Peter To used to play a lot of online poker, doing fairly well for himself, before day trading equities. He also played in the markets as an investor but became strongly attracted to over-the-counter (OTC) stocks after discovering a strange inefficiency…
We spend quite a bit of time on Peter’s prop trading experience in this episode—both the good and bad times. We also touch on trading nihilism and what happens when you do everything you supposedly shouldn’t do; why Peter is okay with not being a “cold-blooded assassin” and why he trades under the influence of emotion. And near the end of our conversation, we briefly discuss Bitcoin and exchange hacks.
Peter’s blog, Churning and Burning, also covers many of these subjects—you can read more here.
What’s Covered in This Interview:
- How Peter took $20 and turned it into $20,000 playing online poker, then became a cynical ‘Gold Bug’, followed by a stint as a value investor, and finally an active day trader.
- Peter’s way into a prop trading firm, his positive and negative experiences there, the pros of being a prop trader, and the easily identified red flags to be aware of.
- Trading Nihilism: How some traders can do everything ‘wrong’ and with conviction too—and not only survive, but profit significantly.
- Peter gives us the scoop on how emotion influences his trading and how that rules out being a “cold-blooded assassin”; and all about bad habits, self-doubt, and taking breaks.
Links and Resources:
- Free Money Part II: The 8am ARCA Low-Offer – Peter goes into the glitch/inefficiency that allowed him to take advantage of the over-the-counter (OTC) markets in this blog post.
The Day I Lost A Shit-ton of Money, Part I – This is Peter’s most popular blog post to date, a three-part series documenting his biggest loss—trading Fannie Mae.
Glassdoor.com – Mentioned as a good site for reading up on other people’s experiences at specific prop firms, Glassdoor is an employer review website by past and present employees. - Hedge Fund Market Wizards by Jack Schwager – Prop trader Jimmy Balodimas is covered extensively in the chapter ‘Stepping in Front of Freight Trains’.
- Bitfinex: Cause of Bitcoin Hack Still ‘Unkown’ – One article covering the Bitfinex (Bitcoin exchange) hack on CoinDesk. Churning and Burning – Visit Peter’s blog and learn more about him. His posts are worth reading and maybe one day he’ll decide to put it all into a book…
- @PeterKTo – Follow Peter on Twitter, and tweet him about this episode!
- TradeStation – TradeStation clients have it pretty good; an amazing platform, great commissions, and all the rest! More info.
