Bobby Axelrod is a hedge fund legend… on TV.
Axelrod is the main character of Showtime’s Billions. In the show, he’s a self-made Wall Street billionaire who runs top hedge fund Axe Capital.
Axelrod gets rich and powerful in the cutthroat world of high finance. And he enjoys the fruits of his labor, including a private jet… helicopter… yacht… multiple vintage cars… and a sprawling beachside estate in the Hamptons.
The hit show gives an inside look at the corruption among certain Wall Street elites.
Mainly, it features a high-stakes, cat-and-mouse game between Axelrod and U.S. district attorney Chuck Rhoades.
Rhoades wants to bust the hedge fund kingpin for insider trading. And many of Axe’s trading tactics border on illegal.
That’s barely a glimpse into the action-packed show.
If you haven’t seen the show, it probably sounds like a great fictitious plot. Billions is one of Showtime’s most highly rated shows. And the series has been nominated for multiple awards over its five seasons.
But it’s not all fiction…
For instance, billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen is the inspiration for Axelrod. In 2013, Cohen’s firm pleaded guilty to federal insider trading and paid a $1.8 billion fine.
So this isn’t just a Hollywood script.
Today, I’ll show you how real-life Wall Street is manipulating the media to legally rip off Main Street – and more importantly, how you can avoid it.
Wall Street’s Private Playground
If you’re one of the millions of viewers of Billions, Axelrod’s games might not seem that different from some of the “fake” financial news you see on television.
Like in one episode, when he tells his trader:
Make all trades [on private exchanges]. So it masks what we’re doing. That way, it will preserve our head start.
Sell 50,000 shares of [company A] at the market. Sell 100,00 shares of [company B] at the market. Go through the [private exchange] algo. We can’t have anyone see what we’re offloading.
In this episode, Axelrod was trying to get out of all his natural gas positions, because he thought the sector was about to implode.
He wanted his trader to secretly dump large quantities of shares using a private market exchange to hide his intentions… This way, the price wouldn’t get away from him.
Again, this isn’t just Hollywood hyperbole.
Every day, the big boys – hedge funds, investment banks, and other large institutions – are making trades on these private exchanges that regular investors can’t access.
Here’s why that’s important…
Often, big investors will go on television and say one thing about a stock… only to trade in the opposite direction on these private exchanges.
This is why big institutions use them. They can trade back and forth without anyone in the public markets seeing what they’re doing until after execution.
In the end, Wall Street gets its preferred price. And regular investors get the leftovers.
Exposing Fake News
It’s a big deal. The CFA Institute estimates these private exchanges account for about 40% of all U.S. stock trades.
Imagine if you’re only getting access to 60% of the data on a stock. You’re hearing one thing in the news media… but not seeing what’s actually going on behind the scenes.
Although it’s legal, it just doesn’t seem fair.
Over the last three months, Daily editor Teeka Tiwari has spent over $1 million researching this “fake” news situation.
Here’s what he’s found…
Hedge fund managers, corporate CEOs, and large, individual traders are all taking their turn in front of the cameras to spread their own brand of “fake news.” How can you and I compete against that?
That question has been driving me crazy for the past few months. I’ve been working my team to the bone to figure out one thing: How we can level the playing field.
The good news is, after months of intensive research, we’ve found a way to bridge the “fake news” gap. It has to do with a set of trading data little used by individual investors. It’s as close to a “lie detector” test as I’ve ever seen.
In testing, when we saw money managers go on TV and say, “I’m buying,” this data feed said, “No. That’s not true.” And when they went on TV and said, “I’m not selling,” again, this data said, “No. That’s not true.” This little-used (by individuals) data set caught every “lie” we threw at it.
Teeka’s system can spot these hidden, fat-cat orders. Like the ones Bobby Axelrod makes. Before they hit the tape.
You don’t have to let Wall Street institutions feed off your savings any longer. In fact, with Teeka’s system, you can turn the tables on them.
This Thursday, at 8 p.m. ET, he’ll reveal exactly how Wall Street is secretly getting away with billions of dollars in profits by misleading the public.
More importantly, he’ll show you how you can use this data for yourself. So don’t get mad… get even, by joining him on Thursday, at 8 p.m.
Regards,
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Grant Wasylik
Analyst, Palm Beach Daily
P.S. More importantly, in backtests, Teeka’s system presented the opportunity to generate trades that averaged gains of $19,740… every time we tested it. You can learn more right here.