Million Dollar Traders follows a group of twelve wannabe traders dealing in shares during the events of the financial crisis of 2007-2009 which was then whittled down to the final eight. The contestants came from various backgrounds, including a fight promoter, a day trader, an IT/banking recruitment consultant, a working mother, a retired IT engineer and a student, among others. During the series hedge fund manager Lex van Dam gave the contestants $1 million of his own money to trade for 2 months. Professional trader Anton Kreil, was appointed as the manager of the group. The three-part BBC series, narrated by Andrew Lincoln, was a part of the "City Season" programming on the BBC. It aired on BBC 2 in the UK at 9pm on Monday evenings between 12 and 27 January 2009.