Britainology 20: London Finance Geezers feat. Matt Edwards
This is perhaps something of a combination of Britainology and a regular TF episode in which we've brought on Matt Edwards, Milo's (much) older brother, who worked as a foreign exchange trader in London brokerages in the 1990s. We learn about the geezer-rific work environment of a bunch of guys yelling into a phone about numbers, some of the antics they got up to, what's changed since, and--perhaps on a more serious note--Matt's personal experience with what happened in Greece post-2008, a country he's worked in extensively. We very much hope you enjoy this.
Comments (22)
Ahhh so THAT is who Milo is doing when ‘e does ‘is Essex geezer voice 😂
"Sharp as a marble" 😅
Kerviel was a delta one equities trader. So was adoboli. Playing round with trs bundles and some vol products the basis can burn you. Surprised you didn’t explore the fact that soros and rogers helped break the BOE. Potentially the event that put soros into the mind of melts everywhere.
Everyone in the Stratford Sauna is staring at me as I listen to this episode in red pants and laugh like a madman.
Ok, if you're being legit I desperately need to know the vibe. Is it nice? Anything to glean about the clientele?
Haven't been back since, but when I lived in Stratford c. 2014 there was definitely still a dodgy-looking sauna on the high street
With this cast of voices I think it adds up that Milo and Nate are Withnail and I, with Matt as Danny the Dealer. Raises the further question of who is Uncle Monty.
Matt is the most powerfully British person I have ever heard. Great ep!
Great episode and Matt is one of the most lucid and reasonable people I have heard speak who grew up on the rough and tumble 90s trading floor. I think its interesting to think through the logic of the end of relationship personal broking. One of the really interesting points from what Matt says, that a floor of brokers that used to be staffed by 150 people is now staffed by 10, is made even more extreme by the fact those 10 brokers are doing almost 100 times as much (notional) business as the 150 were doing historically. Therefore when things go wrong rather than it being driven by the behaviours of those 150 people, the dislocations which arise come from a much smaller group of people and have a much bigger impact. Plus the dynamics of how markets feed through the system are less and less understood. Volatility is likely to get worse (because of concentration and size) and thus the implications of the share buybacks (read leveraging balance sheets) will be even more extreme as companies will go bust very quickly. Which means everything will have to be backstopped by the government when it does go wrong more often, which removes the limited market dynamic for incentivising efficient capital allocation as risk premia mean nothing, which means we end up with even more zombie semi-nationalized crony capitalism.
If The Line is divorced, is it divorced in the sense of, like, Laurence Fox? Is The Line allowed to see its kids? Did the actual economy take all The Line’s money in the divorce? Does The Line unironically support Fathers 4 Justice? And what’s the deal with The Line’s impending gig in Saudi Arabia? Is that because of The Line’s mid-life crisis?
Matt’s a proper geezer… he even refers to his brother as ‘my friend’ ;)
An excellent Terry Tibbs impression from Matt here
remember when brokers was 'ard ?
Matt content slaps
Mattology podcast when. This episode whips.
Alcohol at lunch is still a massive thing in my industry, (post-production), as well as alcohol in the office and alcohol with the clients. It's so different from other jobs I've had it so it was a huge culture shock when I started.
When I was a runner, one department ordered 30 massive crates of fosters and decided they didn't want them. We're genuinely still drinking our way through them to this day.
ahh yes finally: Trashology
"how can you build a relationship with a computer screen?" very unfortunately
Didn't know Guy Ritchie movie accents were real
Could listen to Matt for hours.
Yeeeessss