I’d have little interest in ever being tied down like that. I like to be in the wind so to speak which is why I struggle with stuff like college. It’s no difference to bookmakers. They are now just accountants and programmers. There isn’t any really odds compilers anymore.
That is true.
That isn’t a nice remark Julio. Im not in college at the moment. We’ve been done for four weeks now or maybe five. I’ve lost track of time.
What are you studying?
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Buddy of mine went at this for few years trading oil and currency markets. Stuck to one or two obscure (to my mind) angles for smallish stake.
completely unsustainable long term. He spent a fortune educating himself and purchasing software etc
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Did you lend him your “Economics for Dummies” book?
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Dramatic Arts.
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It’s a very precarious way of making a living. Even in the big trading companies they say you’d want to have your money made by your mid thirties because you are on the scrap heap then, bar you are one of the few very elite.
I read that Ben Mezirich book, based around trading the time of the Nick Leeson scandal.
The lifestyle sounded insane. Real high octane stuff. As you said you were either minted and retired or on the scrapheap by your mid 30’s.
You could share that cracking gambling story with names changed to protect the guilty
It’s too long. I’d get a sore thumb.
How’s things my oul epal?
Liars Poker by Michael Lewis was my go to text for this lifestyle
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A very good read into what life was like on Wall Street and how bonds were seen in the industry.
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30 year treasury bonds are popular for many reasons, mate. US Gov treasuries are the safest security available, as they’re underwritten and guaranteed by the US Government. If they can’t redeem your bond the finanical world and economies as we know it are kaput. They also pay a positive yield so depending on inflation they secure capital along with providing regular cashflows, in USD.
Countries, public and private pension funds and insurance companies all have long term liabilities and need long term assets to match these liabilities… treasuries provide a way of matching that risk. Then there is the fact that there are not many places to invest 100s of billions of dollars, there are not many securities or investmens that are capable of absorbing that much capital, other Gov bonds are basically the only optio and as mentioned Japan and European countries are negative yielding debt… this means US Gov treasuries are favourable in comparison. Brazil pays 7% on a 10 year gov bond - if you’re a pension fund looking for capital preservation are you going to allocate 100b to those…
So to answer your q, they are the safest long term securities available, they pay regular cashflows, they allow long term matching of assets and liabilities and they have the liquidity to handle 100s of bns of investment. The dollar being the world reserve currency (oil and other commodities being priced in usd) also underpins their demand as investors need dollars to purchase these.
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Few different routes, I know many traders, none of them are programmers or of that background.
There’s also very few pure speculators out there ( I don’t mean the tinpot lads that buy software and are day trading, stealing points based off charts, there loads of those) outside of hedge funds. Finance degree, masters in maths/economics, low level job in an investment bank/private bank while doing your CFA is a common route. You can then work your way between diff depts in middle or front office. They all have access to either their own fx desk or multiple brokers. No masters or undergrad degree or prof exams prepares you or gives you any insight in to hedging/trading/broker land. Of course it teaches you the maths and type of instruments involved but it’s useless in preparing you for understanding portfolio books, real life instruments, execution etc. You need years of working as an analyst in either a brokerage house, clearing house or inv bank before they let you near execution. When you’re going in entry level they do have a hard on for lads with a masters in maths as preference over finance/economics grads though.
(That’s not to say you can’t go down the programmer route and be involved creating bots and algos but in my experience they are guys working in quants funds and hedge funds rather than trading desks in banks. I don’t have first hand knowledge of this but there are banks with whole depts of algo traders also)
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Thanks for that. I didn’t realise that they paid a yield. I thought you just got whatever interest they were selling at (now pretty much zero).
One of the best algo programmers in the city is now a dairy farmer in the borders.
Where would you get shares in Odlums.
Owned by Origin plc. So you’d be buying shares in the parent.
Odlums be very small part of it.
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The big bucks are in the packaging. There’s flour but the packaging is the issue.
Recyclable plastic tubs is the future in this case.