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Note: With almost 100 years of foreign exchange experience between them, the three executives running Tradex Capital Markets have plenty to say about the industry.
There is not much that the trio have not seen or done. But speaking with Rony Schlapfer, the company's chairman; Phil Gellos, its president; and Steve Jury, its chief investment officer, it soon becomes clear that they have far more to offer than a history lesson.
Schlapfer is a true market legend. Older FX hands might remember him from his appearance in an early television documentary about the industry -- Billion Dollar Day -- shown in the mid-1980s. The film focused on three traders working out of Hong Kong, London and New York. Schlapfer stood out because of the size of the positions he was running and because he was not working for a bank. Instead, he was effectively trading his own account, backed by a few wealthy investors.
His company, Capital Management International, was one of the first funds specializing in currencies. "In the early 1980s, I believe we were one of the only firms trading privately in FX on a speculative basis outside of the banks. I don't know anyone who was trading currencies like us," Schlapfer says.
Rony Schlapfer and Steve Jury, Tradex Capital Markets: waiting for a surge in investors
FX myth says that his first backers were a group of doctors and dentists. "It's true; we had a lot of doctors and dentists involved. For some reason they liked the currency market," he confirms. But more important, he had the backing of a wealthy European family who were fully prepared to support his aggressive trading. Starting off with $10 million, Schlapfer was soon running positions of half a billion dollars, which led to good returns. It also led to some hefty profit and loss swings.
With the benefit of hindsight, Schlapfer is incredulous at the backwardness of risk management at that time. "We never got...