Michael Platt of Bluecrest made 50% in 2016, 54% in '17, 25% in '18 and 50% in '19. Rumored up big in 2020. Per Market Wizards 2012, he averaged 14% years with a 5% max drawdown. When a billionaire trader doubles his profitability, it merits study.

A thread of "Plattitudes":
1] re: systematic trading. "Markets trend, and diversification works... The reason markets trend is because our minds don't work properly. When you recall the past you have lots of gaps... The material with which you fill in the gaps in your past recollections is called *today*"
2] re: risk in Europe, 2011. "The market prices the probability of a Eurozone break up to be distinctly non zero. If banks were hedge funds and you marked them to market properly, they'd be insolvent. We are radically concerned about the credit quality of our counter-parties."
3] On trading crises: "You don't make your money going into the crisis. Markets trade against positions. Good ideas go into reverse. The big money you make in trading is in the aftermath of the crisis. We are traders. An investment is a short term trade that's gone wrong."
4] On liquidity: "The strategy of Bluecrest is to be in super liquid products. Basically things that can be turned around in a day [futures, options, swaps]. I'm not tempted by illiquidity. Anybody who had illiquid positions in hedge funds in 2008, had runs on their hedge funds."
5] On what markets to trade: "The big 3 are fixed income, credit, and emerging markets. [Not equities] because I prefer quantitative approaches. Even though [equities] are market neutral, I am afraid of a lack of liquidity. When OIS Libor cracked I didn't want equity exposure."
6] On huge 09 returns: "It helped a great deal that we [were liquid in 08 to return peoples' money when they needed it]. [Because of this] we got 1/9 of all 2009 hedge fund inflows. In 09 we faded call and put skews in the market that were ... insanely expensive"
7] On Risk: I hire specialists [for diversification]. For example, I have [4 different specialists] for Scandy rates, short end, vol arbitrage, and inflation. They all get an allocation. If a trader loses 3% [his risk is halved]. If he loses 3% of the remaining half [he's done]."
8] On PNL stops: "The 3% is not a trailing stop. We want people to scale down if they are getting it wrong and scale up if they are getting it right. [The stop] rescales annually." [interviewer: "You are structuring traders like options?"] Platt: "Yes, completely."
9] More on Risk Control: "The key thing [Our Risk Team] is looking for is a breakdown in correlation. Most of our positions are spreads. Lower correlations would increase the risk of our positions. Typically we are neutral to long volatility. I hate shorting OTM strikes."
10] On Market Maker mentality: "Market makers know that the market is always right. You are wrong if you are losing money for any reason at all. Value is irrelevant in times of stress; it's all about positions. Markets will trade against positions."
11] On hiring: "I look for the type of guy in London who wakes up at 7 o'clock on Sunday morning while his kids are in bed and logs onto a poker site so that he can pick off the US drunks coming home on a Saturday night. You want someone who understands an edge."
12] On ego: "The problem always comes down to ego. You find that analysts and economists always have big egos, which just gets in the way of making money because they can never admit they are wrong"
13] On shading your trades to express a view: "There is no hedge against being wrong. If you think rates are going up when they're going down, I don't care what trade you've done, you're going to lose money."
14] On trading style: "I develop a macro view about something but there are 20 different ways I can play it. The key question is: "What gives me the best risk return ratio?" My final trade is rarely going to be a straight long or short position"
15] On losses: "Losing money is what kills you. It's not the actual loss. It's the fact it messes up your psychology. You lose the bullets in your gun. Then the elephant walks by when your gun's not loaded. In this game, you want to be there when the great trades come along."
16] On gut feel & time based stops: "If I enter a trade and the minute I put it on feel uncomfortable, I will [get right out]. Most time I stop out because of time [not a loss]. If I love the trade and a month later it hasn't moved, alarm bells start ringing."
17] On gathering consensus: "I like to know what the consensus view is because you really do make the most money when the consensus shifts... It's amazing how much information you get on peoples' positions by simply asking their opinions."
18] On trading criteria: "There are 3 things you need to make money in a market. You need a decent fundamental story, a good trend that looks like it will carry on, and the market handling news the way you think it should. Bull markets ignore any bad news."
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