Million Dollar Traders

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(s) Richard Spiller
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 3 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Emma Willis
Ruth Pitt
Producer(s) Rob Miller
Anthony Philipson
Editor(s) Rupert Houseman
Alex Muggleton
Location(s) London
Running time 1 hour
Production company(s) Century Films
Broadcast
Original channel BBC Two
Original run 12 January 2009 – 27 January 2009

Million Dollar Traders was a 2009 British reality television series devised by hedge fund manager Lex van Dam which recreated the famous Turtle Traders experiment devised by Richard Dennis in the 1980s.

Background

Million Dollar Traders followed 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 came 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 tra 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 "Traders" 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 Soldier
Amit Shopkeeper
Simon IT Engineer
Cleo Former Vet
Emile Fight promoter
Caroline Entrepreneur/Single Mother
Ohi Student
Sam 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

Watch Full Series