Meet the Authors

I entered the financial world bright-eyed and bushy-tailed over 25 years ago, when I stepped out of Bank station in the heart of London to begin my career at LME founding member Rudolf Wolff. I worked my way from the back office, to dealing in LME warrants, and then to the main execution desk broking orders for customers across the LME and virtually every major global market.

When did you start trading?

While at Wolff, an opportunity to help set up a new LIFFE operation was too good to turn down, and it wasn’t long before the pull of the pits had me hooked and I became a “local” trading my own money. I remember my first day like it was yesterday. I stood in the pit and didn’t have the foggiest idea what to do. My first major trading lesson was realising that even with years of being involved in markets, it does not prepare you for trading with your own money. I had to learn, and learn quickly but I was very fortunate to have some very good trading teachers, and here I am, still trading my own account and managing to win more than I lose. What I really want to do now is pass on the knowledge and experience I gained, to help you realise your potential.

What is your most important trading rule?

“Trading is not about learning how to win, it’s about learning how not to lose”.

I had a dream about being a live interpreter at the European Institutions as I loved my languages. They had free coffee and biscuits served by a nice lady walking around the offices, and paid no taxes on their income!
However, I fell into the financial world by accident at Citibank Brussels, that’s a generation and a half ago on a one month student job assignment. I made the coffee and got the sandwiches for the traders, and paid taxes on everything I’ve earned ever since.

My coffee was the best so they liked and kept me. Well, besides, I was apparently a decent learner about cash flows and especially a fast hand writer of fiduciary contracts, manually (yes there was a world before AI) calculating interests on 100s of these babies rolling in daily on metre long telexes.

When did you start trading?

There and then. I had no clue about economics when I started but bathing in it every day, and with the help of some real bankers in those days, I learned, sometimes (well most of the times) by a kick in the bum, how money flows around in this world, and the bug got hold of me.

I worked on the money market desk. One day, with one of our spot market makers being off desk, one of the branches called and asked for a price in USDBEF (Belgian Franc). My then mentor told me to go for it and make a price. The rest is 30+ years of spot FX market making in several of the world leading banks, to the biggest, most demanding, and furious at times, clients in the G11 space.

The JPY was my biggest attraction that brought me to spend 5 years in The Land of The Rising Sun. I had a blast trading FX spot and options, and every day learning how the interaction of numbers, interest rates, trading patterns (I had a great Cloud sensei in Tokyo) and my least favourite, politics, influence our markets. After that last assignment, I wanted to know what it is to be on the other side of the screen trading for myself.  I can say my long experience really helps in making a living, and especially confirm that it comes through work. Certainly, not a lot is for granted. I am happy to be able to share this with others now.

Trading rules.

“Embrace change, adapt.”