed
@@prathmeshyadav4914 The old Eurodollar Options pit is still open. As of about two weeks ago they're trading a different contract in that pit. I don't know what they call it now but the last euro-dollar contract traded two or three Fridays ago
@@charlesandrews2360 I did MSc financial mathematics quite a few years ago but never got into trading. Worked in investment management for quite a while and now want to do some option trading in my own account. Is it true 95% lose money (retail traders?). Any tips to start out or not worth it?
Look How far we have come to the point of single person clicking button on a screen.
@@dac8939im a day traders my self doing it for 8years now all i can say is absolutely only 5% are profitable because you really have to be exceptional human to be consistent and deciplined that's where the problem for most people is
17:35 You really do gotta light up for this job. I felt the need to just watching this lol.
This is awesome, I wish they made a 2017 verison of this. The differences would be crazy to see
These jobs no longer exist, it's all algorithms.
Mikey, it would just be a trading bot doing it's thing.
These jobs still exist in title, but their job is not trading, but overlooking the robots to make sure they do not do anything stupid, market making and risk management.
@@Extys Guys like me build them :)
@@tman32 Are you a data scientist specialized in the Forex?
Risking £21m pounds to make 20k USD profit... this isnt gambling, its pure madness
Scalpers 😂😂😂😂😂
Risking life for pennies is def wild 😂
He is not “risking” 21m, that is merely his notional exposure. His risk is on percentage changes on the FX rate, which is 2100 GBP per pip (100th of a pct). The rate moved 0.1% or 10 pips and he made 21k, which is not a big number in any professional FX book. Well done nonetheless.
13min10sec “Doesn’t look like there’s much of a trend at the moment so we’ll just play the market based on people’s positions. Take a bit of profit out of it” (Presumably the other institutions massive orders that they can see? The order book?)
“They could be buying a little to push the price up before selling a lot” well there we have it gentlemen, the institutions that bust across our retail tight stops. Brilliant docco this one.
Now we can sit at home and do this with our own accounts anywhere in th world
pretty amazing
Instant gratification becomes mundane. The trading floor was where it was at
old but gold :)
0:41 thousands of dozens thanks for this video
Now you can do all this from your smartphone. How times have changed.
I was thinking the same thing!
i mean not really? can't exactly shift institutional size trades (multiple millions) on a smart phone.
@@pdiddyprof Hypothetically you can, depends what brokerage
@@pdiddyprof with high leaverage anything is possible.
Sept 19, 2020: For all the animals of the forest are mine,
and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it. Psalm 50:10-12
What
Is that some sort of cryptic message about how catholic priests see kids? Because it isn’t really relative to 80s currency trading
What a wicked documentary. Abit like Trading places but real life. That W. Wong is a very very clever guy....Once a dealer always a dealer and beats the market lol
I'm amused that even the Soviets were engaging in currency speculation!
They also needed FX for foreign trade.
Yes, and we mooved the usd/deutch mark for 4-5% a day. The nickname was " Redman"....)))
@@ozzy6858 👀 so interesting, got any more stories about those days?
Yeah at the same time it was illegal to buy and sell currencies for common people
@@igorbelov7428 Only the Soviet state was allowed to trade currencies?
Crazy to think this was 150 years ago
lol
Less than 100 years ago
How high are you
@@dac8939lmao less than 40
You clearly have a give for numbers
Hong Kong's buccaneering days are still going... and people have gotten more ruthless with making money.
Love these films
There was touch screen in the 80’s 🤯
All the way back to 1965
8:50
3:51 I didn't know touch screens existed in the 80''s and I lived through that time and used computers.
Touchscreen were used since 60s. It was military tech bcoz you couldn't see buttons in dark. They became public in 80s.
Its a dealerboard. You press a button and it connects you to a counterparty such as another bank or broker. I used both physical button dealerboards and the touch screens and I personally preferred the physical buttons.
@@jonathanpc do you know jay meisler of global-view?
As a currency trader, this is fascinating to watch before trading became fully electronic. It's like watching the era when commodities were traded in the Pits.
currency trading still alive? lol there is no volatility in it come crypto bro lol buy 1.06 sell 1.06 in forex
@@opps5915 lmfao yes crypto too manipulated
it's the same clearing system though!
@@opps5915forex pairs aren’t dead bro lmao
I promise you as a day tradering forex is still live and well. Trading crypto is for retards.@@opps5915
My favorite movie 👍, about trading.
William must have got some slack for being late, the day you're being filmed too! I'd have been there 30mins early😅
10:50 the way he has his pager set with price action while driving is me with tradingview LMAO
Same lol
Same lol😅
LOL ME TOO
If you do this now in Spain, you'd be fined 400 € per day 😭
As a trader, I question whether you really should even approach it like this... I challenge you to seriously consider it and maybe adjust your trading behavior as to not do this... something about this smells like angst to me, and normally that's not very good... these pros in the video come from a time when it was reasonable to do it... nowadays we have so many automation tools for orders and following PA that we can certainly go without driving and tradingview-ing... don't jeapordize your life over a buck... drive safe! Just this month I had to slam on my brakes on two separate occasions as some asshat drove 50mph straight through a red light without even slowing down, literally clueless, right as I was about to cross their path... luckily I was a professional driver before I became a professional trader... would have been dead today had I not habitually checked left and right as I was entering the intersection on a green light. The red light in each case was red for the other driver for at least 30 seconds. Just think about how crazy that is... that is what not being present at the wheel does to people... think of the market the same way - if you're half in the car and half in the market, are you really even doing yourself any good? Just something to think about... do you but I challenge you to ponder it a bit.
Its Good that one can smoke in offices last time. Now is smoke free.
People had to pick up a phone every time they wanted to check on the price, buy news paper and watch the news on TV in order to know what is happening, and we are here getting all of that information live in one simple application on a computer doing our trades while eating popcorn lol. Wonder what these guys could have done with today's format.
We are the lucky ones ngl lmao
Nothing. Today's market is full of automation no human could compete with it.
Life before smartphones... how interesting
Old is gold... market is still the same till this day
8:50 now THAT is a pen flip
This must have been taken at the old Bishopsgate trading office.
best video on you tube, that time tech is superb touch screen pager mobile car waw
Technology really simplified modern day brokerage firms from redundancies
@3:50 they had a screen touh system in 1985 , woowwww
This was 10 years before I was born.
Today, I am a trader. So proud.
Was thinking the same thing. It’s amazing the change and how technology has revolutionised it for the smaller retailer traders. We have no where near the power of these individuals but it’s amazing to see the difference
What u use price action
🤣🤣🤣
I really like this video.
@7:54. I don't understand. How does William know the price has peaked without looking at the charts? Second, if indeed the price has peaked, Why doesn't William just sell by following the trend? Why does he have to convince his associate to sell 5mil of pound before he can sell his 21mil pounds?
Because these are clueless boomers that pure gambled and only made money front running trades (that took minutes instead of milliseconds to complete). Just like everything else they do, it's entirely a joke/sheer luck/ firm handshake.
Nowadays you need a PhD to be the "sandwich boy" these dudes started as off the street, while they sit as the boss in the back collecting a majority of the cut (and still cant read a chart or constantly say something nonsensical about their made-up levels).
I have worked as a quantitative (using sophisticated mathematical models, not technical analysis nonsense) trader for large investment banks since 1994 so hopefully I can answer this more sensibly and accurately. This is all to do with liquidity in the markets he is trading and the ability for the market to absorb his trade. He needs to close out his position. He will do this through a number of brokers or directly with similar dealing desks at other banks (as things were done back then) His trade will be broken up as buyers buy chunks of his 20 million. However, once the market becomes aware that he is selling, the price will start falling dramatically. So he gets his desk to break it up in little pieces to limit what is called the market impact. By selling in small chunks the price will hopefully , for him, not drop too much. We often used to do this when I was a junior and it was know as a fire drill as we would try and close out a large position (we would be doing several hundred million in one go) Up to ten guys would hit the market with small pieces simultaneously. Eventually, banks would get wise to this so if we needed to sell a large amount we would instead try and fool the market by drip feeding lots of small buy orders before hitting it with our sell. My strategies sometime trade several billion dollars across a number of currencies so market impact is critical to the success of these systematic models.
As for charts - he doesn’t need them. It is in his head and you will notice he is constantly looking at the prices coming from the broker market. He will also have knowledge of other large positions in the market which might trigger large stop loss order if the price hits a certain level.
Spot FX traders used to be thought of as I’ll educated market traders. In fact they had incredible focus and attention to detail. Back then, it was a very demanding job and even though I had a PhD, I had the greatest respect for them and learnt a huge amount from the way they traded and what they knew about what we now call maker microstructure.
Hope that helped!
The charts won't tell you that the price has peaked. If the trade goes into profit they hold it and get out when it looks like price is losing momentum or if they feel nervous about holding it any longer.
@@yillanayo7913 you don't trade (profitably) by feelings. Atleast not since this came out
@@yillanayo7913 I see. Thank you.
The insanity. This is a huge bank trading 5 million a pop in currency. I trade 1 million from my small retail account!
Back then no leverage
Notice how Hong Kong had touch screens in 1985! 😮
Legend has it the guys in HK are still flipping their pens.
Where's Richard Hill these days?
They are trading millions literally just by waving hands and making 70 thousand dollars in just 3 mins that too in 1985.... I wonder how much they are making now in that scale... Unbelievable skill🎉
15:45. Didn't know Paul McCartney was a trader.
I was somewhat taken aback to learn that the USSR and Eastern Bloc countries were engaged in currency speculation, in some cases even outmaneuvering traders in London, New York and Hong Kong, although none of this seems to have come as a shock to any of them.
The western world has no clue about Russia in general... unfortunately westerners have an ideology that causes them to see the entire world through their own lense instead of acknowledging the various shades and types of humanity within humanity... for example, communists are for some reason evil to westerners when that couldn't be a more dog shit simpleminded opinion... same thing for the constant bombardment of anti-Russia propaganda in the west that effectively makes people think its some sort of 3rd world country meanwhile it actually rivals America and Europe in a great many things with a fraction of the cost and no international meddling having payed the largest price of WW2... it's a very strong and intellectually developed nation. The Russians know the US and EU economy better than the US and EU... as they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Yes, the interesting thing about those countries is that they traded internationally in hard currencies, and that they didn't accept their own currencies for the purpose of trade. Things like the Polish złoty and the Soviet ruble were essentially just accounting tokens, while trade between themselves was handled in a fictitious ruble that didn't exist - the so called 'foreign trade ruble'. This was actually based on Western hard currencies, and provided a way for the socialist countries to trade amongst themselves.
But yes, they needed hard currency to buy things internationally, and they did sell products in various hard currencies. The only surprising thing is that they had enough foreign currency reserves to play the markets like that, although the Soviet Union was selling energy to Germany and beyond in hard currency.
8:05 I don't understand how that works. Why would the other dealers sell 5 million help him as a disguise?
If William alone tries to sell 20M in one shot vs a counterparty, they will quote him a worse price for the large size. As a result he uses the other dealers to sell in clips of 5 million. So instead of selling 20m$ to one counterparty, he might for example sell 5m$ all at the same time to different counterparties (1,2,3,4). By enlisting the other dealers, he can also execute faster, instead of having to ring each counterparty in turn.
24:47 Richard then moved on to play the treasure hunter in the movie titanic
Saw this in my International Business course more than 20 years ago. Thought it was an awesome movie then. Cheesy, but still great! Thanks!!!
Touch screen in 1985. I feel cheated. No wonder there was an accident in Roswell
Just fantasised about going back in time and wiping all these guys out with a modern laptop. Imagine having to call up some guy to make a trade, they didn't even have charts!
Great documentary, wish they had made the video longer of how they trade on the floor. Wonder where are these legends now?
@matchstopsandimbalances yeah the person talking over this is annoying "gambling, gambling, gambling" like stfu.
Amazing , seeing him drive into London with hardly anyone around ?? Krikes he COULD NOT do that now LOL
The davos license plate 😂
Good, That's the year I was born 1985 and now 2023 Iam a pure technical Trader who started in the year 2020,
Can someone recommend me more of this documental to learn more on how the market used to be trade before tradingview
Brokers dealers and distributors are essential for formidable ground operatives. Coding branding and scaling are marketable tools for check and balance systems operations.
Fantastic
6:54 WSB doesn't even get out of bed for 50% profit. Got to be 500% or more :😂
the music "10 cc - the wall street shuffle (1974)"
3:42 what, touchscreen?