Million Dollar Traders
Million Dollar Traders is a 2009 British reality television series devised by hedge fund manager Lex van Dam, which attempted to recreate the famous Turtle Traders experiment devised by Richard Dennis in the 1980s.
| Million Dollar Traders | |
|---|---|
 Million Dollar Traders title card | |
| Genre | Factual, finance |
| Created by | Lex van Dam |
| Directed by | Anthony Philipson |
| Narrated by | Andrew Lincoln |
| Composer | Richard Spiller |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 3 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Emma Willis Ruth Pitt |
| Producers | Rob Miller Anthony Philipson |
| Production location | London |
| Editors | Rupert Houseman Alex Muggleton |
| Running time | 1 hour |
| Production company | Century Films |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Original release | 12 January – 27 January 2009 |
Background
Million Dollar Traders follows a group of twelve wannabe traders dealing in shares during the events of the financial crisis of 2007-2009 which was then whittled down to the final eight. The contestants come from various backgrounds, including a fight promoter, a day trader, an IT/banking recruitment consultant, a working mother, a retired IT engineer and a student, among others. During the series van Dam gave the London-based contestants the sterling equivalent of $1 million of his own money to trade for 2 months. Former professional trader Anton Kreil was appointed as the manager of the group.[1]
As with the original experiment, those who lasted the course broadly confirmed the claim that novices could become professional-level traders, making small profits or at least lower losses trading in very turbulent markets during the filming than professionals, who lost four times greater amounts over the same period.[2] The three-part BBC series, narrated by Andrew Lincoln, was a part of the "City Season" programming on the BBC. It aired on BBC 2 in the UK at 9pm on Monday evenings between 12 and 27 January 2009.
Episode list
| Episode number | Title | Content[3] | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Make Me a Trader" | The contestants are introduced to the trading floor and begin to build their portfolios – one contestant leaves. | 12 January 2009 |
| 2 | "Profit and Loss" | Each member of the team becomes a little more comfortable in trading, while one contestant leaves. | 19 January 2009 |
| 3 | "People vs Profit" | A number of the contestants leave due to disliking the working conditions, Lex hands out the remainder of his money and the remaining contestants find out how they have performed. | 27 January 2009 |
Contestants
| Name | Occupation |
|---|---|
| Mike Tovell | Soldier |
| Amit Jobanputra | Shopkeeper |
| Simon Brew | IT Engineer |
| Cleo Folkes | Former Vet |
| Emile Coleman | Fight promoter |
| Caroline Taysom | Entrepreneur/Single Mother |
| Ohioma Imoukhuede | Student |
| Sam Duby | Environmentalist |
| Michael (final 12) | IT/Banking Recruiter |
| Paul (final 12) | Day Trader |
| Unknown(final 12) | Car Trader (quit on day 1) |
| Unknown (final 12) | Recruitment Consultant |
References
- "Blood on the floor with the BBC's Million Dollar Traders". The Times. 10 January 2009. Retrieved 2 February 2009.
- Learning to trade at the school of hard knocks The Financial Times 19 Nov 2010
- "Million Dollar Traders episode guide". BBC. 2009. Retrieved 2 February 2009.