Since Trader Monthly shuttered, we’ve decided to pick up the popular Top Traders Under 30 ball. However, based on your feedback and our research, we’ve made one huge change: we’ve decided there are not 30 top traders under 30.

Also, we feel these elite traders are worth watching because they have survived the shakeout since the Great Crash of 2008. It’s easy to win when the market goes in one direction. It requires skill to navigate up and down scenarios.

So, after 8 months of due diligence, we are proud to present to you the first annual Wall St. Cheat Sheet Top 3 Traders Under 30 …

3. Jan Sramek – Emerging Markets Trader,

Goldman Sachs

Like LA Lakers phenomenon Kobe Bryant, Jan Sramek — age 23 — has hit the big leagues with a ton of talent and promise. Having made the national headlines in the UK by breaking the world A-level record, Sramek enrolled to read Mathematics on a scholarship at the prestigious Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. Shortly afterward, he transferred to the London School of Economics to work during his studies because London-based hedge funds recognized his potential and snapped him up during his 1st year.

Having accumulated a wealth of experience on both the buy and sell-side during university, Sramek moved over to the area where many of the current superstars of the industry cut their teeth: the emerging markets fixed income trading desk at Goldman’s (NYSE:GS) London office (a very active area given today’s debt and currency volatility). Although neither Sramek nor Goldman would confirm or deny any details about this trading desk, we can assume the group has done extraordinarily well since Goldman’s traders had a perfect 100% win-rate last quarter .

Sramek is considered somewhat of a prodigy in Europe. He has repeatedly made the headlines with his various achievements. Most recently, Financial News named him the youngest financier ever on their list of 100 Rising Stars of Financial Markets Under 40 — a list which previously included the likes of Greg Coffey of Moore Capital and Pierre Andurand of BlueGold.

Out of all the firms with which we spoke, Goldman was the least revealing. Nevertheless, informed sources suggest that Sramek’s mentors include several of London’s most powerful hedge fund managers who are clearly grooming him for the very top. It’s therefore possible Jan deserves a higher place on our list. Regardless, given his age, we are confident he will be considered for Wall St. Cheat Sheet’s Top 3 Traders Under 30 list for many years to come.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Sramek openly reveals the keys to his success, and makes it all sound quite simple. I highly recommend reading his book Racing Towards Excellence(a top rated book on Amazon). The book is a nice blueprint for anyone looking to maximize their ambition and take the steps necessary to be successful in any competitive environment, including finance.

2. Gilbert Mendez – Equities and Forex Trader,

SMB Capital

Gilbert “Gman” Mendez — age 28 — is as textbook a pro trader as Orlando Magic star Dwight “Superman” Howard is a NBA all-star. After studying mechanical engineering at Columbia University, Gilbert built a black-box trading model for the global Forex currency market. Such an awesome achievement led top Wall Street proprietary trading shop SMB Capital to give Gilbert a desk and trading account. Not long after, the firm awarded him “Head Trader” status.

When I asked about Gilbert’s trading style, he answered:

I trade news driven stocks and whatever sector happens to get in play. In essence I trade the flavor of the day or week. I make my trading decisions based on the intraday fundamentals, the medium term time frame charts (15 minute-hourly), and time my entries using my tape reading skills. My real strength as trader is the ability to read the tape and psychology of the big players behind a chart.

After proving his skills through the biggest equities crash since the Great Depression, Gilbert was recently made partner at SMB Capital. That’s what we’d expect from a guy who SMB co-founder Mike Bellafiore calls, “one of the best young traders on Wall Street.”

Unlike most professional traders, Gilbert is highly accessible to budding traders. He contributes public posts and educational material to SMB’s blog. If you are looking for a glimpse of what it takes to be a top trader on Wall Street, Gilbert has a ton to offer.

1. Adam Guren – Global Equities Trader,

First New York Securities

A year ago we called Adam Guren — age 28 — the Lebron James of trading. Given his consistent success like King James, Adam was the obvious choice for the top spot on our first annual list.

After graduating Duke in 2003, Adam played professional soccer for a season with the Cleveland Force before starting in the prestigious training program at First New York Securities. After a 14 month apprenticeship, Adam started trading his own book while expanding his focus from Europe to Asia.

Now, Adam focuses on global stocks. His day looks much like a British colonel’s when the sun never set on the British Empire. But with patience and discipline, Adam finds a way to replicate his success in multiple markets. He starts his process by logging on premarket. Then he spends approximately an hour, sometimes thirty minutes, seeing if there’s news out in the basket of stocks he follows. This is how he figures out if there’s any opportunities because he looks for newsworthy events that are going to move his stocks.

When I asked Adam about how he makes his moves, he said:

I’m not a technician and I really don’t study charts. That’s not to say I won’t look at them to see where things are. At the same time, I’m not a big fundamental guy based on the nature of how long I hold a position. I mean, I do understand the fundamentals of each stock and what people generally expect, but for the most part I rely heavily on intuition and the feel I have for a stock based on watching it for so long. After watching the same 50-100 names, you start to easily understand how they trade and what moves them. It’s pattern recognition.

Another key to Adam’s success is his risk management:

Every trade I get into I have a very good understanding of the risk-reward. One of the keys to success is measuring risk-reward. And one of the best ways to do that, as elementary as it sounds, is to buy low and sell high. So you want to buy when things are beat up and sell when things are overdone on the upside. I’d say I do a good job of measuring risk. It’s probably one of the main reasons why I am successful at trading.

Although this sounds very basic, it’s obviously easier said than done. Given that over 85% of traders lose money, Adam has proven that mastering the fundamentals is the key to success as a professional trader.

If you would like to nominate traders for future awards, please send us an email or comment below.

No one cares whether yesterday’s record drop in the Dow (DIA) was a fat finger, a mechanical error on Wall Street, or a legitimate breach of a widely watched support level (1144) on the S&P 500 (SPY). If someone screams “Shark!”, you run.

There are two parts to markets: fundamentals and psychology. Lately, fundamentals have been mixed. The US economy is slightly improving while Europe faces what could be an epic sovereign debt crisis. However, markets have been complacent and have continued to put cheap money to work.

That all changed yesterday. And now that fear is out of the barn, it can go viral without care for causation.

Post traumatic stress can trigger the most primal instincts to protect ourselves. Given the Nightmare on Wall Street during the Great Crash of 2008 when boomers saw their life savings cut in half, retail investors are more likely to sell first and ask questions later. They literally cannot afford to play it any other way.

The fundamentals of the global economy can start to look extremely shitty from the eyes of credit holders in Europe. Add a slowdown in China, and things can quickly sound scary again. If the psychology of fear becomes the shadow of bad economic news, we will be in for a very rocky ride.

If you are ready to take advantage of Gold’s next big run, try a free trial to our Gold & Silver Premium service by Chicago Mercantile Exchange commentator Jordan Roy-Byrne CMT.

The sovereign debt crisis is like a second act of the banking crisis. First we had Bear Sterns, then we took a deep breath, then we had Lehman and the Great Crash of 2008. Now we have Greece, we are breathing in, and it’s very possible more shoes will dropkick the markets.

Here is a nice look at the countries with the highest risk of defaulting on their debt:

(Source: Bespoke Investment Group)

Airlines have always been horrible businesses. However, here are seven main reasons their businesses are about to get a lot worse:

7. Unions

As the reasons below come into play, unions will not understand why workers will need to compromise. This will create unnecessary administrative costs to negotiate and prevent strikes. If workers don’t accept the waning health of their employers, ill-timed strikes could catalyze a negative feedback loop.

6. Debt

Airlines are laden with more debt than the average American household. Continental Airlines (CAL) has twice as much debt than cash, while American Airlines (AMR) and United (UAUA) have almost three times more debt than cash. So long as ticket revenues are being siphoned to huge debt payments, airlines will always fall into dire straights when the economy recesses.

5. Commodity Prices

Commodity prices have rebounded strongly since the Great Crash of 2008. As old planes are retired and replaced with new ones, steel and other commodities such as aluminum will drive up the costs of refreshing and maintaining fleets of the metal birds. This means the company will get the same amount of plane at higher costs.

4. Oil Prices

Have you noticed gas quietly crept back to $3 a gallon? Airline executives have not. Travelers have continued paying an additional fuel tax because executives knew expensive oil would return like a recent college graduate. If the global economy recovers (or at least China and India keep growing at break neck speed), the cost of gas will continue to crunch margins.

3. Baggage Fees

Psychologically, ala carte sucks because it makes us feel like trapped shmucks. After paying for tickets online, the additional $25 per bag is a huge buzz killer on the exciting day of travel. Now, Spirit Airlines is charging for carry-on baggage. This is not ala carte! What percentage of people have no bags to check or carry on? Just raise the ticket price and stop pissing us off.

2. The Death of Business Travel

Have you seen those awesome Cisco (CSCO) commercials where business people are having an HD video conference with partners on the other side of the world? Apparently, executives in the airline industry have not. This is what it must have been like when the passenger railroad business was blind sided by airplanes. The bell is tolling, and I can already see the airlines’ bloodline being diverted to digital.

1. Management

In the history of airlines, very few CEOs have effectively run an airline. In fact, only one CEO in recent history, Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines (LUV), has been successful. Every other airline CEO in recent history has mismanaged during their short tenures, only to take large bonuses and golden parachutes on their way out. With idiots and thieves running the show, airlines are doomed to crash. (Hat Tip: Commentators Below)

Do you have additional reasons airlines are in deep trouble? Let us know in the comments below …

Since March of 2009, the market meme has been “the second leg down of the Great Crash.” However, Mr. Market has ignored the thoughts of the doomers (e.g., Nouriel Roubini) while melting up ~65% from last year’s heart-stopping lows. Now the meme Dow 11,000 is starting to take center stage.

With the mid-term elections in November, any politician worth their weight in spin will do everything possible to keep both the stock and housing markets buoyed. Furthermore, as we discussed in our new issue of Wall St. Cheat Sheet Premium, there are several economic indicators which are signaling the recovery has some legs. Let’s take a look at some of the other developments that make this Dow 11,000 different than the last time we saw these levels:

The Day Before the End of the World

1) The last time the Dow was above 11,000, we had not yet barfed over our buzz-sawed equity accounts.

2) Although the smartest money had clearly been distributing shares since the end of 2007, the mainstream media was still begging people to buy the dips.

3) The national average price for gas was $3.83 a gallon.

4) Lehman Brothers employees were still doing business as a solvent entity.

5) Flip That House was starting to look like an episode of Saturday Night Live.

6) VIX volatility was about to explode 400%.

7) Gold was trading at ~$900 an ounce.

8) Headline unemployment was 6% — over 40% lower than today.

9) George W. Bush was still President.

10) Michael Jackson was still performing.

11) Americans had yet to trade their clunkers for cash.

12) The number of bankruptcies were over 70% lower than today.

13) Foreclosures were less than 2% of the property market. Now they are over 4.5%.

What else was noteworthy for this list? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll add it …

Last week, I posted the most recent Nielsen Media Research ratings for CNBC. Although 90% of the comments confirmed CNBC programming was not valuable, a few passionate people came quickly to the defense of their favorite financial entertainment network.

The main criticism was I cherry-picked the data and the comps were against high ratings from the time of the market crash. First, the Nielsen ratings are the ratings. I have no pull at Nielsen to manipulate ratings. They were fresh as the morning dew.

Second, it’s true ratings are down against a tough comp from the Great Crash. However, if we rewind back to January 2008, well before the proverbial fan was hit with shit, the CNBC rating comp still tells the same story: people have turned on, tuned out, and dropped out.

I am not interested in wasting my time on Earth debating whether CNBC is being unfairly criticized. The numbers above and the charts below are enough data for me to conclude they are losing viewers (the red dots indicate the dates in the chart above). Anecdotally, anyone who has worked in finance knows CNBC is on mute in every office which runs the channel for the ticker and occasional breaking news graphic.

I have nothing against CNBC as a brand. They are in the king’s position to maintain a leadership role in financial media. But they have a lot to change if they want to regain the trust of those who watched and gained zero investment insights (unless you consider sitting like a deer in headlights investment advice).

I hope they can pull it off because we need good financial journalism. Whether they want to is another story.

Do you consistently make money watching CNBC? Is it a value-add over other business media outlets? In the comment section below, let us know what you are watching and reading to gain investment insights …

I think Nielsen ratings are complete bullshit, but for what it’s worth I’m going to make a bullshit to bullshit comparison:

Once again, CNBC has continued to lose viewers after failing to help anyone save money during the Great Crash of 2008. The newest Nielsen Media Research numbers show Business Day (5am-7pm) down 24% P2+ (total households) and down 37% in the A25-54 demographic.  Primetime, CNBC is down 34% P2+ and down 25% in the A25-54 demo (Monday through Friday).

That’s a significant drop. Is it those pesky video games? Maybe it’s iPhone apps. Nah. It’s definitely correlated to the value CNBC offers to our investment accounts.

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Update: Yes, as I have noted in past posts, ratings are down YoY because last year the crash brought the fearful who sought finance advice (and CNBC told them to hold tight). But I have heard this excuse for 6 months now. I believe a new crop of people have ditched CNBC because if you can’t make money watching, you might as well get your business news from a major media outlet or the web.

And if you breakout ratings of how many televisions are airing CNBC on mute in the background at a brokerage or finance firm, I’d take a long bet with no stop-loss that ratings would look a lot shittier.