Want to learn about the basics of trading? We‘re creating a series to simplify and breakdown the fundamentals of trading as it relates to crypto.
We want to introduce you to an expert in the world of crypto trading — one of the innovators helping ShapeShift build a bridge to financial freedom.
Clark is the Head of Trading and Portfolio Risk at ShapeShift. Before joining in early 2018, he traded currencies, interest rates, and commodities at various Wall Street firms for 14 years in New York and Singapore.
What’s one surprising fact about you that people wouldn’t expect?
My favorite job that I’ve ever had (aside from ShapeShift, of course!) was working at Foot Locker in high school.
How did you begin your trading career?
My first trading job was at Lehman Brothers. While our currency trading business at Lehman was actually quite profitable in 2008, it was wild to have a front-row seat to see the global financial crisis unfold.
What brought you from Wall Street to the Wild West of crypto?
We’ve seen the domino effect that digitization and automation have had on a wide variety of industries — middlemen are getting disrupted throughout the global economy. It seems inevitable that digital finance will be the next domino to fall. I wanted to get ahead of this and ride the wave of disruption!
What‘s your goal at ShapeShift?
Here at ShapeShift, I’m leading our effort to be as transparent and unbiased as possible when it comes to our market-making business. My view is that a better educated customer base in crypto will lead to a healthier ecosystem overall.
What have you done to enhance ShapeShift’s trading system?
I’ve built currency trading systems and managed the associated risk for my entire career; it’s been very rewarding to be able to apply those skills in a fresh (crypto) context. We’re hard at work making sure that our users get the best trading rates and experience possible.
Let’s do a few rapid-fire questions to give people a better idea of who you are.
What’s your favorite book?
The Art of Currency Trading by Brent Donnelly.
What’s your go-to place for the best food?
Best place in the world to vacation?
The Maldives.
What do you love to do when you’re not trading?
Basketball, music, and gaming.
Anything else you want to add?
Trading can be very confusing — there’s a lot of arcane vocabulary & mechanics involved. It’s also very hard to trust most of the educational material out there… after all, if a trader develops a money-making trading strategy, he or she is incentivized to keep it to herself, not share it with others. A great unbiased starting point is the book I mentioned above. So be careful out there, good luck, and be on the lookout for more trading content coming soon!
At ShapeShift, we’re providing next-level tools for crypto management and we want to make it easy for you to try out our new hardware secured platform. We are offering ShapeShift members a KeepKey, the premier hardware wallet of the ShapeShift Platform for only $10.
