Very interesting weekend all. I'm back home a little early and haven't heard from Eric about his program today.
It was great to see everyone. The Friday "banquet" was a memorable experience. We had Brandon/Toni and part of the MTrader crew there, Palo Alto, Tony Oz and his wife, davealex, the uncommitted aldrum, fftrader (who'd I miss?), at least 9 of my former students and a few strangers that needed a place to dine <g>. 30 people?? Everyone went around a talked a little about themselves. That was a fibonacci moment for sure. I'll remember it for years.
The Expo crowd had a directionless feel to me. Not too young, not too old, not too excited, not too discouraged. Someone else might know what that means. I sure don't. I had about 100 people for my program. In my head, It was one of my best but the crowd was quiet and mostly low-skill level. I did have a bunch of folks grab my arm over the next day to talk about it and thank me but didn't have much of a "flock" around me right after the show.
The Networking dinner was a blast as well (especially with a free meal ticket ;-) . Bollinger and Murphy both had that CNBC polish and mostly talked about portfolios and the NYSE. Linda Raschke was brilliant as usual and cut to the bone. Her sex appeal was the source of much discussion among the male traders for sure. Got to be nice with this next one (the organizers do lurk here). There was a technical glitch when Steve Nison got up to illustrate some candlestick stuff. They were using qCharts and couldn't get the SP up for like 15 minutes while Steve had to ad-lib. It really was hilarious but we had to use all of our energy to hold it in. It wasn't qC's fault after all but the deja vu was so well known that the place was in stitches. And the hardest part was Steve sounding a little like Woody Allen in the ad-lib time. Truly memorable <g>.
The booth babe culture was in full force but taken down several rungs. There is no other way to say it but many of them looked like cheap trash. Last year, it was sort of perky and athletic while this year was silicone, black vinyl and wondering about their evening jobs.
A ton of talk out there about industry consolidation. Too many B/Ds and software systems chasing not enough new traders. There will be fewer and larger companies out there over the next year or two.
Pristine had the biggest crowds that I saw. And whether you love him or don't love him, Oliver had the crowds. I heard that his book is selling very, very well. I realized the benefit that I will have when my book is released in December. The titles are complimentary and believe chosen by the same individual at McGraw. I spoke with my sister this afternoon and she couldn't remember the book's name. So she typed in "master trader" at Amazon and his book and mine pop up together. I'll take any advantage that I can get ;-).
I got no sleep at all this weekend. It was the hotel bar with Brandon and davealex, aldrum, Palo Alto, Tony on Friday and an all night party thrown on the patio by Underground Trader on Saturday. Brandon/Toni, Palo Alto, MTrader boys, etc until close to 2am before I crashed.
I met Brandon and Toni in NYC but had some time with them on this go-around. They are brilliant for their tender years <g>. Brandon has way too many neurons working at any given time. The years should be very kind to both of them.
Enough of this stuff. I'm going to get some sleep.
Alan
P.S. Vad, we want you at one of these as soon as possible <s>. |
