A Message from Alexander Höptner, CEO of BitMEX
With the arrival of September comes that collective ‘back to school’ feeling in many places around the world. The fun-filled months of summer play havoc with financial markets, and although the concept of a silly season is largely irrelevant in 24/7/365 crypto markets, this year NFTs have brought fresh interest (and intrigue) in crypto-fuelled markets.
CTD regulars hopefully enjoyed Arthur’s first piece on NFTs, where he examined the psychological underpinnings of the NFT craze. In his latest essay he opines on emerging trading strategies in this fascinating market. As he says, real traders will make a market out of anything - so it’s not too much of a stretch to envisage a burgeoning NFT derivatives market in the near-term. Something for the BitMEX product pipeline, perhaps?
Whatever your take on NFTs, they are undeniably prompting us all to consider questions spanning philosophical, economical, and pure human psychology.
- Alex (@AlexHoeptner)
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(Any views expressed in the below are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions.)
A real trader will make a market on anything.
Story time.
As many long-time readers know, I spent the summer of 2007 in the Deutsche Bank Hong Kong internship program. I rotated on the equity derivatives sales desk. It was an era before the trading floor got woke and banned such demeaning activities as interns getting breakfast and lunch for the desk.
As an intern, your only worth was your ability to follow orders and get breakfast, lunch, and mid-afternoon snacks for the desk. In return, the professionals would answer your questions about their day jobs. 20 salespeople worked on the desk. Myself and another intern who I’m still besties with trekked our sorry, business casual-wearing asses in the humid and hot Hong Kong summer every day to procure sustenance for our masters.
Every week, each salesperson would deposit money in the bank of Arthur, from which I would debit the cost of their food. I kept a pretty detailed spreadsheet of what each person ordered, the date, and the amount.
That’s all pretty standard, but as an enterprising and broke intern, I endeavored to make a profit from my role as a food sherpa. I charged a pretty hefty spread on every order such that I made a few hundred dollars per week profit. Lest you think I acted out of line, everyone on the desk knew what I was doing, and tacitly approved. Game respects game.
Last fortnight, I opined on the philosophical underpinnings of the NFT craze. This essay focuses on different, simple emerging trading strategies. Put aside the question of intrinsic normative value of NFTs, and appreciate that thousands of ETH and BTC change hands every month in the NFT markets. As crypto traders, we must participate, lest we leave money on the table. Similar to the story above, are you willing to use any opportunity to your benefit? While this won’t be an exhaustive deep dive into the microstructure of the NFT trading markets, hopefully this serves as a launch pad for more study of alpha-generating trading strategies.
Click here to continue reading this edition of Crypto Trader Digest
– Arthur Hayes, Co-Founder of BitMEX (@CryptoHayes)
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From BitMEX Research
BitMEX Research is delighted to announce that as of 31 August 2021, we have become an active staker on the Ethereum Beacon chain (Eth 2.0). Our validator number is 222,424. Within a few hours we had already proposed our own block, slot 1,964,794 in Epoch 61,399.
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Latest News from BitMEX
BitMEX Appoints Fernando Luis Vazquez Cao to its Board as a Non-Executive Director
We’re delighted to announce the appointment of Fernando Luis Vazquez Cao as a Non-Executive Director with immediate effect. A 20-year veteran of the technology and financial services sectors in Asia Pacific, Fernando is currently CEO of digital asset powerhouse SBI Digital Asset Holdings.
100x Ventures Announces Second Tranche Investment in Aluna.Social
We’re happy to announce that we’ve made a significant second tranche investment in Aluna.Social, deepening our commitment to its long-term growth. Aluna.Social is an up-and-coming social trading terminal that provides a unique, gamified copy-trading experience.
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