On the rare occasion that I am allowed to interview young candidate [usually when HR - OOPS Bus. Devel.] is away, I don't ask them math or coding q's.
I want them to be at ease - I prefer to talk about motivations, very elementary betting, personal risk profile and markets.
A guy with a reasonable level of skill who both trained and mentored me made a couple of billion trading.
He told me when SP500 futs were launched everyone was saying; it's for gamblers, it will ruin the stock market
Same type of vitriol today as regards shorter dated options.
All these brilliant young minds doing internships at hedge funds, joining hedge funds.
All thinking of a 25 year career in the industry.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. The LinkedIn inspired niceties will end soon enough.
You’ll see what true ruthlessness is soon.
After > 20y of marriage, it is embarrassing to MrsAnyon that I am useless with 'money' advice to her pointless friends in social situations.
Where's the market going? Well, over the next 1000 trades I am quite sure I'll get the direction correct 56% of the time for a few hrs.
Try suggesting to a young trader with a quantitative background interested in commodities to read books about the growing cycle , the long term history of various products and you get nothing back but a death stare.
Whatever - good luck in your careers without domain knowledge.
I once sat in a room with two ridiculously talented individuals. Accomplished in and outside of markets.
They ran very basic but effective 'computer programs' that looked at every futures market versus every other futures market using many leads/lags and applied ingenious
1/2
If you are a young graduate who I have not been able to convince to stay away from HF then at least do this to save yourself :
Keep something back from your PM sponsor. Do special research away from the office.
Too many of you sell the farm for nothing to people in my position.
HF anecdote -
There is a firm where each year, the principal used to send the top performing PM to his apartment at Jackson Hole as a reward. Almost without fail, the PM was in the bottom decile of performers the next year.
There is more than a touch of horse sense in that.
Twitter crapping on HF manager all day long who has a 20 year +record/return almost twice sp500 and billions AUM.
Hahahahahahahahahahanahanananananananananananana
Un-fu*king-believable.
These fucktards really think I'm going to cut rates next year. Jesus Christ give me strength.
Oh well... I better get in and deliver my speech... I trust they will close the door behind me this time..
Hi,
This is Mrs. Anyon
My husband is upstairs trying to extricate himself from a bad position in oil something or other.
Just thought I’d say - after a cursory look and Mr Anyon’s interactions - that you are all deranged.
Here is one thing I cannot prove but, in years to come, I believe it will become known in the public domain:
I believe that stop loss orders in electronic markets can be seen.
And no I have not just been stopped out of a position before any bottom tier scumbags come back at me.
When
@therobotjames
says things like:
Find a simple edge
Do simple things
Winning takes care of all your wank questions about portfolio construction
FFS save yourself and actually listen to him.
It is sooo easy to spot the NGMI in quant trading.
My daughter got into law school!
Watch out anyone who works for a polluting company, doesn't have equality policies and doesn't have a female CEO.
She's coming for you.
I have been a Quantitative Trader for a very long time.
To say that I despair for the quant side of the business understates my position substantially.
The problem with quantitative traders is that we eventually do stupid things and ignore highly predictive information 1/3
In May next year, I will have been surviving / thriving at the sharp end of financial markets using techniques that Twitter - generally- says you cannot make money using …..for thirty years.
Find your own way, avoid the absolutists and dogmatic recidivists.
I have helped the investment arms of two governments.
At one of them, on my first day, there was an absolutely beautiful women who walked past me in reception.
I turned toward her, our eyes locked and we were married a year later. 25 years later now.
It’s that simple.
Saturday AM- So I might be able to get this tweet out without blowback:
Why humblebrag about ‘tens of thousands of lines of code’ In trading models. Whilst I’m not saying it isn’t needed, shouldn’t coding’s aim be simplification?
Outside of HFT & MM, coding isn’t alpha -sorry.
I do not give *that much* dating advice. However, not referring to women as bitches or hoes on Twitter and IRL is a very good starting point.
This from a man married for 25 years to a spectacularly beautiful woman with a fierce intellect.
Lift your game guys.
Been think on how to reduce my follower count even more - How about this:
I am not adverse to lending the US Government money for 10 yrs at around 4.75%
That should get some people to un-follow me.
2/2
multiple comparison procedures. One of the things discovered was a naive, very subtle r-ship. I rediscovered the other day that it still works after application of aggressive slippage costs etc. - unchanged but in extremely low capacity 27 years later.
Bloody amazing innit.
Those shitposting against Stanley are fuckw*ts- every single one.
It took a lot to bring me out of Twitter hibernation.
He is one of 3 or 4 individuals I’d back till the end.
I really can't stand people who shitpost about Druckenmiller.
You can trade against him, sure. If you are quick. But trying to compare your insignificant cretinous ass to that legend, just shows your parents taught you no manners. And God gave you no brains.
Amazing site Twitter
I have DM’s with a world class trauma surgeon and educator who trades ES VERY well - and with an ex fighter pilot who served his country and allowed the rest of us to sleep at night.
Amazing site Twitter
The best HF risk mngr. I know would sit with me often.
Whenever my equity curve took a new high she sent me an email with the following number:
90
This number was the number of consecutive losses I could withstand before hitting my peak-> trough DD.
Trade small if you can.
Apprentice:
Master, I count 7 distinct strategies traded here. They’ve been run successfully for many years and yet I can’t find a single supportive academic article.
The return streams just aren’t possible.
Master:
It was always thus…
Make the impossible necessary.
First understand who owns the money. Understand they probably have no stop loss and effectively unlimited reserves in the short term.
Understand that volatility exists to take money from the weak and give it to the strong.
Only now……you can open your Code Editors.
If elite banks, invest. mngt firms, PE/VC firms & HF's only stock the best and brightest-why is it that they always lose at the same time, in the same 'thing'.
Is there not a single carbon or silicone based entity that sets themselves apart.
EdNote: Yes, Yes, I know-just a rant
2/2
They 4x my sal. and put me on the floor to trade for one internal account.
2 years later the swaps desk stole me b/c I figured out a major CTA trig. that led to massive selling/buying into the close in the 10's & 3's.
Sometimes the road NOT travelled is the lesser road.
Advice/Experience;
*Excluding HFT+ MM*
Surviving 'quantitative' trading is inversely related to the number of other 'quantitative' traders around you.
Try to be a quant trader who is separate from the 'quant group' in terms of classification and geography if at all possible.
I admire, respect and indeed idolise a handful ++ of people in financial markets.
Their trading results have nothing to do with how I feel about them.
BTW- Citadel lost 55% fifteen odd years ago.
I’m quite certain they were written off by lesser observers at the time.
Citad*l intern Pepe.
Thrilled to announce I am now a Citad*l Intern. First 4 weeks, it's publicity shots for the corp linkedIn page doing things I don't want to do but will pretend to love. Next 4 weeks be ignored by PM's who have already chosen winners before internships began
Regrettably, much advice dispensed by ultra successful people in public about how they started, how they made it etc, is altered by both the passage of time, PR strategy and legal advice.
The pronouncements that make it through those three filters are often mainifest.
It is regrettable that many quants (not all) on this platform spend much time using obtuse language and theory whose conclusion is always that the only strategies that work are the ones that they themselves use.
And yet very few produce even a modicum of absolute return.
I don’t need to know the flows in advance
I don’t need to see the order book in advance
I don’t need to know FED decision or CPI in advance
All I need to know is if the H-L range is going to be a multiple of the open/ close differential.
I’d like this in advance please.
😉
Would you like me to ‘livestream’ my meeting tomorrow with the latest band of A.I. Fuckwits justifying their appalling results in 2023?
The meeting will start with 4 employed staff and end with one.
I despair for young people trying to get into the trading business. I have twice tried to start programs at HF's where I was managing reasonable capital for 'apprentices'. Not exclusively through the usual channels but more taking people from all walks of life
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I put a book on here yest that was helpful to me 15-20 years ago. I get 3 DM's *complaining* that there is no code in the back/ asking me to send explanatory code/ asking me exactly what part of the book to study.
And BTW -Not a polite Hi/ Hello/ How do you amongst them.
Ha!
1994.
I was going to sneak away from the bank to start a PhD.
On a hunch they sent me on a weekend course to learn these ridiculous hand signals they used on the floor.
Something fuc*king clicked - A alarm went off in my brain.
1/2
So, I know we are supposed to be highly motivated every day in trading, work 26 hour a day, be laser focussed blah, blah
Well, I couldn't be bothered today.
No interest whatsoever.
Here’s another Tweet to get in before the fanatics arrive:
Many have negative commentary on Soros. I have nothing but incredible memories, conversations, lessons, respect and probably adulation for one of the top 3 in the history of money management and aggressive trading.
The very best speculative trades I have witnessed have come from outstanding discretionary traders using phrases like the below to describe markets:
Looks like...
Seems like...
Feels like...
I do think that these phrases are only useful when used by very experienced ppl.
1/2
A great apprenticeship includes trading the Sensex and the Kospi. The best minds are active in both. I certainly say a 5 year stint in those markets has a multiplier effect on future success - in index futures at least.
Things that have made my second attempt at Twitter a pure delight.
* No US politics
* Judicious use of the block key
* No engagement with vermin swearing at me.
* Finding a tribe.
* Sticking to core competencies. (Such as they are)
* made first attempt at a sh*tpost!
Loving it.
This might sting a bit.
Over the years, I have been privy to what have been sold as best in class 'execution algorithms' designed by the best and brightest.
Of the top 25 all were excellent for trading 1 lot.
1/2
Thanks for chart of large move from *yesterday*
Thanks for providing 'reasons' for decline that,when considered before the decline,were 50/50 or spurious at best.
Note: please publish thoughts about tommorrow's price action today.
Then join the real risk taking community.
Cotton & Cocoa have been incredible trading markets these past two weeks. In and out like a duck mating.
There is a big wide word out there people, not all of it is governed by the Hellenic math zealots in the ES.
Quick tip:
When showing a very senior trader a return stream from an approach:
1. Cash earned please.
2. No more than 2 or 3 ratio’s/ summary statistics
2. Tell me what is about to change that will overwhelm the inevitable decline in performance when you go live.
2/2
including people who perhaps found their way outside the academic route. In both cases I invested considerable time but in the final analysis - the people with whom I had to work with internally only wanted to hire from their own 'clans'
It's a crying shame. It really is.
Imagine having zero intellectual baggage as a trader.
Imagine knowing the importance of having a different (not necessarily bigger) risk profile than your opponents.
Imagine - I mean genuinely - being able to reject what made you huge money in the past before the alpha decline.
OK -
I do not listen/watch many podcasts, but I implore you to watch
@risk_biscuits
. The last two with
@ScottPh77711570
and
@liquiditygoblin
were superb.
No idolarty, no media careers - just accounts of two players with divergent stories -often searing honesty throughout.
Edge is Edge
Make the impossible necessary
Volatility exists to take money from the weak and give it to the strong.
Distribution of future returns nothing to do with how we feel.
@GoesBear
I say this with love, because I *am* you
If you have an edge, none of the stuff you talk about in this tweet matters
Risk management isn't an edge. Psychology isn't an edge
Edge is edge
Make the impossible necessary.
Volatility is designed to take money from the weak and give it to the strong.
Avoid delusional apophenia
'Market' has no s/l, but you can win enough to thrive.
Learn to live with HFT/MM - Make human connections with these people-It can save you.
Signs you're talking to a fu*king idiot Pt V:
"...I know he comes from the sales desk at Goldman but he has seen a lot of flow go through the desk and I think that will make him a good PM. - And he is mates with *****************..."
Signs you're talking to a fu*king idiot Pt lV:
"..We really should bulk up in xyz strategy, it made 50% last year, everyone's getting into it. I know we have no idea about it but I am sure we can hire the best talent even though we are 2 years behind the game in that strategy.."
A few meetings stay with you.
I have sat down with very serious people. True scholars and successful traders.
One brief snippet always resonates:
"..the number of trades you would need to do to show true statistical significance exceeds the amount of atoms in a human body.."
The decline of HF performance can be linked to:
A. Moving to LinkedIn
B. Preaching about that which you have no fucking idea about just because you have made money in markets (in the distant past for some of them)
This might sting a little.
Things that move markets are only recognised as such ex post facto.
It’s worth widening your analysis box beyond the actions of the US Treasury and inflation prints.
I don’t know what comes next, but past predictors almost never keep their potency.
Jeez
Traders getting sued by previous employer for using a trading strategy that has been massively distributed on and discussed ad nauseam on Twitter (with a few bells and whistles attached) by the Hellenical Math Cosa Nostra.
Harsh.
It is fine when the stock market goes up or down.
There is not need to be angry.
From the first lot I traded in 1992 until today the ES is an amazing market with many, many regularities available to exploit.
Don’t be a bull or a bear.
It is regrettable that most firms do not allow quantitative traders an increasing amount of discretion as their trading record gets longer.
I have full discretion as to whether or not I am active and in what size. This came gradually over two decades and tens of thousands 1/n
Apprentice:
Master, I watched you trade, ask every possible q. and read motivational texts for months. You then told me to learn MM/HFT ideas/study HFT data, even though you don't trade that way, only now are you pushing me to research directional concepts-why such a long wait?
Much good comment recently here for young HF kids.
One thing missing/
Learn when to shut the fuck up, listen and learn.
Genuinely not interested in the latest technique that you and every single other person has been taught in the same academic echo chamber
Community Service Announcement:
Superior traders and others are allowed to express their views on Twitter and they are not required to provide you with detailed trade statements.
Go back to pulling the rug out from each other and leave the markets to the big boys and girls.
They say you shouldn’t meet your idols.
What a crock of shit. I worked for two of my top three and it changed my life.
I missed meeting the third…I was about 50 metres from him the other day at a charity thing but couldn’t get to him.
Consider that in 100 years from now all the extra financial market data that will have accumulated will still not be enough to show statistical significance of a non- HFT quantitative trading approach.
t+1 has more potential for surprise than the past.
EdNote: no lectures thks.
I feel most of the good trading advice stopped in the late 90’s
We listened to Soros, Druckenmiller & PTJ and we coded it into strategy and then we kept our mouths shut for the past 25 years.
And we will do not the next 10/15 years until we bow out.
This will sting a little.
People trading markets stand atop a mountain of ignorance in their belief that when once ‘secret’ information becomes public (pricing, hedging etc.) that the new participant will be able to replicate the returns of the teacher.
3/3
We went for a walk along the water the other day, she put her hand inside my arm as we walked - something she hasn't done in many years - I'm not sure she even realised it. It was one of the top 4 or 5 five moments in my life.
She is ready to go.
I'm not crying, you are.
Treasury auction results are the new ufo, fusion/ fission/ forex repo/ TA on VIX plaything for fintwit.
Look at me, Look at me - I don’t know what the Treasury auction actually IS but I’m going to tell Twitter about it anyway.
Go back to pulling rugs from under each other FFS
Intriguing that many pro. traders on twitter - myself included - all have their individ. edge/tricks. Thing is that many of us have a seemingly irrelevant part of our process that would be invaluable to another.
I realised this after a recent DM chat with a Batrachology PhD
To this day, my sponsors have always encouraged me to trade bigger.
I kept to size I wanted b/c - being perfectly clear - I don't really trust their math.
On balance, this has hurt me smalls but allowed me to be part of a shrinking pool of survivors.
Trade smaller if you can.
Ok .
Enough. It's spilling over into DM's now so I am compelled to act.
The only person on Twitter who gets to lecture me on execution technique in financial markets is
@theemilyaccount
.
Others who wish to offer advice on this issue please contact Pepe using the info below:
Since being back on this platform I have one only complaint:
Most posts in my area say that what I have been doing for 27 yr on reasonable AUM doesn’t/cannot work, is a quick trip to the poorhouse etc.
That’s Ok.
I don’t engage b/c that’s how to ruin a pleasant experience.
Pepe has just taken profit on his first CL trade. He made 80 cents since this AM when he went to hide behind the barrels.. Let's have a cheer for him please.
To further cement my iconoclastic status in the quant trading community:
I like human relationships.
I have strong 2 decade professional and personal relationships with FX Sales, Futures Brokers and physical commodity people - people who actually touch the product.
1/3
For anyone who cares -
Close your eyes:
Imagine swimming in deep water - a little too far from the boat. A certain fearful psychology can take over and effect bodily function.
Now imagine swimming just a few metres from shore, warm water and sun above - beautiful.
1/2
Gee Wizz.
Economists/ Strategists attacked on this site for maybe 1-5 big call errors over 20 years.
I've been wrong something like 33,000 times in last two decades.
I better shut up for a while.
Three missed fills in GC, 30YR & CL over the past 13 hours have turned today from a possible mic-drop day into a 'get the coffee and a £7 muffin for the pretty lady who does all the LinkedIn updates'
Humbled - again.
When investment firms from any position on the risk spectrum do well during market tumult, the first thing they do is let the industry know how well they have done.
It is the nature of the beast.
Waiting for the press releases from the Masters of the Universe.
tic tok tic tok
The old masters have lessons.
One main lesson from Soros is quite apropos for the present time.
He spoke of a REIT boom that he was sure was bogus and yet, he knew that he had to ride the boom because it was expected to be huge.
The stock market is an exact…
1/2