Million Dollar Traders | |
---|---|
![]() Million Dollar Traders title card | |
Genre | Factual, finance |
Created by | Lex van Dam |
Directed by | Anthony Philipson |
Narrated by | Andrew Lincoln |
Composer | Richard Spiller |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 3 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers | Emma Willis Ruth Pitt |
Producers | Rob Miller Anthony Philipson |
Production location | London |
Editors | Rupert Houseman Alex Muggleton |
Running time | 1 hour |
Production company | Century Films |
Original release | |
Network | BBC Two |
Release | 12 January – 27 January 2009 |
Million Dollar Traders is a 2009 British reality television series devised by hedge fund manager Lex van Dam, which attempted to recreate the famous Turtle Traders experiment devised by Richard Dennis in the 1980s.
Million Dollar Traders follows a group of twelve wannabe traders dealing in shares during the 2007–2008 financial crisis, which was then whittled down to the final eight. The contestants come from various backgrounds, including a fight promoter, a day trader, an IT/banking recruitment consultant, a working mother, a retired IT engineer and a student, among others. During the series van Dam gave the London-based contestants the sterling equivalent of $1 million of his own money to trade for 2 months. Former professional trader Anton Kreil was appointed as the manager of the group. [1]
As with the original experiment, those who lasted the course broadly confirmed the claim that novices could become professional-level traders, making small profits or at least lower losses trading in very turbulent markets during the filming than professionals, who lost four times greater amounts over the same period. [2] The three-part BBC series, narrated by Andrew Lincoln, was a part of the "City Season" programming on the BBC. It aired on BBC 2 in the UK at 9pm on Monday evenings between 12 and 27 January 2009.
Episode number | Title | Content [3] | Original airdate |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Make Me a Trader" | The contestants are introduced to the trading floor and begin to build their portfolios – one contestant leaves. | 12 January 2009 |
2 | "Profit and Loss" | Each member of the team becomes a little more comfortable in trading, while one contestant leaves. | 19 January 2009 |
3 | "People vs Profit" | A number of the contestants leave due to disliking the working conditions, Lex hands out the remainder of his money and the remaining contestants find out how they have performed. | 27 January 2009 |
Name | Occupation |
---|---|
Mike Tovell | Soldier |
Amit Jobanputra | Shopkeeper |
Simon Brew | IT Engineer |
Cleo Folkes | Former Vet |
Emile Coleman | Fight promoter |
Caroline Taysom | Entrepreneur/Single Mother |
Ohioma Imoukhuede | Student |
Sam Duby | Environmentalist |
Michael (final 12) | IT/Banking Recruiter |
Paul (final 12) | Day Trader |
Unknown (final 12) | Car Trader (quit on day 1) |
Unknown (final 12) | Recruitment Consultant |
Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the firm's clients include corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley ranked No. 61 in the 2023 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue and in the same year ranked #30 in Forbes Global 2000.
Nicholas William Leeson is an English former derivatives trader whose fraudulent, unauthorised and speculative trades resulted in the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdom's second oldest merchant bank. He was convicted of financial crime in a Singapore court and served over four years in Changi Prison.
The South African rand, or simply the rand, is the official currency of South Africa. It is subdivided into 100 cents, and a comma separates the rand and cents.
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many international financial centers. Goldman Sachs is the second largest investment bank in the world by revenue and is ranked 55th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. In the Forbes Global 2000 of 2024, Goldman Sachs ranked 23rd. It is considered a systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Board.
The foreign exchange market is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. It includes all aspects of buying, selling and exchanging currencies at current or determined prices. In terms of trading volume, it is by far the largest market in the world, followed by the credit market.
Celebdaq was an online "celebrity stock exchange" game on BBC's website. The game had its own television show on BBC Three. The television show was presented by Paddy O'Connell and Libby Potter until comedian Jenny Eclair became the presenter.
Citadel LLC is an American multinational hedge fund and financial services company. Founded in 1990 by Ken Griffin, it has more than $63 billion in assets under management as of June 2024. The company has over 2,800 employees, with corporate headquarters in Miami, Florida, and offices throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. Founder, CEO and Co-CIO Griffin owns approximately 85% of the firm. As of December 2022, Citadel is one of the most profitable hedge funds in the world, posting $74 billion in net gains since its inception in 1990, making it the most successful hedge fund in history, according to CNBC.
Commodities Corporation was a financial services company, based in Princeton, New Jersey, that traded actively across various commodities. The firm was noted as one of the leading commodity and futures trading firms. CC is credited for launching the careers of many notable hedge fund investors and for its influence on global macro investing.
Toby Crabel is a tennis player who is now a commodities trader. In 2005, the Financial Times called Crabel "the most well-known trader on the counter-trend side". He is the fund manager of "Crabel Capital Management," which has previously ranked highly on Absolute Return magazine's list of US groups with more than $1 billion Assets under management. Crabel managed 3.2 billion dollars with growth of 16.7% in 2005. Crabel has a strong record of positive returns, having avoided a single losing year between 1991 and 2002.
Trend following or trend trading is a trading strategy according to which one should buy an asset when its price trend goes up, and sell when its trend goes down, expecting price movements to continue.
Trafigura Group Pte. Ltd. is a multinational commodities company domiciled in Singapore with major regional hubs in Geneva, Houston, Montevideo and Mumbai, founded in 1993. The company trades in base metals and energy. It is the world's largest private metals trader and second-largest oil trader having built or purchased stakes in pipelines, mines, smelters, ports and storage terminals.
Macquarie Group Limited, known more commonly as Macquarie Bank, is a global investment banking and financial services group providing banking, financial advisory and investment, and funds management services, to institutional, corporate, and retail clients and counterparties, around the world, headquartered in Sydney and listed in Australia. Macquarie Bank employs more than 20,000 staff across four operating groups in 34 markets and its Investment Banking division is Australia's top ranked mergers and acquisitions adviser with more than A$871 billion in assets under management and is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager.
Gunvor Group Ltd is a multinational energy commodities trading company registered in Cyprus, with its main trading office in Geneva, Switzerland. Gunvor also has trading offices in Singapore, Houston, Stamford, London, Calgary, and Dubai, with a network of representative offices around the globe. The company operates in the trade, transport, storage and optimization of petroleum and other energy products, as well as having investments in oil terminal and port facilities. Its operations consist of securing crude oil and petroleum products upstream and delivering it to market via pipelines and tankers. Gunvor has a separate company, Nyera, set up in 2021 to invest in renewable energy sources. It is run by energy transition director Fredrik Tornqvist.
Vitol is a Swiss-based Dutch multinational energy and commodity trading company that was founded in Rotterdam in 1966 by Henk Viëtor and Jacques Detiger. Though trading, logistics and distribution are at the core of its business, these are notably complemented by refining, shipping, terminals, exploration and production, power generation, and retail businesses. Vitol has over 40 offices worldwide, with its largest operations in Geneva, Houston, London, and Singapore.
The Galleon Group was one of the largest hedge fund management firms in the world, managing over $7 billion, before closing in October 2009. The firm was the center of a 2009 insider trading scandal which subsequently led to its fall.
Michael W. Covel is an American author, entrepreneur, and film director. In 1996, he co-founded TurtleTrader.com, later expanded into TrendFollowing.com, a popular online resource focused on investment style known as trend following, which allows investors to profit in both up and down markets.
Lex van Dam is a Dutch investment manager, investor, and writer specialising in trading in equities, currencies and financial derivatives. He lives in London.
The Libor scandal was a series of fraudulent actions connected to the Libor and also the resulting investigation and reaction. Libor is an average interest rate calculated through submissions of interest rates by major banks across the world. The scandal arose when it was discovered in 2012 that banks were falsely inflating or deflating their rates so as to profit from trades, or to give the impression that they were more creditworthy than they were. Libor underpins approximately $350 trillion in derivatives. It is currently administered by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which took over running the Libor in January 2014.
William O. Perkins III is an American hedge fund manager, film producer, author, and high stakes poker player. Perkins manages Skylar Capital, an energy trading hedge fund that had approximately $500 million in assets under management as of 2023.
Mismarking in securities valuation takes place when the value that is assigned to securities does not reflect what the securities are actually worth, due to intentional fraudulent mispricing. Mismarking misleads investors and fund executives about how much the securities in a securities portfolio managed by a trader are worth, and thus misrepresents performance. When a trader engages in mismarking, it allows him to obtain a higher bonus from the financial firm for which he works, where his bonus is calculated by the performance of the securities portfolio that he is managing.