Interview With a Trading Legend - Mercenary Trader

Interview With a Trading Legend
Page 19 of 38
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Part V: The Toughest Trade
In Part IV of this series, we learned about protecting profits, staying centered, the characteristics of a
big trade, and who a trader’s biggest opponent is in markets.
In Part V we hear about Peter’s experiences as a light aircraft pilot… his most interesting trade… his
toughest (most emotional) trade… and key principles to avoid compound errors (making it back from
“the wilderness”).
JACK SPARROW: Speaking of “license to fly,” you’ve mentioned that you are a pilot.
PETER BRANDT: I’ve owned three aircraft in my life. I started with a 1951 Piper Tri-Pacer, which was
the first Piper that had tricycle gear. It was a fabric aircraft, and had a sink rate of a lead weight, and a
high speed for touchdown. It was a lightweight plane, a four-seater, and the thing was just fast. It had
a speed of about 135 knots.
I bought the Piper with my wife’s cousin, who was an Air Force pilot. We both lived in Chicago and he
was based out of Michigan, so he needed a plane to fly over to his base. So he said, “Want to learn
how to fly? You can buy half of the plane.” So I learned how to fly that way. Then I bought a Cessna
172, and then a Cessna 182. I wound up selling the Cessna 182 but I should have kept it. Used
aircraft just keep going up in value every year.
Flying was expensive, but it was great for me because I wrote most of it off. When I moved my family
to northern Minnesota I would fly down to Chicago, and I could land at Miggs Field right in downtown
Chicago. I could literally walk to the Board of Trade from Miggs Field. It was a ten-block walk.
In Minnesota we lived on a lake, and I had a neighbor with a snowplow. He would plow an airstrip for
me on the lake. In the winter time I would take an ice auger and auger down my straps, so I could
strap it down and keep the plane right on the ice. I didn’t have floats on it, but I had floats on the 172.
MIKE McDERMOTT: Can you put floats on it?
PETER BRANDT: Oh yes. I wound up selling it in Alaska. It had what is called a STOL kit, which
stands for Slow Take-Off and Landing. It gave you an extra curvature off the back of the wing.
If it was perfectly still and there was no wind, winter-time, early morning or late evening, no thermals, I
would see how slow I could be going at the point of touchdown. I used to do that just for fun. I could
get it down to 38 or 39 knots. We would take it out and see if we could land it with just the trim tabs.
JACK SPARROW: So did you find any parallels between flying and trading?
PETER BRANDT: No, I forgot about trading when I was flying.
JACK SPARROW: Just a beautiful escape.
PETER BRANDT: A marvelous escape. I clocked a lot of hours, flying just about every day. We lived
up in Nisswa, Minnesota, and I had the option of landing on the lake in winter time – which really
scared the ice fishermen, because when you landed on the lake the ice would crack. It’s thick enough
that it was not going to break, but it does crack. And these ice fisherman would get so mad at me.
Then we had a grass strip which was five miles away, and a really nice airport with an 8,200 foot main
runway that was 25 miles away. I kept the plane in a hangar there.
JACK SPARROW: Tell us about the most interesting trade you’ve ever had.
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