Remembering Trader Monthly (T)
Peak Wall Street Backslapping
Remember magazines? Life Magazine. People magazine. Time Magazine. All sorts of magazines. In fact, magazines were even Lisa Simpson’s favorite book.
During the 90s and into the 2000s, there was a magazine for anyone and everything.
Smaller and smaller intersections of society were identified and pandered over with magazines.
Never missing an opportunity, entrepreneurial traders got in on the action with a short lived, but still fondly remembered magazine run called, you guessed it- Trader Monthly Magazine.
So let’s take a moment to shake our heads in embarrassment that we once looked forward to getting this in the mail. Or was that just me?
Trader Monthly Magazine
Trader Monthly was a magazine best described as “From its Era”. A product of Pre- Great Financial Crisis hubris, the magazine’s slogan was “See It, Make It, Spend It.” Pulling the synopsis from a ThinkTrade.net overview from 2007::
Trader Monthly was a lifestyle magazine for financial traders that began publication in November 2004 by Doubledown Media. It was founded by Magnus Greaves and edited by Randall Lane and was published bi-monthly (6 issues per year). In February 2009 the publisher, DoubleDown Media, stopped publishing the magazine …
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The target audience is the financial community with an average income of $450,000 and/or net worth of more than $2 million. Specifically, the magazine targets traders who work in various industry capacities, including: banks, hedge funds, exchange floors, asset management firms, and other areas.
The magazine covers different trading instruments, including: foreign exchange, derivatives, bonds, equities, futures, commodities, and others. The target audience of the magazine is almost exclusively young and male.
The New York Times described the magazine as “a combination of the Robb Report, Maxim, Institutional Investor, and Forbes”. The magazine’s annual “Top 100 Traders” list was very popular as well as its “30 Under 30” listing
The newsstand price was $10 per issue but only found on VERY limited newsstands (Like Saudi Prince money newsstands). Otherwise you needed to be a professional trader at a hedge fund, bank or other institution to receive a free subscription by mail.
What the publishers didn’t do was cross reference and verify the employment of any one who submits a subscription application.
So my copy arrived promptly and free of charge every 2 months to my college mailbox
The content broke down like most lifestyle magazines of the day
Trading Strategies (44%) — Trading lessons (the psychology of trading, creating a trading plan, etc), trading products, and markets.
Trading Profiles (7%) —Profiles of traders and trading companies.
Lifestyle (49%) —Articles about high-end clothing, real estate, private jets, and $25,000 per night hotels rooms.
Nothing but a guilty pleasure, they had a website and a news/gossip page called traderdaily.com. As a broke 20 year old, I learned the essentials of Wall Street life including the best Manhattan steakhouses, British bespoke suit designers, the pros and cons of fractional private jet ownership and of course, Power Pose do’s and don’ts.
So Randall and Magnus, if you’re looking to put the band back together, I’m available for Op/Eds, editorial input or just for a free trip to Bali’s newest 5 Star hotel so I can write a review about it.
Interested in being on the Trader Dads Podcast in 2026? Shoot me an email! I’d love to have subscribers on to sit for a discussion
TRADERDADS MAILBAG
Thoughts? Questions? Comments?
Reach out! Maybe I’ll do a full post on the topic or as a Q&A
traderdads@substack.com
