The road to success of a legendary female trader

In general, women in trading and investing are a minority and it is no secret. Interestingly, they usually achieve better results than their male counterparts. The explanations I’ve heard are that they are more disciplined, easier to follow the trading plan, easier to deal with greed.

Who is Linda Raske?

The situation was similar back in 1981, when Linda Rashke started her career as an options market maker in the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange. About 600 people worked there at the time, and she was only the second woman.

Linda’s career began with a conversation in an unusual place. She plays a game of tennis with her acquaintance Gary, who already works on the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange. This is one of those fateful moments in life when a decision changes everything. Here is what she says in her new book “Trading Sardines”:

– What is a market maker?

Gary looked at me curiously.

“The market maker provides liquidity,” he said. He offers a buy price and a sell price on the instrument he trades.

I frowned and tried to visualize what Gary had said.

– How do you make money from this?

Gary smiled.

– You make money from the difference between the buy price and the sell price, it’s called the spread…

I asked Gary question after question, and he was happy to answer.

Gary looked me straight in the eye as he spoke. He had stopped blinking, which was distracting. I concentrated again. It was a business, not a game, and he felt my commitment.

– I will provide you with initial capital and we will divide the profit 50/50.

– Given.

We shook hands and continued to play tennis on the court.

After starting her career, Linda Raschke became a CTA (Commodity Trading Advisor) in 1992.

She has since been a general trader in several hedge funds. He started his hedge fund in 2002. Barclays Hedge ranked him 17 out of 4,500 based on his performance.

Jack Schwager dedicates a chapter in the Market Wizards series.

Creates the LBR Group. It continues to trade under the same program it has been trading with since 1992. Interestingly, it has not missed a month in which it has not traded futures on the SP500 since the contract was created.

What is the approach to trading on the financial markets?

Her views are best represented in the book Street Smart, which she published in 1995 with Larry Connors. It quickly became a bestseller because it offered applicable trading strategies. It is also full of incredible insights that are relevant today.

“The main goal of any transaction is to minimize risk, not to maximize profits. The positions are managed according to market behavior. “

“Swing trading is an anticipation of the next movement in the market, wondering what the most likely outcome would be. For example, if the market breaks a certain level of support and there is a strong downward movement, the best deal is to sell the first rally. That’s because the most likely event is for the market to at least retest at the bottom before it can change direction. “

She retired in 2015 and began trading at her own account.