UNDER THE RADAR:IT MAY be something to do with the current economic climate, but the first thing Jason Berry is at pains to do is to knock the popular image of traders as young gods – living an adrenalin-fuelled life of fast cars, late nights and fat pay cheques.
“It may be fun in the short term, but that kind of lifestyle is exactly the opposite of the hard work and discipline a trader needs to be successful in the long term,” says Berry (33), head of trading and a principal with Positive Equity in Dublin.
“A lot of people get caught up in the lifestyle but if you come into work tomorrow morning hungover, the market will chew you up and spit you out, nothing is surer.
“Or if you’re tired and you’re not as fully on your game as the people you’re competing against, the market will send you home in a body bag . . . so to speak.
“Even if you’ve had a great day on the markets, you have to be disciplined enough not to go out that night to celebrate – otherwise you can easily end up giving it all away again the next day.
“One of the things about this business is that when you’re not trading, or not trading successfully, you’re not earning your living – you eat what you kill.”
The days of excess may be firmly behind them – but there’s evidently still a residual fondness for the type of macho imagery which made Gordon Gekko a household name when Wall Street hit our screens more than 20 years ago.
“I suppose you could say we’re effectively white-collar athletes,” maintains Berry, who runs Positive Equity with his partners, Jim Aveling and John White – all three of whom previously worked in Dublin with UK-based Saxon Financials.
On the other hand, given the rate at which those who enter the business fall by the wayside – perhaps he’s not wholly wrong.
“Around 80 per cent of traders who trade on their own fail in their first year,” he figures. “Of the remaining 20 per cent, about another 80 per cent are blown away in the second year. So that in year three, you have from 5 to 10 per cent of the original group left.
“Another myth is the management style associated with trading. There’s certainly no ‘my way or the highway’ approach here. We very much manage by consensus in more than 90 per cent of our decisions, so trading isn’t the stereotype that people think it is – it’s a very difficult profession.”
Berry, an American educated in France, Russia and the US, who worked briefly in his early years with the US State Department in Washington DC, began his career as a trading floor clerk with Target Trading in London in 1998.
He moved to Dublin a decade ago as a senior trader with Geneva Trading, trading index futures, bond futures and exchange-traded funds, becoming head of trading and a junior partner – before moving to Saxon Financials as head trader and a senior partner.
In December 2008, with Saxon opting more towards the hedge fund sector, Berry and his partners assumed the liabilities of the Dublin business and set up Positive Equity, which now has 35 employees and trades the futures markets – particularly bond futures, equity futures and energy futures.
“We don’t pretend to be able to predict the markets,” he smiles, “so you won’t find us on TV or in the newspapers saying the market is going to do X, Y or Z.
“We’ll tell you what’s happened and we’ll tell you what we think might happen – but there’s absolutely no certainty in this game. I always like to keep in mind the old saying about the markets: they go up the stairs – but down the elevator shaft.”
ON THE RECORD
Name:Jason Berry
Company:Positive Equity
www.positive.ie
Job:principal and head of trading
Age:33
Background:A certificate in Russian studies from the International University of Moscow in 1996 was followed by a BA in political science and Russian studies in 1997 and an MBA in finance and global affairs in 1998, both from Clarke University in Massachusetts.
Began trading in 1998 with Target Trading in London. Moved to Geneva Trading in Dublin in 1999. Subsequently head trader and senior partner with Saxon Financials, before taking over the business with John White and Jim Aveling and renaming it Positive Equity.
Challenges:"Our number one challenge is change: being able to adapt to changes in the markets, and being able to identify opportunities within those changes. That defines our ability to survive."
Inspired by: Warren Buffett. "His investment philosophy has always been to try to find under-appreciated market opportunities, which is something I can relate to.
“We’ve always tried to identify trading strategies that are too small for banks to identify, or that they don’t care about, but which can give us consistent low-risk opportunities.”
Most important thing learned so far:"Two things: hard work and discipline – particularly having the self-discipline not to get carried away by what other people are saying, but to make your own decisions."
