Banker Pay

Apparently $1.6 million is not a lot to get by on…….. WSJ …. The paymaster noted that median precrisis pay was about $2.2 million a year. On average, some $200,000 came in base pay, with the remaining $2 million coming in an annual bonus, about 60% of which was paid in cash. That is roughly…

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Best and Worst Days

Last year I wrote a chapter in a book called The Wiley Trading Guide In it I banged on about lies that brokers tell people and some of the profound misunderstandings that those involved in the supply side of trading have. In particular I took aim at the notion of buy and hold and its…

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FX Turnover

I have in the past been asked by new traders what is the most liquid market in the world. The reason they asked was they were generally concerned that the massive size of their account (always less than 100k) was too big for any market other than the most liquid. So to put them at…

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I Love a Good Chart

This is from Chart of the Day who occasionally produce some interesting charts – although most of the time they are obscure things such as measuring GDP in gherkins The chart below is the  long term inflation adjusted median price of US housing. Not only did housing prices increase at a rapid rate from 1991…

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Taleb

A bit of a chat with Nassim Taleb – the author of Fooled by Randomness and Black Swans. I have never really been one of Talebs fans since Fooled by Randomness seemed to be a long series of self justifications as to why he couldn’t trade. The central undercurrent of the book seemed to be…

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Imaginery Friends

If you thought the responses on our politicians to serious problems was somewhat of a joke consider the case of Texas Governor Rick Perry. Texas is in the grip of a severe drought much like parts of Australia had been. His response is to call for a national three days of praying for rain. TO…

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Gold

The markets section of the WSJ is currently running a piece titled the  World is Bitten by the Gold Bug. “Gold continued its upward march in a time of global financial tumult, closing above $1,500 an ounce Thursday for the first time as investors seek safe haven in the metal. In a remarkable performance for…

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