Inaugurating The Next Cycle: Understanding Your Future

At the AXIA trading desks.
Monday 20th January 2025.
London, England.

13:30 – TRUMP TO LAY OUT TRADE VISION BUT WON'T IMPOSE NEW TARIFFS YET - WSJ.

 BANGBANG! Max Size.

You lift 250 Spoos and 250 Euro—Go!

They scream higher; you soar onside—

—–

P&L: Flat! Zero!

 Oh God, Why isn’t this going? It just flashed back in like three seconds! I’ve missed something here… 

You cut some of your size in Spoo and Euro but still hold a big chunk. Article–story… what does it say?… nothing weird! These markets are really about to go…

You add back into your Spoo and Euro positions. Do more markets: CAD!

You lift two clips in 6C… man I think I just bought the high here; fuc—it’s not extending! Hold it. What else? Chinese markets—they’ve got miles to go. 

You put some big size into Yuan futures. Then it starts taking out the lows of the first move, and you sell some more as it slices through. 

What else? This should be deflationary—bonds! You start buying some Bunds. These should go—the U.S. Bonds have already popped and gone, Bunds to follow, surely!

What else? Spoos has started to accelerate, but this DAX is lagging. You lift two clips in the DAX too. Do EuroStoxx too!

You start to manage the positions. Be dynamic. You add and contract positions like an accordion; scalp around in all of them—but hold the core positions. 6C—this CAD—has gone through highs; but Peso hasn’t—buy Peso! You lift the Peso and scatter some offers up the price ladder, and you then do the same for the Yen.

You manage and manage for about an hour; in, in, in,—out, out out———

14:30 – TRUMP OFFICIAL CONFIRMS WSJ REPORT THAT HE'LL STOP SHORT OF IMPOSING DAY-ONE TARIFFS. 

Not a Denial—but Confirmation! The markets bump their highs and lows and extend the moves. You let this last pulse and flow ping the remaining part of your limit orders. Done. 

You glance at that little window that holds great power. First ever multi-six fig day; a personal best. Perhaps it’s even a close contender for execution—skills best.

You take the PB, but that’s all you do. It’s Trump’s Inauguration Day, and you have a long week ahead. There is no Triumph, just the usual 7 a.m.–9 p.m. shifts. Little would you know that in the next few days, you’d pull multiple near twenty-hour shifts… just waiting on Trump and the headlines dropping—as another trader reminded you—“the most beautiful word in the dictionary.”