There is not much that the trio have not seen or done. But speaking with Rony Schläpfer, the company’s chairman; Phil Gellos, its president; and Steve Jury, its chief investment officer, it soon becomes clear that they have far more to offer than a history lesson.
Schläpfer is a true market legend. Older FX hands might remember him from his appearance in an early television documentary about the industry – Billion Dollar Day – shown in the mid-1980s. The film focused on three traders working out of Hong Kong, London and New York. Schläpfer stood out because of the size of the positions he was running and because he was not working for a bank. Instead, he was effectively trading his own account, backed by a few wealthy investors.
His company, Capital Management International, was one of the first funds specializing in currencies. "In the early 1980s, I believe we were one of the only firms trading privately in FX on a speculative basis outside of the banks. I don’t know anyone who was trading currencies like us," Schläpfer says.
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| Rony Schlapfer and Steve Jury, Tradex Capital Markets: waiting for a surge in investors |
FX myth says that his first backers were a group of doctors and dentists.