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Old trading docs

Old trading docs

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Last week, MrMacroMarkets tweeted a link to an old documentary on FX trading called Billion Dollar Day. It was amazing, and sent me down a rabbit hole of old trading videos.


Bulls and Bears, 1998 – Follows a group of futures traders in the late 1990s including John “Rambo” Moulton, a sarong-clad American working out of Queensland.


Trader, 1987– Paul Tudor-Jones in the 1980s is peak Wall Street in the 1980s.


Billion Dollar Day, 1985– Follows currency traders in the financial centres of London, New York and Hong Kong. This one is brimming with charming anachronisms


Let’s Deal Direct, 1984– Not a documentary per se but more of an educational advert for Bear Stearns’ mortgage-trading desk, of all things. Features some, umm, questionable acting and dialogue: “Could you use the bonds?” … “Yes sir, I CAN use the bonds” etc.


Black Wednesday, 1997– The BBC looks back at 1992’s Black Wednesday. It’s not quite as swash-buckling as some of the other videos on this list, but it does have some good trading colour from the day the Bank of England intervened in the currency market.

The year in credit

The year in credit

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Credit markets, I wrote a lot about them this year. One day some other asset class will grab my attention but for the time being it’s this. Sorry.

Here’s what I wrote about the market in 2015 – or at least, since starting the new gig over at Bloomberg in April. I may have missed a few here and there (and included some fixed income posts that I think are related to over-arching credit themes), but I think this is pretty much covers it.

Happy holidays, and may 2016 be filled with just the right amount of yield.

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The Tarf Barf

The Tarf Barf

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Hi, Mr. Chief Financial Officer of Generic China Corp. This is John Doe from sales at Solidly Second-Tier Bank. How are you? Listen, I think I have something that might interest you. Ever heard of a Target Redemption Forward? No? Let me explain. It’s a structured product, kind of like a series of exotic options that pay a monthly income as long as the spot yuan exchange rate remains above the strike price. Now, I hate to mention this, but I want to be up front with you, because you know I value your business. The risk here is that if the yuan falls below a certain level—say, 6.2 against the dollar—the option gets knocked out and you have to pay out double the amount. I personally don’t see that happening any time soon. I mean, with USD/CNH trading in this kind of range, we’re talking practically no-risk money.

You’re in? Great!

You already know how this ends (in tears and delta hedging).

Read about the latest slaughter in structured product land over here.