Ex-Goldman Trader to Attempt First Trade in Space

Former Goldman Sachs trader Anton Krell will attempt to set a new world record by executing “the first trade in space” aboard the XCOR Lynch MK II shuttle in 2014, he announced today in a joint statement with Dutch Tourism operator Space Expedition Corporation.

In an interview in the latest issue of the London-based publication Square Mile Magazine, Kreil announced that he will be attempting to become the first person in history to make a financial markets transaction in space when he jumps onboard the shuttle with SXC in 2014.

Technically, the world records that Kreil and SXC will be seeking are “First Financial Transaction in Space” and “Highest Recorded Financial Transaction.” However, given that Kreil is a City-based trader, the “Financial Transactions” he will be making will be a currency trade and a stock / share trade.

Since Kreil is British and is flying in a US-built shuttle, trading the currency pair of Sterling US Dollar (GBP/USD), commonly known in the financial markets as “Cable”, made perfect sense. Kreil admitted in in the article: “I certainly can’t commit to trading the Euro. With the way things are looking at the moment, it may not even be around by the time we go.”

As for the listed-companies in the stock trade, Kreil was less forthcoming about the specifics. “We’re currently in talks with publicly-listed companies in the US, UK and Europe with regards to sponsoring the trade. We’re looking at doing a big one and the stock will most likely be announced a few weeks before the flight,” said Kreil who now runs the Institute of Trading and Portfolio Management.

The banking sector also wants a piece of the action, claims today’s release. Kreil revealed that they were in talks with investment banks and brokers who want to sponsor the execution.

The flight will be broadcast live on the Internet, so the sponsors of the trades will get instant worldwide exposure. There will be cameras inside the aircraft and Kreil will be floating weightless in the cockpit, looking down at Earth and buying the sponsor’s stock.

The flight itself will take off from either Mohave in California or the Caribbean island of Curacao. It will take Anton four minutes to get to Space and he will be traveling at three times the speed of sound up to 103km (330,000 feet). 100km is the internationally-accepted border to Space and is known as The Karman Line. As long as Kreil executes the trade at 100km above sea level, the sponsor will hold the record. Kreil will then fly back to earth and the entire trip will be around one hour.

“From the companies’ perspective, the message of being a true global pioneer is a great message,” stated Kreil.

SXC CEO Michiel Mol, commented: “When Anton came to us with the idea, we embraced it immediately. It’s clearly going to be a lot of fun and sends out a positive message. One thing we know for sure. The company sponsor’s stock will receive instant worldwide attention.” Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio