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the floor who graduated high school, put in a couple years of college, came down here as runners, and ultimately became successful. There may be some people with Ph.D.s who turned out to be lousy floor traders because they tried to think too much. |
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Neal: Well, Sid, let's not go too hard on the thinkers out there. |
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Sid: I'm not rubbing it in, it's just a fact: traders who want to use their academic or intellectual skills of trading will follow a different style of trading. We do not know how to predict where the market is going. There are hundreds of different systems, but at one time or another they will all be affected by what has been called "chaos theory." It's a different style; that's all it is. We feel we have a unique operation, and we're real good at training floor traders. So we stay with our strengths. |
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Neal: So, you take people, give them a chance, watch them in the mock trading, and see if they get it. |
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Sid: In the course of the past 14 years, I can count on one hand the number of people who, after two or three months in our training, had to be told they ought to rethink whether floor trading was for them. I've done that only when the person came in with, let's say, $25,000 to risk, part of his retirement fund or money borrowed on his home. I'd say, "You've worked too hard to get where you're at. The money you need for floor trading you've got to be able to risk. If you think you can come in with $5000 or $10,000 and turn it into $100,000, you're sadly mistaken." |
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Neal: But we've seen books where guys have said they've turned $10,000 into $1,000,000 and they're off-the-floor traders. |
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Sid: Yes, you're right. You're talking about how many Michael Jordans, Scotty Pippens, and Joe Montanas of trading? There |
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