Telling It Like It Is in Plain English (Call SBF a fraud in March)

When I moved from the trading floor to the "real world", I had some problems adapting. A big issue that will hopefully be picked up by other traders in the comment section is that the real world is not trustworthy.

On the pitch, your word was your bond and if you didn't carry out what you said, there was no excuse. It was an essential part of trading in a pit face to face with someone every day for years and years. People who didn't get up behind their looms were thrown down on a rail.

On the ground, things happen quickly. You know at the end of the day where you stand. In the real world, this can take days, weeks, and years.

Another big problem I had was that I was blunt. I did not water down or use corporate or legal talk to solve the problems. If I had a problem with someone, I said so. On the court, time is money. Seconds count. There is no time to qualify or worry about someone's feelings. The shit needs to be done now.

I think the world wants honest and clear politicians right now. It's one of the reasons Joe Lombardo won the gubernatorial race in Nevada this year and why Ron DeSantis and Glenn Youngkin have done so well in their states.

Like everyone else, I've read a lot of comments about Sam Bankman Fried (SBF) and FTX over the past few days. It's shocking because it's human to want to trust another person. You hate walking around and being cynical all the time. At least for me, that's not how I want to live.

Also, I had seen enough in the venture capital world where companies really took off like rockets. It's not like it can't happen. In fact, when you think about it if you believe in the American dream, it has to happen sometimes.

It is not the case that a new exchange cannot be created, compete with and overthrow the existing rooted exchanges. It can happen. I agree that the regulatory thicket to navigate can be mind-numbing and some of it is actually pointless. Like any regulatory thicket, some regulations were written to protect existing businesses, not because they make something "safer".

But, if you are going into exchange trading, you better have a tight structure and all your processes. Matching trades is easy. Everything else is difficult. But it's "everything else" that makes an exchange an exchange.

I was alerted to this podcast by my friend Tony, and saw it posted on some trader forums. My old business friend Terry Duffy said it exactly as we would have said it on the court and I notice no one else in the media or in corporate finance has had the guts to say it.