Dirk Müller (Stock Broker)

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Dirk Müller (2012)
Dirk Müller in early 2008 (sitting left, talking on the phone)

Dirk Müller (born October 25, 1968 in Frankfurt am Main ) is a German stockbroker , fund manager and book author. He became internationally known as "Mister DAX" and "Dirk of the DAX" because his workplace was on the floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the DAX price board and journalists used this to display his facial expression together with the price trend of the index as a symbol of the current To present stock exchange events. Due to his theses on the economic and monetary system, critics often accuse him of spreading conspiracy theories . In 2015 he launched his own equity fund.

Life

Müller comes from Reilingen ( Rhein-Neckar-Kreis ), where he still lives today. After graduating from the Carl-Friedrich-Gauß-Gymnasium in Hockenheim , he began training as a banker / financial assistant at Deutsche Bank in Mannheim.

In 1993 he passed the stock exchange trader examination and worked from 1993 to 1997 as a broker at Finacor-Rabe & Partner, from 1997 to 1998 at Cantor Fitzgerald International and from 1998 to 2008 as an officially sworn broker in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for ICF AG .

His workplace on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was below the DAX price board at the entrance to the trading barrier, i.e. H. at the entrance to the tables where the lead brokers were sitting. On March 11, 1999, the stock exchange reacted positively to Oskar Lafontaine's resignation as Federal Minister of Finance . The newspapers documented the price increase that followed for the first time with Dirk Müller's portrait. From this point on, he was repeatedly photographed to personalize the DAX stand.

Although floor trading was generally considered dead in 2008 due to the electronic trading platform Xetra , Müller continued to work in the stock exchange. As a lead broker , he determined the prices at which one would buy and sell. He is skeptical about the speed and anonymity of electronic commerce.

In 2008, Müller switched to mwb fairtrade Wertpapierhandelsbank AG, where he worked until 2010. Since 2009 he has been the owner and managing director of the company Finanzethos GmbH , which operates the website cashkurs.com and publishes stock market letters . The stock market letters are cash price * gold with a focus on precious metals and commodity stocks and cash price * trends with a focus on medium to long-term future trends . The latter was created in collaboration with the futurologist Eike Wenzel .

In 2009 his first book Crashkurs was published , which he wrote on the occasion of the financial crisis that began in 2007 . The book sold successfully and thus helped him to become better known. In 2011 his second book, Cashkurs , was published, which reached number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list shortly after it was published .

In a committee meeting of the German Bundestag on June 27, 2011 on the subject of preventing speculation with agricultural raw materials, he was one of eight invited experts as a representative of Finanzethos GmbH. On January 16, 2013, Müller was also one of the invited experts on the subject of high-frequency trading on behalf of Finanzethos GmbH in a public hearing of the Finance Committee of the German Bundestag. On April 28, 2013, he was a guest on the political talk show Absolute Majority .

Müller is chairman of the Förderverein Burg Wersau eV, which has set itself the task of supporting the excavation and research of the former Wersau Castle and making it accessible to the public. The Wersau Castle project - “A castle under the sward” achieved 4th place in the “ECHT GUT” honorary award of the state of Baden-Württemberg in the category of sport and culture .

In December 2013, the local council of Dirk Müller's home community in Reilingen agreed to lease the Schlossmühlen area on which Wersau Castle used to stand to Müller. There should u. a. a museum and holiday apartments are built. The project was supposed to financially support the excavations and research of Wersau Castle. Due to several delays in the completion of the development plan, Müller withdrew from the project in 2016.

Müller is married and has one son.

Equity funds

The Dirk Müller Premium Aktien fund ( ISIN DE000A111ZF1 ) was launched on April 17, 2015 . Within the first year, the fund posted a loss of 7 percent, but was well above the performance of the DAX (minus 16 percent). In September 2016, Müller came under public criticism for the development of his fund.

Müller stated that he had hedged the portfolio with options and had plenty of reserves ready for cheap investments. Certain investments such as arms stocks, he rejects for ethical reasons.

Two years after the fund was launched, the fund's shares have lost more than ten percent of their value, although the markets - like MSCI World with 2% growth - rose in the same period. In July 2017, the fund had around 70 million euros of capital, half of which was invested in the technology and health sectors. In a year-on-year comparison, the fund was one of the last among all international equity funds.

In a comparative test by Welt am Sonntag in November 2018, Müller's fund took second place. With his now 107 million euro fund, he generated 10.3% in the past year, while the Dax lost twelve percent (MSCI World −8.20%). Müller attributes this to his strategy of hedging risks with futures , which is dominated by caution . "The strategy is tricky: if the stock market rises with full hedging, the futures produce losses that reduce the total return or even pull the entire fund into the red," wrote the newspaper.

While the Dax achieved a total of 18% minus in the whole of 2018, Müller's fund generated 8.57% in the same period. However, calculated over three years, his fund only returned 2.04%, which is worse than 55% of comparable funds. "Celebrity funds" like Müller's run particularly well in difficult times, but some experts are skeptical: "If a fund is only geared to perform in a crash, it can work well in the short term," cited the Süddeutsche Zeitung Ali Masarwah, chief analyst at the financial information provider Morningstar . "But I dare to doubt whether that makes you happy in the long term and increases your own money."

While the MSCI World rose by 21.5 percent, the Swiss Performance Index by 22.4 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 19.4 percent in 2019 to the beginning of December , Müller posted a loss of 2.2 in the same period Percent. The Swiss finance portal Cash described Müller's risk-averse strategy with costly hedging by means of futures contracts as “well thought out and legitimate”, but pointed out that it “also missed many opportunities in the past five years”. Müller regularly predicts the crash - "as this has not happened until today, his fund still doesn't want to get going".

Masarwah also accused Müller and other crash prophets with their own funds of being “traveling salesmen on their own behalf” with their pessimistic prognoses, which “fundamentally calls into question their qualification as savers of investors”.

Positions

Rating agencies

Müller criticizes the role of rating agencies and has seen a concerted attack on the euro since 2010 , starting with the American government and / or Wall Street , which the rating agencies instrumentalized to pursue their own political and financial interests.

Euro crisis

On the occasion of the euro crisis , Müller takes the view that the current financial system is “at the end” and must be “restarted” every year. He describes this as a "reset". In an article for the right-wing populist magazine Compact in 2011, Müller claimed that Wall Street had been conducting massive controlled attacks against Europe for years with the aim of this reset, and predicted a war in Iran as the logical next step, which "we will in all likelihood also see in 2012" . Furthermore, he does not believe that the euro will benefit all Germans and promote European unification. In his opinion, the introduction of the euro came too early and was a "cardinal mistake". For Germany, not only a DM , but also a “core euro” is conceivable. A rescheduling of Greek debt and the eventual exit from the euro for the country are inevitable. Müller criticizes the alleged incompetence of politics. He said: "Most [politicians] have absolutely no idea what is happening" and "Our leading economic research institutes do not even recognize a recession if it has been raging for six months".

Greek crisis

In connection with the Greek crisis , Müller took the view in 2011 that the banks were no longer able to fulfill their function for the real economy because they had learned nothing from the first financial crisis . Müller accused the politicians of only swaying through the crisis and delaying problems in order to postpone the inevitable. He demanded that politicians should emancipate themselves from the banks. Taxpayers shouldn't be responsible for bank mistakes.

Monetary system

In Müller's opinion, the basic problem of such crises is compound interest and the creation of money by private banks as debt money . He proposes a complete restructuring of the current monetary system with a sovereign money system . He sees other improvements or alternatives in the separate banking system , in regional money ( Chiemgauer ) and in the tax preferential treatment of wages and risk capital .

Criticism of democracy

What he criticizes about politics is that it is not based on content, but on party reasoning. He recommends a "new form of democracy, one that is not tied to parties, but organized in a decentralized manner." His interest in politics stems from the divergence between news and his personal perception. He warns, for example, that European politics would sit idly by as US and Russian corporations, with the support of their governments , secure the mineral resources of Cyprus and Greece - “a new Persian Gulf”.

Ukraine crisis

Regarding the crisis in Ukraine in 2014 , he took a position for the policy of Russian President Putin and criticized the policy of the US and the EU towards Russia. Julian Staib accused him in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in this context of “lust for simple interpretations” and “justification of the annexation of Crimea ”.

VW exhaust scandal

When the VW emissions scandal broke out , Müller wrote: "Isn't it a remarkable coincidence that this topic comes up on the very day in the USA on which VW is presenting its long-awaited new Passat?" For the communication scientist Tobias Jaecker , Müller served that false worldview that conceals the real problems, that "behind the unleashed capitalism, the dissolution of social structures and other unpopular side effects of modern America is and 'we' in Germany are only the victims".

Publications and reception

Crash course, 2009

The Handelsblatt wrote on the occasion of Müller's first book Crashkurs : “His statements are clear, but don't go into too much detail. But Müller has one great advantage: Even those who are not on the stock exchange understand what he is saying ”. Some conspiracy theories are also controversial . The role of the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC , the dependencies of the rating agencies and one power Hydra '. Some of it seems understandable, others far-fetched and a lot is only touched upon instead of substantiated ”.

Showdown, 2013

For Spiegel-Online, his third book Showdown is “bristling with adventurous conspiracy theories”. For example, “the crisis in Greece [...] was possibly deliberately triggered by the USA. The Americans wanted to separate the country from the rest of the EU and secure the supposedly huge oil and gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean . Oh yes, and they also wanted to destabilize the euro zone in order to prevent the euro from becoming the world's leading currency. ”Müller made“ a factual assertion out of almost every subjunctive ”.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , Müller's “shocking and unproven findings” can be summarized as follows in the book Showdown : “The Americans triggered the euro crisis in Greece with compliant puppets and secret agents in order to secure unproven Greek energy reserves that they do not need. [...] The conspiracy theories that the former stockbroker built into his book for this are not new, but have never been written down next to each other: perhaps because they contradict each other and are inconsistent. "The review of the book draws the conclusion:" It is shocking how a man with such ill-conceived theses can make it onto the bestseller lists. "

Power Quake, 2018

Thorsten Giersch rated the best-selling business publication of the month in the Handelsblatt as the gloomy scenario of the greatest economic crisis of all time. Despite the clear language, the reader needs “sharp fingers” to distinguish the possibility mode from the factual representation. Müller humorously alternates between hopeful prospects and gloomy doom prognoses.

Like Giersch, Denis Scheck from Tagesspiegel attests to the author's ability to present a clear picture of how to convey economic facts, but he compares Müller's diagnoses and advice with a market trader who 150 years ago would have been selling universal tinctures for hair loss, toothache and unwanted pregnancies.

Christian Ortner from Wiener Anzeiger calls Müller's publication “Fifty Shades of Crash” , which “obviously satisfies a need for economic pain in hundreds of thousands of readers”. The simple and “unfortunately plausible” thesis and probable prognosis of Müller is that the next crash will be bigger than the last, because the speculative bubble has grown into new dimensions. In addition to the plausible economic analysis, Ortner finds some of Müller's political assessments disconcerting, because the tone "as we usually know from radical right-wing populist publications" is conspiratorial. There is repeated talk of ominous " plutocrats ", and immigration is said to be the outlet for social tensions that can arise from the economic crisis. The "whispering" about power networks is likely to increase circulation, but dubious. Ortner still finds the book worth reading.

Publications

Print media

Audio media

  • Crash course. The Audio Verlag (DAV), Berlin, 2009, ISBN 978-3-89813-855-0 . (Author's reading, 3 CDs, 229 min.)
  • Crash course. Great Depression or Opportunity of the Century? How To Get The Most Of Your Money (Updated Edition) . Droemer, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-426-41108-7 .
  • Cash course: how to get the most of your money . 2nd Edition. audio media, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86804-182-8 (listening time approx. 320 min.).

Web links

Commons : Dirk Müller (stock trader)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Jens Masuhr: Equity expert Dirk Müller: "The stock exchanges are out of control". Focus Money Online, November 28, 2012, accessed April 5, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Dirk Müller, the face of the stock exchange. Süddeutsche Zeitung Online, January 23, 2008, accessed July 15, 2013 .
  3. ↑ About Dirk Müller. Self-presentation on cashkurs.com. ( Memento from April 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Holger Rust : Fauler Zahlenzauber: Fictions about facts in business and management . Springer Gabler, 2014, pp. 82-84, ISBN 978-3-658-02517-5 , doi: 10.1007 / 978-3-658-02517-5
  5. ↑ a b Bernd Johann: Börse: The face of the DAX. , Focus Online January 28, 2008, last accessed on April 20, 2012
  6. ↑ Martin Hesse: Dirk Müller, pop star. , Süddeutsche Zeitung Online of January 23, 2008, last accessed on April 20, 2012
  7. ↑ a b c d wdr.de: hard but fair (broadcast on June 18, 2012): biography of Dirk Müller ( memento from February 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  8. ↑ Stefan Schultz: Economic Symbol Photos 2008: This is what a disaster looks like. In: Spiegel Online . December 23, 2008, last accessed April 20, 2012.
  9. ↑ Imprint of the cashkurs.com website , last accessed on July 14, 2013
  10. ↑ Market letter portal: Bernecker, Platow, Frankfurter, Prof. Otte and many more. Accessed on June 28, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Market letter portal: Bernecker, Platow, Frankfurter, Prof. Otte and many more. Accessed on June 28, 2020 .
  12. ↑ a b Thorsten Giersch: Book review - The crash course of "Mister Dax" . In: Handelsblatt Online . January 17, 2009, last accessed April 20, 2012.
  13. ↑ Portrait: Dirk Müller, stock market expert. In: Nachtstudio (ZDF) . January 29, 2012, archived from the original on June 23, 2015 ; accessed on June 22, 2015 .
  14. ↑ Committee meeting of the Bundestag on June 27, 2011, last accessed on April 20, 2012
  15. ↑ Yes to the restriction of high-frequency trading, accessed on bundestag.de on July 5, 2014
  16. ↑ Absolute majority . Guests from the broadcast on April 28, 2013; prosieben.de ; last accessed on April 29, 2013
  17. ↑ "Imprint Förderverein Burg Wersau" foerderverein.burg-wersau.de, accessed on August 17, 2018.
  18. ^ "Förderverein Burg Wersau". foerderverein.burg-wersau.de, accessed on August 17, 2018.
  19. ↑ "Award ceremony 2014". Echt-gut-bw.de, accessed on August 17, 2018.
  20. ↑ Hanna Weber: Research on the castle continues . Morgenweb.de, accessed on August 17, 2018.
  21. ↑ "Dirk Müller is leaving Wersau as an investor". burg-wersau.de, accessed on August 17, 2018.
  22. ↑ "Dirk Müller is leaving Wersau as an investor". burg-wersau.de, accessed on August 17, 2018.
  23. ↑ Interview about personal matters. In: Focus , No. 13/2008.
  24. ↑ Ronny Kohl: Investing with Dirk Müller: Mister DAX brings its own fund - what to think of it. Börse Online, March 25, 2015, accessed April 26, 2015 .
  25. ↑ Mister Dax with its own fund: Ethical, solid, valuable? Let's see ... test.de, April 16, 2015, accessed on April 26, 2015 .
  26. ^ Daniel Eckert: Fund from "Mister Dax" performs better than the Dax. In: welt.de. April 6, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Dennis Kremer: The Crash of the Celebrity Fund. In: FAZ.net. September 5, 2016, accessed November 9, 2016 .
  28. ↑ Fund from "Mister Dax" performs better than the Dax. In: world. April 6, 2016, accessed January 31, 2018 .
  29. ↑ Strongly disappointed with "Mr. Dax ". In: StN.de (Stuttgarter Nachrichten). May 7, 2017. Retrieved August 13, 2017 .
  30. ↑ Ingo Narat: stock market lesson for Mister Dax . In: Handelsblatt . No. 140 , July 24, 2017, p. 34 .
  31. ↑ Stefan Beutelsbacher, Daniel Eckert, Holger Zschäpitz: Sieger und Losierer , Welt am Sonntag , No. 46, November 18, 2018, page 43.
  32. ↑ FOCUS Online: Investing with Mr. Dax and Max Otte: What the funds of the stock market celebrities are really good. February 4, 2019, accessed August 24, 2019 .
  33. ↑ cash.ch: The stock exchanges are booming - but “Mr. Dax »smears. December 11, 2019, accessed December 27, 2019 .
  34. ↑ Harald Freiberger: Crash prophets in the crash test. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. January 4, 2020, accessed April 5, 2020 .
  35. ↑ Michael Höfling: Stock exchange expert sees concerted attack on the euro , Welt Online from May 8, 2010, last accessed on April 20, 2012
  36. ↑ a b Jörg Hackhausen: "We are in the end phase" , Handelsblatt Online from October 18, 2011, last accessed on April 27, 2013
  37. ↑ Dirk Müller: Ship of Fools Europe and Course on Iran War . In: Compact . Edition 12/2011.
  38. ↑ Jörg Hackhausen: “The bastards determine where to go” , Handelsblatt Online from October 19, 2011, last accessed on April 20, 2012
  39. ↑ Stockbroker Dirk Müller "The bastards determine where to go". In: Wirtschaftswoche . October 19, 2011, accessed January 31, 2018 .
  40. ↑ "De facto this is already state bankruptcy" , Handelsblatt Online dated November 2, 2011, last accessed on April 20, 2012
  41. ↑ Jörg Hackhausen, Sven Prange: “People are fed up” , Handelsblatt Online from April 26, 2013, last accessed on April 27, 2013
  42. ↑ Julian Staib: Opinion battle for the Crimea . FAZ , March 26, 2014, archived from the original on December 25, 2014 .;
  43. ↑ Tobias Jaecker: Cross front through the middle . In: liberal - debates on freedom . Edition 2/2016, p. 51.
  44. ↑ Stefan Kaiser: Crisis explainer Dirk Müller: The strange world of Mr. Dax. Spiegel Online , April 30, 2013, accessed April 5, 2020 .
  45. ↑ Winand von Petersdorff: Dirk Müller's maddened crisis theses. The so-called Mr. Dax is pushing his way into the bestseller lists with his book “Showdown”. With absurd theses . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung . June 16, 2013, No. 24, p. 31.
  46. ↑ 30 reviews in short: The best business books of the book fair. In: Handelsblatt. Retrieved December 8, 2018 .
  47. ↑ Denis Scheck comments on the bestseller list. In: Tagesspiegel. Retrieved December 8, 2018 .
  48. ^ Christian Ortner: Fifty Shades of Crash. In: Wiener Zeitung . Retrieved December 8, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Dirk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German stockbroker on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main