Million Dollar Traders - Episode 1 The Beginning
Watching the Online Video from the BBC is no longer possible - but check out the video clip below. It appears that Million Dollar Traders has been shown in many countries around the world and I suspect the BBC will be running it again - it was an interesting reality TV show for people interested in stock trading, although how close to actual reality remains debatable.
In the words of the BBC eight "ordinary people" - the afore-mentioned million dollar traders - are provided with a million dollars and two weeks training to see if they can trade on the stockmarket and do as well as the professionals.
The project is the brainchild of Mr Lex Van Dam , a "hedge fund guru". I originally imagined him to be just another smug city type but it turns out he is a bit more of a cynic than I thought.
“What has become clear over the past year is that the experts don’t know,” he says. “If you just do what the experts tell you it’s probably the quickest way of losing your money.
“And if something looks too good to be true it probably isn’t true – like the Madoff fraud. You can’t trust the Government, and you can’t trust companies.” Amen to that !(UPDATE : August 2012 - In particular you can't trust banks - which I knew anyway given my own personal experience with a big High Street bank that shall remain nameless for the time being - but in the years since this programme was aired on the BBC many more banking CEOs have hit the dust - and we have had the Libor fixing, scandal, the drug money laundering scandal, and now the Iran money laundering scandal, the insurance scandal etc... the dirty long list goes on - we also had the London riots where people were getting jailed for following the crowds and stealing a bottle of water!)
The eight Million Dollar Traders novices were :-
- 36 yr old retired soldier Mike Tobell
- environmentalist Dr Sam Duvy
- 42 yr old entrepreneur Caroline Taseham
- 30 yr old cage fighting promoter Emile Coleman
- 26 yr old ex-vet Cleo Foulkes
- 63 yr old retired IT engineer Simon Brew
- 34 yr old shopkeeper Amin Chopin Putra
- 20 yr old economics and maths student Oki Imekwaday
They were chosen in spring 2008 and the series was filmed in July and August during the stockmarket crisis.
By the end of Episode 1 the million dollar traders had lost over £2,000, hardly a king's ransom and on the stockmarket a mere nano-drop in an ocean of tears.
The first of the traders to actually trade was 63-year old retired IT Consultant Simon Brew, who ventured £5,000 on 'safe bet' British Gas, which promptly lost the team £250. After which he plumped for Bradford and Bingley and a bowl of cornflakes (or was it the other way round?) another safe bet (which no longer exists I think - but he wasn't to know - even Superman Gordon Brown didn't see that one coming).
And for an encore Simon told his broker to 'buy' 800 shares when what he meant to say was 'sell' thus doubling his losses in one foul stroke. But professional traders do that all the time - it's known as 'fat finger syndrome' - not 'long finger syndrome' which is another matter altogether and which is good - see Size Matters to Financial Traders
After a cheery and confident start the vet spent much of the episode fretting and on the verge of tears.
Former soldier Mike waited a week before making his first trade, a complicated affair, which ended up being a large loser, but he nevertheless seems quite competent IMHO.
Hats off to all the million dollar traders I say, trading isn't easy and two weeks is nowhere near enough training, but that was Mr Van Dam's idea so I guess we can't criticize him for it.
Let us hope the second episode is as amusing as the first!
Next episode - Episode 2 of -> Million Dollar Traders
Episode 3 of -> Million Dollar Traders
