From the AFR:
If you haven’t read Reminiscence of a Stock Operator, don’t bother showing up to a job interview with Mike Novogratz, the fabled co-founder of $47 billion New York-based hedge fund giant, Fortress Investment Group. The novel about an early Wall Street trader is regarded by many of the top hedge funds as a timeless trading manual.
For Novogratz, the colourful ex-Goldman Sachs trader and former navy helicopter pilot, it’s an indicator that whoever has read it shares his intense passion for playing the global markets.
In today’s trading environment, the keenest of traders are spending more time reading about Australia. By virtue of the free-floating exchange rate, high rate settings and delicate position of the Australian economy at the pointy end of the commodities super cycle, the country has become a haven for speculators.
“Australia has been a region that punches above its weight in terms of the importance of its currency market as a casino of the world,” says Novogratz, who is heading Down Under to talk all matters macro at Citigroup’s annual investment conference in Sydney this week.
“In reality, the volume of AUD that is traded relative to the size of the economy is crazy, but because of it you have developed a strong trading culture.”
Our dollar, a pure reflection of us?
