Nick’s ID Card* From: United Kingdom
* Lives in: London
* Age: 52
* Years in the markets: 30
* Favorite currency: GBP
Nick Batsford is the host of “TipTV”, a show that has been recently added to FXStreet’s Live Video Channel. Nick receives professional traders and advisers every day to offer tips and trading ideas across multiple investment betting instruments. We wanted to know more about him and his show, that has been existing for more than two years now.
Nick, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Well, for a start my name is Nick ‘The Moose’ Batsford, and one of the most common questions I get asked is why I’m known as The Moose. The answer is that it’s a nickname from when I was a broker and you will need to take me to a court of law before I spill the beans on why.
I won’t ask why then 😉 But can you tell us how your career in the financial markets began?
There’s typically two routes into the City. The first involves a lot of time studying and qualifications, and the other involves getting stuck in at entry level at an early age and learning the business from the ground up. I was the latter.
I was a young chap from south London, graduating from school with a quill pen and inkpot. My first job was in backoffice at a broker called William De Broë as a Sold Transfer Clerk, and from there I progressed through the back office ranks. From there I moved to a firm called Derivative Securities where I was a derivative broker. I then started to progress into trading and the rest, as they say is history.
Do you still trade?
I don’t trade anymore, but I have been a broker, trader and hedge fund manager over the past 30 years. Nowadays Tip TV takes up 6 days of my week, and on the 7th I go and watch Gods team, Crystal Palace.
Over the years I’ve traded everything from derivatives, equities, and currencies. As an old school trader, I’d follow the trades wherever they were.
What was your favorite set-up to trade?
I was a trader, specializing in short term set-ups and have more letters behind my name than in my name. Different situations require different set ups, and I always adapted to the market, rather expect the market to come to me. If I had to pick one, I’d say the Island Reversal at a high price area.
What is your favorite currency and why?
As a Brit, my favorite currency has to of course be Pound Sterling for Queen and country. Seriously though, I don’t have a favourite. I think having favourites clouds your judgment of where the value is in the market and can lead to bad decision making. However, I speak to a lot of currency traders, fund managers are bored with newspaper headlines about Europe.
How is your daily routine?
Managing and hosting a finance show, I still need to be as engaged with the market as when I was a trader.
I get up at 4am, read the overnight headlines and do some paperwork. Then at 7am I get on the train from my village in Sussex to the City and start sending out emails. Around this time my team emails me a report on all the trending financial subjects. They use Twitter, Stock Twits and Google to see the top search terms. It’s a bit over my head but it works, and I’m ready and up to date for the show. 8:30-10am is preparing for the show which goes out live until 11:30am, and from then on I tend to do the rounds around the city, catching up on news, gossip and picking the brains of some of the smartest guys and girls in the City.
Talking about the show… what do traders get by watching it?
A couple of years ago when I was trading my own book, I would look around for inspiration. A good trader is always looking for insight or an edge into where the next best trade opportunity is going to be. I would switch on the financial tv and be so utterly bored. There was no insight, no edge, nothing interesting on offer. This is where the idea for Tip TV was born.
I’ve always been extremely fortunate to have the supportive and trust of a great number of the City’s best brains, and so when the idea of making a show, by traders for traders was floated, we received a great response.
I still host the show but one of our unique features is that we invite professional traders, analysts and fund managers to co-host the show too. This means that we always have three experts around the table discussing trade ideas. Everything is unscripted, and our guests are given freedom to talk about wherever they see value in the market.
What do you enjoy most about hosting it?
There is no better feeling than being able to add value, and that’s what we are increasingly able to do.
We have an increasingly loyal audience, and that wouldn’t be possible if we weren’t helping people to pay their gas bills. We keep an eye on how our guests perform, as do our audience, and so viewers can rest assured that we offer amazing value. Some of our guests have an unbelievable record of market calls.
Do you remember when and how your relationship started with FXStreet? Can you explain to us?
It was not long after we first started broadcasting that one of the FXStreet team in London, Gus Farrow, had been speaking to one of our guests, who said that they were appearing on Tip TV. He got in touch and since then we have been sending FXStreet clips of the show, and now recently we have started to stream the show live too.
Besides FXStreet, where else can our users find and follow you?
We distribute our clips to a few places now, such as ADVFN, Forex Crunch and a few other finance portals. We also record a bi-weekly Investing Show with The Daily Mail Online ‘This Is Money’, which is proving to be extremely popular. Expect a lot more though in in Q4 and 2016.
You can watch recordings of Nick’s previous shows on FXStreet.
All our shows are recorded. You can replay Nick’s in his archives.