JWBK169-Lien July 3, 2007 13:56
Man Versus MachineQ: What was the reason to try a clerkship at the Merc?
A: I got my degree in biology, but I decided I wasn’t going to go
into that. I did various other things and then I had friend who had
a friend who had a friend down at the Merc and he said he was
doing well, so I decided to give it a try.Q: How long did you clerk for?
A: About three years.
Q: Do you think most of the trading skill that you use now was
learned on the floor? Or is a lot of it inapplicable to what you do
now?
A: No, it was definitely applicable. The way I trade now I learned
from the Nikkei pit. It was smaller pit with less going on. And the
stocks I trade now are slower with less going on. You can watch
what’s going on, who is doing what. That’s kind of how I trade—the
way people do in a smaller pit where you can see who is buying,
who is selling, trying to get in between the players, buying in front
of them, selling in front of them. So the Nikkei is what molded my
style. When I first started trading, I was trading thicker stocks like
Microsoft. But I couldn’t get an edge, so I went to thinner stocks,
which are less crowded and easier to identify the players.Q: Is most of your trading done on Nasdaq?
A: 100 percent Nasdaq.
Q: Is that because you need that open book on the Level 2 entry?
[Authors’ note:In the Nasdaq market unlike at the NYSE all bids
and offers are displayed on the single Level 2 screen providing the
trader with much better transparency than the specialist book on
the NYSE which only shows the topmost bids and offers.]