Version: 0.1
First Published: 3rd June 2025
This document is an open-source, evolving work for anyone interested in building a cutting-edge, high-performance, large-calibre trading team. However, those suited for this work don’t think of building a team, but the team. To them, there can only be one.
Consider this akin to an open company memorandum, probing and speculative, retaining value through observations and questions rather than transient answers. These principles are observed at a human-first, discretionary, futures trading firm and are intended for anyone building something similar. To make a heavy contrarian statement: that markets cannot be solved but navigated at a moment in time. Masterful monetisation over long periods can only come from the most sophisticated black box: the human.
AXIA Trading Group is a success of this contrarian stance. As the firm approaches its first decade, it must consider the future, as must all teams and firms. We begin with the first issue for the next decade: proprietary trading is in a demographic crisis. So is the ‘prop’ term itself. We are not referring to the pay-for-your-trial ‘prop firms’ that proliferate and damn the term. But we are referring to a brick-and-mortar trading floor whose business model is to grow traders to perfection, size them up and take a cut. And that is the least of all, yet to build decade-long careers and not make money out of funding trial ‘resets’. But we leave this label issue for another time.
Onwards! Excellent traders are hard to find. Their number should be tiny. However, the replacement rate of these traders is the real problem. Just as future earnings value a company, a trading floor should be valued by its replacement rate of excellence, because that’s the only place the firm can earn. All-or-nothing. What a challenge! No matter how great the training, education and preparation a proprietary trading firm can provide, it cannot compensate for the sheer advantage of raw numbers. That has a quality of its own. Even if three individuals are given all the resources and training, two will drop out for many reasons, not just trading or performance. So you need to make it thirty. Or three hundred. If a handful make it, enlarge the hand. AXIA’s current performers are a sports team overloaded with talent from a single generation. Have they defined this generation in the outright futures trading space? But what’s their replacement rate? What’s the rate for other firms? AXIA’s traders are in a rare position to go as far as they want in trading. Or until their body, not the market, retires them. What then?
The second issue: training new traders is more expensive. Compared to a decade or two ago, the average maturation period for a sustainable, full-bodied, all-seasons trader is elongating. To scale for raw numbers, balloons cost. The firm of the future must innovate. The firm that wins tomorrow will solve these questions and ask new ones. The resources a firm like AXIA has to train future and current talent are considerable and deepening. The cannon must be pointed somewhere, and this time at a critical location: the recruitment of current and future talent.
This will overlap with talent development. Many truisms will be reflected for market practitioners and team builders. We’ll divide various principles and bullet points into general observations for recruiting raw, potential traders and experienced ones. Yet it’s all tied at the hip, and all demographics should read about each other. We regard experienced ones as those who want to go from good to great—if they realise it or not. And then take the great and marshal them to excellence. The markets demand nothing less. This is foundational AXIA, as is operating in any elite field.
As usual, we’ll feel around the fringes. We’ll think upstream by collating observations from the AXIA desks, its stories, experiences, and nodes of information from Asymmetrist, Traders of Our Time, and others from AXIA: Alex Haywood, Mario Kyriacou, and unnamed. Assume unattributed wisdom was found from them. This document will be updated and better credited, and some observations may become Asymmetrist articles. Assume any larger arguments and the direction they have been modelled and connected is Asymmetrist’s—warts and all.
To restate, consider this open-source wisdom for the tiny community wanting or building a team of the best speculators. There are no conclusions, only nodes to connect your experiences and fork them for your purposes. Traders of Our Time discusses many things, but at its core: the human trader has thrived during his predicted demise and will continue to do so. Yet, the lineage of skill, technology and belief must be preserved, and Asymmetrist invites anyone and any team to do so.
Readers of Traders of Our Time see a disclaimer: “There is no amateur league in trading, no middle ground. You either ascend to the stars or burn up along the way.” This is the maximalist DNA for all that follows.
Recruiting Novices.
We can’t predict success or greatness among novices, but we can somewhat predict failure. If you get it all right, success can still be fleeting; if you get some wrong, failure will follow. Each new trader, from learner to performer, is an act of singular creation through countless unpredictable processes. We can’t predict success by looking back on past successes. That is seeking certainty in a complex, uncertain environment; traders often fall foul of this too. Like a singular trade, the trader will construct themselves over time. The more novel, strange and pioneering the novice, the more antithetical they will seem.
Remember a truism: the anomalous becomes the centre. This was true for the strange, anomalous AXIA in 2016, and for each trader since then. A group of novice traders are small R&D departments; each engaged in a small microbrew. What are the commonalities of repeatable longshot factories, like Y-Combinator or Lockheed Martin’s “Skunkworks”? Smarts, guts and energy supported by lineage, expertise, money, training, collaboration and patience from above. Markets reward the unique, not copies. Does the novice understand they’re embarking on an all-or-nothing path like a start-up?
Failure is often embedded from the start and is as visible as they are boring. Examples: the novice has a try-your-hand attitude rather than a skill development focus. Others cannot hold a difficult yet strict routine. They might be trapped in the “trader’s resource dilemma”—having too much time and money; never forced to make it work because they don’t have to. How can we assemble our list of critical mistakes for a selection process, or ensure the novices surmount these mistakes? Ultimately, the successful strictly control all that can be. Those who fail try to control what cannot be and neglect what can. So goes the story of process against outcome.
The poet John Keats described the rare person we must find for any surviving trader: negative capability— “that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason…” Generations have been educated to provide total answers, and the markets are hell for those who persist. But how do you really know? is the death knell of any novice. So, where do we find the beautiful people who have resisted the destruction of their creative faculties? Who are happy to reside in constant uncertainty; to bathe in the mysteries as comfortably as one can live with the heat in a dark sauna? In Traders of Our Time: “as they say, to hold two competing ideas in one’s head is a mark of intelligence. But the mark of successful speculation is to understand both deeply and yet ignore them entirely.” In our world, to know is suspect; to those who admit they don’t know, while knowing it all, are who we want.
Most novices will focus on solving markets rather than building skills to navigate them. We must recruit those who prioritise immersion before understanding, and those happy to just be. Most seek logic, rigour, and understanding as if found in a secret manual. Worse, they supplant their understanding with someone else’s. 1+1 = 3 happens often. We cannot recruit those offended by this.
The best novices view market phenomena with fresh eyes as if being the first human to see the natural world. The best traders retain this ability. They don’t hold prejudices or presumptions from others on how our market world works, nor a partisan lens that limits their trading possibilities. Observation is key. Recall a discovery in the process of writing Traders of Our Time: the quickest to claim an edge because of this “one thing” were the novice. The opposite was true for experienced, profitable traders. A wise recruitment process must account for this.
Many ‘obvious’ candidates fail, and the least likely emerge. How often was The Engineer, the market profile pioneer, now eight-figure trader, nearly cut? The ‘obvious’ candidate was likely identified as the most passionate trader. They win through whatever linear and obvious selection process because they are the best talkers. However, the self-labelled-passionate are often the most status-seeking to call themselves a trader. From The Engineer: Part II (Traders of Our Time, p.367): “Disregard the lure of passion, for it is brittle, capricious and instantly vaporised when reality does not meet a certain level of fantasy.” That is a bad beginner; we have seen plenty.
The good beginner: “Curiosity, it seems, is a far sturdier and better predictor to survive the years ahead … deeper curiosity is amorphous, surprise and revelation are the nature of discovery; a new trader with curiosity who uncovers this domain will only seek it out further.” We’ve seen few of the curious. How can we identify them?
“Put it another way, the passionate covet the destination, but the deeply curious revel in the journey, the pursuit on the infinite road of discovery, or, as one might say, the roundabout route. Every dead end, meandering and circuitous path only emboldens the curious and serves to feed the never-ending thirst for discovery, challenge and emergence. The passionate shirk the market’s demand for a pound of flesh, avoid its difficulties, procrastinate and quit. The obsessively curious simply ask, how many pounds do you wish?”
Point Nine describes the nature of emergence and skill development across the experience and achievement curve. Incubating and nurturing talent is full of friction and failure because they are pushing the boundaries of their known world. That is difficult. Then, they meld what they find with what is uniquely theirs. That is fantastically difficult and slow. The entire firm must support this. But the best firm will find new ways to thrive from the inevitable failures of exploration. It takes one new route to be blazed after ninety-nine missteps.
We must believe that only in the ashes of failure can we find the unpredictable fragments of success. That is how you remain a category of one. How many times have we failed in the past year? Sound the alarm if the answer is: thankfully, none.
The team that recruits more obsessively curious people will win. How do you filter against the status-seeking passionate? Every recruit will claim they’re curious. How can we ask better questions?
Fantastically freakish focus wins in a distracted world. That is a singular immersive focus during the day, combined with the focus to pursue a singular goal over decades. Where can we find these beautiful people? Or how do we cultivate this among our own?
Remember, we are the Pirates and others in finance are the Navy. It’s always been stacked against us, making us better for it. We’re the misfits and the weird, surviving on skill and tenacity. We come from everywhere and anywhere. Pirates accept all yet respect only skill. Don’t let us become the Navy. Leave the hoop-jumping, prestige hunting, and diploma counting to them. Fade HR.
As Pirates, does the novice understand that when asked what they do, they’ll be treated with contempt and misunderstood? Would they be better off saying they work in IT or insurance? Do they care?
The novice must tell their family or spouse that they have no income and are losing money for the next two years. Are these pressures sustainable? Often, novices go through all the pain and quit just before they emerge. Do they know what will come, or are they saying they do?
In the start-up world, some want a start-up, and others want to solve a real problem. It just so happens that a company is the best way. What’s our equivalent? How to filter for this?
Training and developing traders is as complex as trading itself, subject to classic pitfalls. The plug is pulled on a trader right at the low after sustaining them off-side on their account for the most painful part. Or another trader’s P&L high turns out to be just that. Counter-intuition wins. How do you ensure you have the best people to make these decisions?
Are these best people aware of the non-linear nature of trader development? For example, “Profits (Un)follow Process” in Traders of Our Time: “the non-linearity of performance address the frustrating lag between a trader’s P&L and their development, learning and experiences… the P&L curve will catch up and dramatically surpass the speed at which a trader becomes a proficient learner … But! The lag effect also works in reverse … the P&L curve will begin to overpay the trader after years of underpaying … creating a dangerous confirmation that their current state is enough.” Developing and incubating traders is 1+1=3, too.
The person or people to build a special team must be just as “weird,” special, and unique; a rare combination of qualities that can’t be planned for. How can we find them? Like a trader, if you can predict they’ll fit in, would they be innovative with fresh views, challenges, and ideas? Or have you recruited a copy of yourself?
The entire trading team, firm, and group must believe down to their bones that recruiting, engaging with, and developing new blood is in their best interest. A newbie is a newborn—a liability perhaps—yet an opportunity to become a priceless asset. Think of family: who will take care of you, veteran trader, when you grow old? New emerging traders on the floor who have started to take their pound of flesh from the markets are like young adults hitting their prime. They’ll be sharp, fast, hungry, and ambitious. They’ll remind you to compete, push, share the burden of attention in the markets and add to the floor’s collective stamina—Sitzfleisch. They’ll bring fresh, unbound ideas of youth to wield wisely with veteran experience. If we don’t further the lineage, no one will be left on the floor. What then for your career?
You must recruit good people. You’ll spend years together. Bonds and trust are fundamental. Some will attend your wedding, some will name you Godfather to their kids. Will they come to your funeral? Or do you want them to? Skill and personality go hand-in-hand. Bonds and trust form a good culture.
Gusto and optimism are infectious, as are defeatism and cynicism. Pick your poison.
We can’t recruit those who settle for average; they must have no choice but to go all the way. Anything less is unrealistic.
Recruiting Experienced
It’s hard to overpay for supreme talent; the best will always have options and need cajoling. But the effort will be worth it. The talent must know our place is the best. Show them their potential and shatter their expectations, then they will commit. Spot their greatness before everyone else.
Performance is a network effect. The more performers see and join, the more others will follow and reinforce a culture of excellence. Yet this works the other way around. Be careful.
The non-linear effect of bringing in top talent can outweigh the direct P&L benefit. They will reinforce great culture and lineage by advancing younger traders’ careers. Recently, a young performer has impacted at least three careers and turned their accounts from negative to six-figures with consistency and momentum. How much more is this person worth? Consider the potential of these three and their impact on others. Performance is a network effect.
“I met Alex and went for a walk in the park,” recalled the young performer of a 2022 meeting, before leaving his old firm for AXIA. “He asked about my best and worst days, why I wanted to trade and where I wanted to be. I felt these were the right questions; none were about money. No one asked what money I would bring. He just asked: Where do I want to go? And I said I want to be the best.”
Every time the discretionary human trader is pronounced dead, triple the recruitment resources. Just go all-in. That’s how AXIA was made.
Be cautious of recruiting too much and too fast when opportunities are abundant. Everyone returns to feast, but few are bull-headed enough to fight for scraps. High volatility conceals but low volatility reveals.
For experienced candidates, don’t interview for mere competency, and P&L numbers can mislead. Investigate their story: where they have come from and where they are about to go. More importantly, how will they improve our story? Show them how joining us will improve theirs. Can you show how they will grow by joining us?
The best are doing their life’s work. They cannot conceive otherwise, because the best days are ahead. They have been put on this Earth to dominate their niche or create new ones. As Haywood observed, you will feel that they are on a journey. We need this wicked focus because success often kills performance.
When running a small floor of twelve, remember: “the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.” Each addition and reduction of a member will have consequences. The firm that wins will wield this wisely and positively. Spread the young and hungry to push the veterans. In turn, the veterans will prevent the young from getting killed. Mix different abilities, edge, and specialisms. Mix novices with professionals so they evolve from liability to asset. Sometimes a good performer is like an electrical current, making other great performers even greater. You cannot see the current, but you can see how alive the parts are. These additions cannot be measured through P&L alone, but through qualitative observations. This is why the total sum of the parts is unpredictable and why wise decisions must be made when managing the team. A linear bureaucrat will fail here.
Ensure the best don’t feel like the best in the room. Underdog determination is crucial. Create new challenges. Bring in bigger dogs.
It’s hard to overpay for supreme talent, but you’ll pay dearly for a diva. They won’t be top, yet act the loudest and be the ficklest. Never let one trader dominate, no matter their volume or status. A diva is always on the way out and can take the ship with them. They’ll cost more than they’re worth, because the downside is infinite and the upside is finite. The best deal with constraints and low performers complain about them. Pirates respect and demand strength from above, partly through high standards and low tolerance. The best performers will thank you.
Culture cannot remain static. That is dogma. But this isn’t antagonistic to tradition, as the greatest innovative culture reuses the fragments of the past. That is the definition of creativity, which humans do best. And we are always long the human.
The firm of the past thrived on individuals and catered to them. Where are they now? The firm of the future thinks in teams. Charge the collaborative energy and engagement to the ultimate degree. The team must feel like a volcano, primed with innovative chemistry. They will learn horizontally from each other and vertically from experienced members and their stories. Don’t recruit those who impede this. Recruit those who conduct and desire it like an oasis. A seat earned is different from a seat given.
A trader’s development from five to six figures is linear and emulated, with team collaboration and the leverage afforded by the firm. The move from six to seven figures depends on the market environment and the will to perform. The move from seven to eight is to dominate a niche. Eight to nine is to pioneer, blaze trails, and ask different questions. They will be a creator in their own world. How can we find people who think and act this way? Or better: how do we uncover and push this buried potential within our traders?
The pure speculator’s spirit is here for the pleasures of infinite creative problem solving. They are between an artist, an athlete, and an adventurer. They cross between child-like curiosity, yet possess the stamina of youth, and thirst for their next story, believing they are immortal because no one told them otherwise. They are your finest Asymmetrist.
Insanely great performance can only be built on an insanely great culture, which is fleeting but worth Heaven and Earth. Over time, every trading team and firm will face the challenge of changing culture for better or worse. It’s the most complex problem since we only conceive of using purpose-built tools for amorphous and human phenomena that are better understood in absence. Then it’s too late. So we’ve come full circle: humanity, not computation. It will take a pioneer as rare as a nine-figure trader to put this together.
These are our challenges. May you go all the way.
Read Much More About These Special Traders!
Much more to be found in
Traders of Our Time: Navigating the Market’s Impossible Landscape.
10 Elite Traders.
125 Years of Mastery.
500 Pages of
Lessons, Practices
and Original Stories
For You To Become the Trader
You Always Wanted To Be.
Acknowledgements, Permissions & Disclaimer
Grateful acknowledgement to AXIA for granting access to their traders.
The photograph, provided by Axia Futures, is used with their permission, and they retain full ownership and copyright over the image.
Disclaimer: Do Not Do Stupid Financial Decisions. This Is Not A Game.