If you enjoyed last week’s post then...here’s Part II! Straight from the Banking Blog about a 20-something derivatives trader who worked for a MM firm in a small European country and as a quant for a major London institution. I've formatted it into a Q&A interview but last week I was only able to spit out their response to a typical day. This last part wraps up with a couple more questions about their lifestyle and the industry, so read on to pick up where I left off...

Joris Luyendijk is an Anthropologist who runs The Guardian'sBanking Blog, a series of monologues where people in the financial sector anonymously talk about their working lives. This series is about a 20-something derivatives trader who worked in a small European country and is now a quant at a major London institution. I’ve formatted it into a Q&A interview with responses from his monologue, not mine. So if you're interested in what it's like to be a trader, especially overseas then read on...

Last week I wrote about James Altucher’s controversial article that I read on my lunch at work but here’s the real kicker. After reading it and other motivational ass-kicking stuff from Bold & Determined, I finally decided to quit complaining and do something about my job! That article was the spark to my gasoline-drenched angst and it finally prompted me to get the balls to walk out and never look back. But I asked myself, how do I get out this rat race the right way? I created an exit strategy, so read on to see what I came up with and if can help you too...

Nassim Nicholas Taleb's [NNT] latest book, Antifragility discusses how institutions can survive through chaos and diversity. In a lengthy interview with Reason's Nick Gillespie he indirectly promotes capitalism and simplifies his message by saying, "...I want errors to be multiplied, that's it." He then goes on to elaborate the overall theme of his book and relates it to banking finance, monetary policy, options theory, etc. So read on for my summary and to see the full interview as he shake's up the WS establishment yet again...

They’re on financial television and in pictures, jacket wearing people on the floor looking frantic and almost pulling their hair out! Who are they, what are they doing, and what’s a typical day like? It’s not that it’s really cold on the floor so they have to wear jackets, they define them as floor brokers who provide information and execute orders for clients by acting as their eyes-and-ears on the markets and Julie La Roche of BI caught up with an anonymous floor broker in her article, “A Day In The Life Of A New York Stock Exchange Floor Broker to reveal to you what a typical day looks like as well as some basic facts for you younger monkeys out there...

An article from BI, The Most Beautiful Correlation In Stocks And The Economy Continues To Be Perfect shows an overlay of the S&P 500, jobless claims, and the author, Joe Weisenthal claims that “…stocks reflect what's happening in the actual, real economy, as evidenced by the fact that for years, stocks have moved right in line with jobless claims.” This caught my attention and after a quick dig on Google, it turns out his analysis is DEAD WRONG and here’s why…

In this week’s post I’m going to take a political twist. Benzinga's Alex Biles gives a list of what I call New Economy executives. These 12 practice a true-and-true free-market ideology which I think is in stark contrast to today’s WS plutarchy and serves as a fresh reminder that it’s the execution of their beliefs that unlock the American entrepreneurial spirit. Now, while I do identify with most of what they believe I am skeptical on a few of their tenets, so don’t take everything literally. So read on to find out who these “Captains of Industry” are and their contributions…

So we’ve finally made it, the third and LAST installment of the 7 Reasons Why You Still Trade Like A Noob and as promised, I’m going to share my transition in thinking from an amateur to a professional trader based on Marketkronicle’s infograph. Again, I hope this helps all you noobs out there so read on to find out what I've learned about the trading business…