BILLIONS is a must watch TV series to anyone that is involved in financial markets

So, while i was looking for something new to watch on this quarantine season i stumbled upon this series called BILLIONS.

Looked interesting and the kind of well thought plot that i like.

But what i great surprise i had!

The main plot revolves around the U.S. Attorney Chuck Roades building a case to prosecute the most successful hedge fund manager of the country Bobby Axelrod based on illegal trading practices.

It is a great show even to those not that involved in trading or financial markets, with an interesting plot and great acting.

But for the traders out there, there is something more...

There is a lot of lessons you can learn from it.

The lessons

1 - Information is the most important asset any trader can have

Sure, there is no such a thing like predicting the future, and to know for sure if the price of an asset will go down or up.

While no one can predict the future, having the right information can increase the chance of being right by a lot.

And the information is out there. Everywhere we look, be it a graphic, a newspaper, a company balance sheet... Everything is around us.

But the key to be successful as a trader is to know what the piece of information means, and how it fits on a bigger picture.

You can be an awesome technical analysis trader, but if you don't understand how the screen information fits with other things outside the graphic, you might become a good trader, but you will never be a great trader.

Information is everything.

2 - The whales and sharks rules the markets seas

Doesn't matter the asset or the market. With enough money any market can be manipulated.

And that manipulation comes in different forms.

It can be buying or selling with the right timing and volume, or providing pieces of information to some specific market players to improve the chances that they will act in a predictable way.

We, the small fish, can't do much about it, and even if all retail traders got together, it wouldn't be possible to 'fight back' what the big players do.

Unless you are a big player, you have to accept that you can't fight the market. All you can do is understand how these big players think and act, and try to follow their moves as soon as possible to grab some scraps along the way.

3 - Inside trading and other manipulations are illegal, but not until they are proven

Don't be an innocent fool.

Sure, there is a lot of laws and regulations trying their best to keep the markets fair for every participant, but how can we be 100% sure that no foul play happens if we don't hear about it?

Undercover deals might not happen because everyone could be afraid of going to jail, but...

Something not being seen on the light doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

And since information is the key to everything, i wouldn't be surprised to know that there is a lot of illegal activities happening on all the financial markets.

We just don't hear about it because no one can prove it.

4 - Working on the financial sector can break your mental health

An interesting part of the show is that there is a psychiatrist working for Axelrod (the fund manager), and her job is to keep the traders from losing their minds.

Imagine how stressful it might be, when overnight, you lose 8 to 20 million dollars in a bad trade.

To work on the markets, you have to work hard to keep your sanity. Even if you are really good at the job, bad swings will eventually happen, and you will lose. That is a fact.

Even big players lose sometimes.

The key to this is to know if you can handle the pressure of a losing situation and keep a clear mind to make a plan to recover your losses.

If you can't deal with this situation, DON'T TRADE. You can go insane, and lose even more because you will stop thinking clearly.

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Anyway, it is a good show, but if you are working in some way on financial markets, it becomes a great show, and you should definitely watch it.

See ya.