Mike Bellafiore: Striving for Excellence in Prop Trading

For many new and aspiring traders, the chance to work in a proprietary trading firm, is the holy grail of trading. It is trading’s equivalent of making it to Broadway or being recruited by a major sports team or franchise. In this episode we talk to the co-founder and head of one of the world’s leading Proprietary Trading Firms, Mike Bellafiore. 

 Mike is co-founder of SMB Capital based in New York City. In this episode Mike talks about the realities of working in a Proprietary Trading firm, and how the focus on learning, development and mentoring is such a vital ingredient which drives both the growth of the traders and the success of the firm. 

 Mike shares with us how SMB puts a heavy emphasis on learning and continual improvement, and in supporting their traders to become the elite. What you will hear in this interview is how SMB’s focus on, and a culture of, continual improvement and striving for excellence, is the fuel behind their success and is what helps so many traders at SMB capital to not just achieve their dreams, but to exceed them.

There is an additional aspect of this interview, which has relevance beyond trading, and which applies to businesses of all types, not just trading businesses. SMB Capital has made itself a ‘Learning organisation’. Its whole core being is built around learning, not just for the people, but for itself. It makes a deliberate effort to learn what it does well, what it didn’t do so well, and what it can do better. An example of this can be heard in a part of this interview where Mike talks about how originally they had a plan to award traders who made a ‘million dollars’ a year with one coloured t-shirt, then set another level where they would reward traders who made two million dollars in a year with a different coloured t-shirt. Initially they thought that would be an amazing achievement and never really banked on a need for more levels beyond that. But they have now had to have a new t-shirt for traders who exceed ten million dollars in a year. – As they say, nice problems to have.

I feel much of this philosophy stems from Mike himself. You can see aspects of this in his two excellent trading books, which I highly recommend, One Good Trade: Inside the Highly Competitive World of Proprietary Trading and the The Playbook: An Inside Look at How to Think Like a Professional Trader. You can also see it in Mikes social media posts, always offering great advice, and praising employees for great achievements. You can follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBellafiore, he is a great follow.