Joel Stein, author of "Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity, got to pretend to be a day trader with $100,000 and he lives to write about it in his new book. A Smart Money review of the book reports that nearly 70 percent of the trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange is dominated by high-frequency trading , which for the most part is done by computers that the industry calls algo-bots. "But competing with these machines are a host of independent trading outfits that let individuals get into the game, matching wits and button-pushing reflexes with Wall Street's algorithms."
The columnist and TV pundit was curious to see if a human day trader could compete in the risky world of day trading.
In the book, he chronicles his day-long adventure at Great Point Capital, a day-trading firm in Chicago. He not only gives his readers an insider perspective on day trading, he helps novices understand the fundamentals from exactly what day traders do because he realizes as he's had some confusion about what they do day-to-day, his readers may also have misconceptions. "I assumed it had to do with analyzing sales figures and doing math and talking to China. That is not what they do at all. They gamble."
His trainer for the day is a 26-year-old who has done well trading. He tells Stein that day trading is just gambling. "It's educated guessing with an edge. It's just more prestigious than being a poker player," he shares.
The insights in this book are fascinating. Stein writes about the operations of Great Point Capital, which is a microcosm of many other day trading firms. The Smart Money review, for example, offers the following summary from the book. "When you first start working here, Great Point Capital lets you invest with its money. The firm gives you a salary and lets you keep a percentage of your winnings. If you keep losing, Adrian -- a chubby, smiley guy in a button-down shirt -- comes to your desk and sends you home. If you do well, you eventually get the deal Matt (his trainer) has: He invests his own money, keeps all his winnings, sucks up all his losses and pays the firm about $4 for every thousand shares he trades. In return, he gets to play with a lot more money than he puts in -- the firm gives him leverage of 25 times his investment."
Stein's trainer Matt ends up making $220,000 that day and another guy in the office made $2 million that day. Stein's gamble didn't make much of a profit but he didn't lose any money either. But he did walk away feeling addicted to the high of day trading.