A Market of Islands
A Trading Firm’s H2 2025 Review: Part I
Note: This is Part I of the H2 2025 Review. Part II continues here:
Across the AXIA trading desks.
July–December 2025.
London (England) · Limassol (Cyprus) · Split & Zagreb (Croatia)
The latter half of 2025 came bearing three gifts, though whether they are received as such is up to the trader. For many, these last six months were difficult to navigate. For some, tremendously so, coming off the high of H1’s performance. This is “casualty season,” as AXIA’s Alex Haywood called it: of young traders sustained by persistent volatility in H1, which allowed once great learners to quickly transform into performers, yet rendered them poor learners once they had to transition to H2’s sparse environment. In effect, they ‘solved’ H1, making them fragile for the dramatic change that followed. Yet at all levels, it is deadly for a trader to confuse present and future, and H2 showed how fast opportunity density can degrade until it shatters the nature of the game for those who have only been around long enough to experience but one instance.
Yet these months still brought gifts.