Online Poker is becoming a forge for Wall Street
In years past, it was impossible to get a job at a brokerage company on Wall Street without a financial education, and large firms selected employees with connections that were able to get insider information. Now times have changed, and in search of talent, hedge funds and brokerage firms turned their attention to professional poker players, writes the LA Times.
“A person who succeeds in poker is likely to be successful in business. If you have no interest in poker - this is almost a red flag. It's like not reading the Wall Street Journal, ”said Danon Robinson, a representative of the brokerage company Toro Trading.
It is believed that good poker players have many important qualities for a trader: they instantly make mathematically verified decisions, do not lose their mind when dealing with large amounts of money and are quickly restored after financial losses. They have nerves of steel and analytical thinking - what they need for trading.
The LA Times newspaper cites the example of the famous player Chris Fargis (Chris Fargis), who was recently hired by the brokerage company Toro Trading. This is generally a blatant case, because the 30-year-old Fargis did not study finance even in college, not to mention higher education. For the last six years he spent in his New York apartment, playing on the Internet on eight tables at the same time (this is a normal situation for any regular player - this is how quickness of decision-making works). And a few days after being hired, he had already gained control over financial instruments worth millions of dollars.
')
Fargis example is not unique. For example, the large trading company Susquehanna International Group (1,500 employees) made poker courses a central part of its training program for training traders. Beginners are handed out copies of the classic books on poker Harrington and Sklansky, and then forced to play with the instructors one day a week. This should teach traders to operate effectively in the face of uncertainty.
With a huge army of 6.8 million players and an audience growth of 30% per year (these are statistics from PokerAnalytics.com), online poker is turning into a real forge of personnel for Wall Street.
According to experts , the search for talented traders among poker professionals is not a new approach. “At the end of the last century, the bookmaking, which started in the territory of the former USSR, was experiencing acute problems with personnel - the bookmaker’s profession was not taught in schools, universities, or vocational schools. Then she gained a similar idea - hope for the analytical skills of chess players. After 20 years, it is possible to state success: at the helm of many well-known betting companies, both in the CIS and in Europe, are chess players. ”
Critics of "poker fashion" on Wall Street say that this trend shows the worst qualities of modern financial capitalism, which is largely based on passion, greed and deception. After all, these are also integral parts of poker.
“A person who succeeds in poker is likely to be successful in business. If you have no interest in poker - this is almost a red flag. It's like not reading the Wall Street Journal, ”said Danon Robinson, a representative of the brokerage company Toro Trading.
It is believed that good poker players have many important qualities for a trader: they instantly make mathematically verified decisions, do not lose their mind when dealing with large amounts of money and are quickly restored after financial losses. They have nerves of steel and analytical thinking - what they need for trading.
The LA Times newspaper cites the example of the famous player Chris Fargis (Chris Fargis), who was recently hired by the brokerage company Toro Trading. This is generally a blatant case, because the 30-year-old Fargis did not study finance even in college, not to mention higher education. For the last six years he spent in his New York apartment, playing on the Internet on eight tables at the same time (this is a normal situation for any regular player - this is how quickness of decision-making works). And a few days after being hired, he had already gained control over financial instruments worth millions of dollars.
')
Fargis example is not unique. For example, the large trading company Susquehanna International Group (1,500 employees) made poker courses a central part of its training program for training traders. Beginners are handed out copies of the classic books on poker Harrington and Sklansky, and then forced to play with the instructors one day a week. This should teach traders to operate effectively in the face of uncertainty.
With a huge army of 6.8 million players and an audience growth of 30% per year (these are statistics from PokerAnalytics.com), online poker is turning into a real forge of personnel for Wall Street.
According to experts , the search for talented traders among poker professionals is not a new approach. “At the end of the last century, the bookmaking, which started in the territory of the former USSR, was experiencing acute problems with personnel - the bookmaker’s profession was not taught in schools, universities, or vocational schools. Then she gained a similar idea - hope for the analytical skills of chess players. After 20 years, it is possible to state success: at the helm of many well-known betting companies, both in the CIS and in Europe, are chess players. ”
Critics of "poker fashion" on Wall Street say that this trend shows the worst qualities of modern financial capitalism, which is largely based on passion, greed and deception. After all, these are also integral parts of poker.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/93888/
All Articles