Building The Future: On Recruiting As A Trading Firm
Version: 0.1
First Published: 3rd June 2025
This document is an open-source, evolving work for anyone interested in constructing a cutting-edge, high-performance, large-calibre trading team. However, those suited for this type of work do not think of building a team, but the team. To them, there can only be one.
Consider the following akin to an open company memorandum, of a probing, speculative nature that retains value through observations and questions rather than transient answers. Specifically, these principles are observed at a human-first, discretionary, futures trading firm and are intended for anyone building something similar. To do is to make a heavy contrarian statement: that markets cannot be solved but navigated at a moment in time. And masterful monetisation over long periods can only come from the most sophisticated black box of all: the human.
AXIA Futures is a dramatic and visible success of this contrarian stance. As the firm approaches its first decade of existence, it must consider the years to come, as must all other teams and firms. We begin with the first issue for the next decade: proprietary trading is in a demographic crisis. Incidentally, so is the ‘prop’ term itself in crisis. We are not referring to the so-called 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, to size them up and take a cut. And that is the least of all, yet to ultimately build decade-long careers and not to make money out of funding trial ‘resets’. But we leave this label abuse issue for another time.
Onwards! Excellent traders, by definition, are hard to come by. Their number is what it should be: tiny. However, the replacement rate of these excellent traders is the real problem. Just as future earnings value a company, so should a trading floor be valued by its replacement rate of excellence, because that is 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 time, care, resources and training, two will drop out for many different reasons, least of all trading or performance related. So you need to make it thirty individuals. Or better: three hundred. If a handful make it, then you need to enlarge the hand. AXIA’s current performers are a sports team overladen with talent from a single generation. Dare we say that they have gone far to define this generation in the outright futures trading space? But what is their replacement rate? In fact, what is the replacement 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 generations of traders has never been more expensive. Compared to a decade or two ago, the average maturation period for a sustainable, full-bodied, all-seasons trader to emerge keeps elongating. Therefore, to scale for raw numbers, balloons cost. So the firm of the future must innovate here. The firm that wins tomorrow will solve these questions and be the first to ask entirely new questions. The resources a firm like AXIA has to deploy in training future and current talent are great and deepening by several magnitudes.
But the cannon must be pointed somewhere, and this time we point it at a critical location: the recruitment of current and future talent. Likewise, this will overlap with talent development. Many truisms will be reflected for market practitioners and team builders alike. We will divide various principles and bullet points into general observations for recruiting raw, potential traders and those experienced. Yet it is all tied at the hip, and all demographics should read about each other. We regard those experienced as those who want and must 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 it is operating in any elite field. Or a field in which only the elite survive.
Therefore, as we often do, we will feel around the fringes, think upstream by collating observations directly from the AXIA desks, its stories, the experiences and all nodes of information from Asymmetrist, Traders of Our Time, and many others from AXIA: Alex Haywood, Mario Kyriacou and others unnamed. Assume wisdom unattributed was found from them; over time, this document will be updated and better credited, some observations collated here are likely to become Asymmetrist articles on their own. 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 to benefit the even tinier community of people who want or are building a team of the best speculators on the planet. There are no conclusions, only nodes to connect your experiences and fork them for your own 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 sheer belief that it can be done must be preserved, and Asymmetrist invites anyone and any team to do so accordingly.
Readers of Traders of Our Time are immediately hit with 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 The Novices.
Among the novice we cannot predict success, greatness least of all, but we can somewhat predict failure. Get it all right and success can still be fleeting yet get some of it wrong and failure will follow. Each new trader, as they emerge from a learner to a performer, is an act of singular creation through countless, unpredictable, tangible and intangible processes. We cannot predict their success by looking back on what worked before. 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, the stranger and pioneering the novice, the more antithetical they will seem.
Yet, remember a truism valid not just in our domain: the anomalous becomes the centre. As it was also for the strange, anomalous AXIA in 2016, and for each trader who has performed in their own way since then. An entire group of novice traders are a smattering of small R&D departments; each engaged in the act of a small microbrew. What are the commonalities of famously repeatable longshot factories, such as Y-Combinator or Lockheed Martin’s “Skunkworks”? Smarts, guts and energy in turn are supported by lineage, expertise, money, training, collaboration and patience from those above to let something emerge. Markets will always reward the unique, not copies. Does the novice understand they are embarking on an all-or-nothing path akin to a start-up?
Failure is often embedded from the start, and as visible as they are boring. Some examples: the novice has a try-your-hand attitude rather than a focus on skill development. 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 to use in 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 be. So goes the story of process against outcome.
The poet John Keats described the rare person we must find, for this is the foundation of 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 potentiate. So, where do we find the beautiful people who have resisted the destruction of their creative faculties? Who are just as 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 treated as suspect; to those who freely admit they don’t know, while knowing it all, are who we want.
By default, most novices will be fixated on solving markets rather than building skills to navigate them. So we must recruit those who prioritise immersion first before understanding, those who are naturally happy to just be. Most seek logic, rigour, and understanding as if found in a secret manual. Perhaps worse, they supplant their understanding with someone else’s. 1+1 = 3 happens often. We cannot recruit those offended by this.
Likewise, the best novices look upon the market phenomena with fresh eyes as if being the first human to look upon the natural world. That is because the best traders, too, retain this ability. They do not hold prejudices or presumptions given by others on how our market world works, nor hold a partisan lens through which they process their entire view of what is possible in trading. Observation, above all. Recall a discovery in the process of writing Traders of Our Time, the quickest to claim they have an edge because of this “one thing” were the novice. The opposite was true for the experienced, profitable, veteran 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 pioneering, 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 have seen few of the curious. How can we better 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 fundamental 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 slowly 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. So the entire firm must be set up to support this. But the best firm will find new ways to thrive from the inevitable failures that are part of the exploration. All it takes is for 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 to take us further. 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? From now on, every recruit will tell you they are curious. How can we ask better questions to account for this?
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 all others in finance are the Navy. It has always been stacked against us, making us better for it. We are the misfits and the weird, surviving on sheer skill and tenacity. We come from everywhere and anywhere. Pirates accept all yet respect only skill. Make sure we never become the Navy. Leave the hoop-jumping, the prestige hunting, and the diploma counting to them. Fade HR.
Because we are the Pirates, does the novice understand they will be treated with contempt and misunderstood when asked what they do? That they are better off saying they work in IT or insurance? Do they seem to care?
For the next two years or more, the novice must tell their family, spouse or otherwise that they have no income and are losing money. 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 to have a start-up, and others want to solve a real problem. It just so happens that a company is the best way. What is our equivalent? And how to filter for this?
Training, developing and evolving traders is as complex as trading itself, subject to all the classic pitfalls we know too well: 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? Take on 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 seemingly “weird,” special and unique; a rare combination of qualities that cannot be planned for. How can we find them? Like a trader, if you can predict they will be a good fit, would they be innovative enough 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 actively developing new blood is in their best interest. A newbie is a newborn—a liability perhaps—yet an immense opportunity to become a priceless asset. Think in terms 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 will be at the sharpest, fastest, hungriest and ambitious. They will remind you to compete, to push, and share the burden of attention in the markets and add to the floor’s collective stamina—Sitzfleisch. They will bring fresh, unbound ideas of youth which can be wielded 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 will end up sitting, sleeping and spending years together. The bonds and trust are fundamental. Some will come to your wedding, some will name you Godfather to their kids. Will they also come to your funeral? Skill and personality go hand-in-hand. Bonds and trust together form the basis for good culture.
Gusto and optimism are infectious as is defeatism and cynicism. Pick your poison.
We cannot recruit those who settle for average; they must have no choice but to go all the way. Anything less is unrealistic.
Recruiting The Experienced
It is very difficult to overpay for supreme talent; the best will always have options and need cajoling. But the effort involved will be worth it. The talent must know and see that our place is the best place to be. When you show them how much more they have to go and shatter their expectations of what is possible, then they will commit. It is even better to spot their greatness before everyone else, even themselves.
Performance is a network effect. The more performers see it and join, the more others will do the same and reinforce a culture of excellence. Yet this also works the other way around. Be careful.
The non-linear effect of bringing in the best can often outweigh the direct P&L benefit to the firm. They will reinforce great culture and lineage by making the careers of younger traders. Recently, a young performer has directly impacted at least three careers and turned the accounts of these young bucks from negative to six-figures with the all-important consistency and momentum. How much more is this person worth now? Consider how far these other three will go now and, in turn, reinforce the careers of others. Performance is a network effect.
“I met Alex and went for a walk in the park,” recalled the same young performer of a meeting in 2022, while on the cusp of leaving his old firm and joining AXIA. “He asked me 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 focused on the money. No one asked what money I would bring to the table or anything like that. He just asked: Where do I want to go? And I just told him I want to be the best.”
Every time the discretionary human trader is pronounced dead, triple the recruitment resources. In fact, just go all-in. That is how AXIA was made.
Be cautious of recruiting too much and too fast when the sun is shining, and many opportunities are about. Everyone comes back to feast, but few are bull-headed enough to fight for scraps. High volatility conceals but low volatility reveals.
With the experienced, one should not interview for mere competency, and the P&L in their career so far can mislead. Don’t do the obvious by asking only for numbers. Investigate their story: where they have come from and where they are about to go. More importantly, how will they improve our story? And for the best, show them how their story will improve by joining us. Most importantly, can you show them how they will improve and grow as people by joining us?
The best are doing their life’s work. The best days are always ahead, and they cannot conceive otherwise. For them, they have been put on this Earth to dominate their niche or create entirely new ones. As Haywood observed, you will feel that they are on a journey. We need this wicked focus because we have seen how often success 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 up-and-coming, 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 the novices with the 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 different parts are. These special additions to the floor cannot be measured through P&L alone, but through many 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.
Make sure the best don’t feel like the best in the room. Underdog determination is everything. Create new challenges. Bring in bigger dogs.
Indeed, it is very difficult to overpay for supreme talent, but you will pay dearly for a diva. They will never be top, yet simultaneously act the loudest and be the ficklest. Never let one trader dominate, no matter their volume or superstar status. A diva is always on the way out and can take the ship with them. In which case, they will always cost a lot more than they are worth, because the downside is infinite and the upside is finite. The best deal with constraints and low performers complain about them. Pirates also respect and demand strength from above. And strength is partly exercised through high standards and low tolerance. The best performers will thank you for it.
Culture cannot remain static. That is dogma. But this is not antagonistic to tradition, as the greatest innovating 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 as if it were a volcano, primed with the innovative chemistry between its members. They will learn horizontally from each other and vertically from more experienced members and their stories. Do not recruit those who impede this. Recruit those who conduct this and desire it like an oasis in the desert. A seat earned is different from a seat given.
Equipped with team collaboration and the leverage afforded by the firm, a trader’s development from five to six figures is linear and emulated. 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 instead of answering the old ones. They will be a creator living in a world of their own. 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 something 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 insanely great culture. The latter is the most fleeting, yet it is worth Heaven and Earth. On a long enough timeline, every trading team and firm will face the challenge of changing culture for the better or worse. And it is the most complex problem since we only first conceive of using purpose-built tools for amorphous and very human phenomena that can be better understood in the absence than in the presence. 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 all this together.
Such are some of the challenges before us. 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.