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 Google and not sure if this is correct or not:

Posted by reactor on 01-16-09 05:02 PM:

They are phoning up a real broker "Mint" based in Cannon Street. Similar setup as ICAP but on a smaller scale.

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/printthread.php?threadid=150540

They still could be dummy trades of course......................

A little bit more research brought up this about the making of the series:

"Meanwhile, the complex business of setting up a hedge fund and meeting the requirements of the Financial Services Authority got underway."

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/technology/onlocation/2009/01/on_location_how_to_cut_it_on_the_trading_floor.html

"Oh, and the ending came as a total surprise to us all.so watch this space."

.. from banjomick's link above.

I think Kayak's on the money here (no real trades being made). Eventual relief for the "traders" I suspect.

Though it's not obvious why you would need FSA approval if you're just running an investment game... or a lot of legal fees...

K: They probably took legal advice ;-)

Why don't they do what most traders do and click a mouse to scalp a few ticks here and there. The sort of "trading" they do belongs to the 1980's doesn't it?

That would have been very boring for the cameras. Real stocks gives a lot more scope for interesting stories.

I couldn't tell for sure from the edit, but weren't they given a crash course in TA before being let loose with any money? I also couldn't tell for sure when it was actually filmed, but I'm guessing late last summer because they were in shirt sleeves.

Given that the markets had been in general decline for some time, I can't work out why they didn't just short anything that moved because the trend would've been their friend (especially as they weren't scalping). I think you've maybe got to question the teachers and the subject material on their TA course.

I didnt see the first one but watching episode 2 it seems crap. Saying things like with 10% plus moves each days its difficult to make money and that buying cadburies is sensible because people like chocolate sounds crap.

I agree with scrip above they seem like 80s traders.

Simon (the older guy) seems to be a bit of a prat.

Does anyone recognise what software they are using?

They all seem to be just guessing, I havnt seen any tech trading at all, dont think i can watch much more of this.

Evening Spaceman,

It's only a TV program after all and based over a two month trading time frame squashed into three episodes of one hour each! It's meant to be viewed as an insight into the system with a bit of TV drama to keep you watching or not,as the case may be.

Maybe I'm alone in this but I absolutely LOVE this programme! The difference between the punters and the pro's is just ridiculous but what great telly it makes! Like Hilary, I'm astonished that this lot didn't have the nowse to go net short property/financials/construction or pretty much anything that moved given that this is a bear market and the market was/is collapsing all around them. They did get technical training on charts but in fairness it takes more than a couple of weeks to get your head round them - I think you'd need more of boot camp type of operation for chart traders.

Boys and girls, let's be fair, these are rookies, this is a staged TV "reality" show, they've been set up to look crap, and we're looking at last year's market with 20/20 hindsight. But it was a bit 1980s. I was just waiting for somebody to pick up a phone and shout "Sell pork bellies". ;-)

'this is a staged TV "reality" show, they've been set up to look crap'

Thats not true, it is not a reality show it is in fact an observational documentary.

The series was filmed in July and August, and given that (looking at the market as a whole) the FTSE went UP from approx 5151 on 15 Jul to 5628 on 29 Aug, it's not in the least surprising that they were busily buying shares rather than selling. So were an awful lot of other people.

And had they been selling, that rally could easily have caused them to be stopped out anyway.

NickB: I bow to your superior knowledge. BTW, documentary has an 'n' in it, innit? :-)

Thanks have corrected.

I know some of the people involved in making that prog, they are film-makers and are a long way away from the 'reality tv' producers mindset.

The show is aimed at a mass audience, not other traders, other traders need a film made for them.

NickB: I guessed you might be on the media inside -- it would be really interesting to hear more, if you're free to share.

What the show does really well is expose the psychology needed for trading and how well, or otherwise, the participants match that. It also helps demolish the myth that trading is easy.

It's still staged in the sense that button-pushing on a trading terminal would make lousy television, hence the format.

I still enjoyed it! Sell pork bellies! :-)

A study in emotional turmoil and facial expressions associated with. It seems those that did well used the competitive advantage of trading equites that they have a special knowledge/interest in whilst those that lost, shot at anything that jumped out of the trees just as it turned or spiked.They must be trading cfds as Lex could then offset the losses though evidently not with DMA as they are on the horn and not meddling in the auctions. The Mrs found it boring but then she will watch Trinny and Susannah/Dancing on Ice til the cows come home. The budget does seem a bit low as they hardly leave the room or do any crazy music or intro shot of Rollers as in the Apprentice. Quite nostalgic seeing those stories breaking again!