Eight ordinary people are given a million dollars, a fortnight of intensive training and two months to run their own hedge fund. Can they make a killing?

The experiment reveals the inner workings of a City trading floor. The money is supplied by hedge fund manager Lex van Dam: he wants to see if ordinary people can beat the professionals, and he expects a return on his investment too. Yet no-one foresees the financial crisis that lies ahead.

The traders were selected in spring 2008, before the US credit crisis gathered pace. The successful candidates were chosen, trained and dispatched to their specially created trading room in the heart of the Square Mile. Among them are an environmentalist, a soldier, a boxing promoter, an entrepreneur, a retired IT consultant, a vet, a student and a shopkeeper.

As the novices learn the dark art of trading stocks and shares, the financial markets start to buckle. Making money takes second place to basic survival as the brutal realities of global economics take their toll on the traders. How do they cope? Will they secure themselves a bonus, or walk away with nothing?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gthhq

Now see the unseen City-4 January 2009

Lex Van Dam and his million dollar TV gamble-07 Jan 2009

Just had a quick peep. im going to sky+ it,
looks very interesting,
see one of the women is already crying ,;-(
they all shorted citi just before results and they came in better than expected and gave the group a slapping,
The guy training them , said naked shorting is for "idiots"

I thought it was a great insight into the psychology of trading. The environmentalist guy didn't think shorting was moral -- until he was presented with a red screen and under orders to trade to make money.

I thought they were a bit unkind to the older guy who got his buys and sells reversed -- none of us have never pressed the wrong button, oh no.

Talking of buttons, they were having to place all orders by phone, which took some of the immediacy out of it but made better television, I guess.

The old codger was sfb, DelBoy, no doubt about it. I'm sure they only picked him to make good viewing because there's no way whatsoever he'd have passed any normal interview.

Hil: You're right, of course, he was all at sea. He'll be first to expelled from the Trading floor. I just hope I'm not that slow when I'm 63 :)

Good link, they would be laughing if they reversed all their trades, sounds familiar, will no doubt get really interesting when they start delving into currencies and commods. should see Van Dan going really ape then!

Got 3 kid's still at home. They say" sitting in front of a computer screen all day, piece of pi**". Was great to see their reactions last night LOL

Watched it last night, it is silly because its not there money, and so dont really care if they lose it, if it was there own then they would take it more seriously

Richgit: That's what you would have thought, but they acted like it was their money and seemed real 'rabbit-in-the-headlights' when it came to both placing trades and the size of them.

MM, that's because they were "real people" with a perceived responsibility not to lose the money they have been given to trade. Unlike an investment manager who trades to make his performance look good or at least better than the index and to h*ll with what the losses are!

Fascinating program - Big Brother with monopoly money - do they get booted off one by one ? I suspect that Lex Van Dam is heding his money by trading the opposite of what the sacrifical novices are trading - he is a hedge fund guru after all, I can't think he is going to let a bunch of gamblers loose with his dosh without making sure he breaks even at the end of it all. Fascinating nevertheless to see the way people react - loved the guy eating his cornflakes while LEX's money was going down the pan !

The woman who was crying, how long will she last?
not looking good for us girly traders ;-)

That just stemmed from a fear of losing, Ruthie, and is only natural. So long as she can conquer that fear, I think she'll do OK. I'm sure that Lex's sidekick will give her the encouragement she clearly needs.

It's the geriatric who I think will prove impossible to train. He seems too set in his ways.

Hils re the geriatric, any ideas or suggestions for a nickname for a geriatric set in his ways;-)
I hope the woman pulls through, going to be really interesting to see how she progresses,

Oh I've got several that spring to mind, Ruthie.

:o)

Hils. ;-)

Surprising they are placing trades on the horn rather than electronically must make better telly and fewer fat fingers!

I found the program very interesting and was worn out just looking at the stress volumes generated-lol

'The novices' had two weeks of training before making any trades and I'm sure they swotted up on the subject months before actually entering and being accepted,well,most of them!

Also what is and will be interesting is the timeframe which the program was filmed,I'm sure many will watch there own gains/losses being played out as the series progress.

As a bus pass holder, feel you girls are being a bit hard on the "geriatric", although he did make me cringe. Pity they could not find a better representative for the older and wiser generation. If I recall correctly, he did make the first trade of any of them, even if it was a dog!

i want to be on it if there is a follow up!!!

Strange how your perception of age changes as you get older - I used to think 50 was old

I've set up a blog dealing with the Million Dollar Traders to see how they get on over the 8 weeks

Million Dollar Traders