Let’s Talk About: The Best Traders I've Seen

I’ve lived and traded stocks and options with some of the legends in the business.

I’ve lived and traded stocks and options with some of the legends in the business. I have to separate them into three categories, Hedge Funds, Institutional, and Tape Readers. First the Hedge Funds; in my opinion they have no standing in the Equity field. They have been plagued by mediocrity mainly because they all do the same thing. They went to the same schools, worked at the same firms and developed into a herd of sheep one following the other. The lone exception is Paul Singer. Elliot is the only one that consistently thinks outside the box and has maintained a culture of independent thinking.

Institutional was loaded with talent. Three that I’m in awe of are Gus Levy (GS) Bob Mnuchin (GS) and Ace Greenberg (BS). These legends ruled the street and commanded respect. Four others came close and ran the OTC market for decades Victor Wright and his protege Joey Della Rosa (GS) Buzzy Geduld and his protege Maryanne O’Connell (Herzog) If there were a Wall Street Hall of Fame they’d all be members. They did it with morality and guts.

The three men who could make money in any tape are John Mulhern (SLK). Stevie Cohen (SAC, but may have the Barry Bonds Asterisk as he turned dirty, you don’t pay a 1.8 billion dollar fine for playing in the rules) and Larry Benedict (independent). Larry is raw talent and has the one quality that separates him from the others, humility.

Chuck Feldman and Gene Johnson ruled institutional Options for close to two decades and belong in the HOF.

I don’t know much about powers in credit but I’d bet any Solomon trader in the 70s/80s is an automaton inductee.

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