About me

I am an Algorithmic Trader

I have been one for almost 15 years now. That makes me relatively old in this business (although I am not yet 40). Does that make me any good? According to Nassim Taleb it does. Indeed in one of his books he says that the single most criterion for him to assess a trader was how long the person has survived in this game. Not how much money he has made, not how clever he sounds, and certainly not how polished he looks. But the answer to a simple question.. “How long?”

But in my case it probably doesn’t. Why? Because I am not really a trader at all. I am more of a computer programmer than a trader. Also, I never operated alone. So my survival is mostly because I have been lucky to be part of a talented group rather than an individual skill on my part. Hopefully future posts will make this point clear.

There is no plan to make a coherent story. Some of the posts may be small anecdotes, others may be technical. By and large they will just be random musings on my part.

And finally the title. In computer programming, I often find it hard to find a good name for my variables. Same with the title. How to choose a good one? I took the easy way out. On my Kindle, there is a book called “Eat, Pray, Love”. I haven’t read it, but I liked the title. And so I chose “Think, Trade, Pray”. It really describes our work well. We have to think, then act on or thoughts, and then pray. The odds may be in our favor, but ..