Background of trading

First if you don't know who I am or my background check out this interview I did with IUchat. Second I was not an English major and was not the best student in school either so please cut me some slack with my writing skills and grammar 

 I have been trading about 10 years and have made a little over 5 million in that time frame. About half of that is verified here on profitly. I do not say this to boast or brag but to inspire new traders and say yes a decent amount of money can be made in a short time frame. I have a background in accounting and also my MBA. Depending on time I hope to write a blog maybe once a month. I'm married with a 20 month old and one on the way so if I do have free time I try to get away from the computer.

 On this first short blog I will not get too in depth on any one subject.  I will try to give an overview of my trading style and some on my background. I started trading early in college. I would spend countless hours studying charts trying to figure out their patterns. I would also read tons of financial news and study longer term methods in the market. With my lack of patience and love of a good adrenaline rush I knew short term trading was for me. Sure I have some money in longer term stocks and mutual funds today but let's face it that is the boring way to make money. I opened my first brokerage account when I was 18 and had to have my mom co-sign with me to open a margin account. At the time I started I only knew of buying stocks and I was not very successful. That didn't deter me very much because I knew someday I would find my niche and there was a lot of money to be made trading.

After slowly losing my stake each year I would work over the summertime and save a few thousand to start up again during the school year. After 2 years or so I figured out the concept of shorting and my first trade on the short side was a company that put out a bogus PR and ran up around 200%. I got in at the right time within a day it got halted. When it re-opened a month later I almost tripled my money. I knew from that point on my niche would be trying to short these parabolic moves. The next 8 months or so were simply unbelievable and the finale ended with a company called empire resources. Damn what a great chart. The original 5k I started with was now 1 million dollars. I felt I was on top of the world at that point. I was just about to graduate college and had a million dollars.

 Even though I had learned so much in that year I still had virtually no rules at all. I was trading so wild and reckless I was bound for a setback. Refusing to wire out profits and trading on margin, usually going all in on most positions I was just asking for a blowup. That summer was extremely tough for me losing around 500k. The feeling of being on top of the world just a few months earlier was now crushed. Luckily I finally came to my senses and still had around 500k. I immediately wired 400k to my bank account and started over trading with 100k.    My first lessons even though painful and very expensive were instilled in me at that point. Position sizing not over trading and taking profits are so important to a successful trader. In my interview with IUchat I mentioned that I had no service or mentor at that point in my trading career. Everything I learned good and bad was on my own. Sure the summer of me losing 500k is just a distant memory today but boy back then what a benefit it would have been to have someone like Nate investorslive to smack some sense into me and instead of a 500k learning experience maybe it would have only been 100k.

The past 3-4 years I feel even though I still have a ton to learn I have instilled a good set of rules and principles to my trading. Even though I have enjoyed some success there is no way I could have done it on my own. First of all I'm part of the great community of traders with investorslive chat room. The benefit of being able to chat on a daily basis with other great traders has definitely taken me to the next level. Even though most of my knowledge was self-taught the advantageous of a trading community are very beneficial. I also am extremely grateful for my parents and upbringing. Even though my family was not the most affluent when I was growing up my parents always made sure my sisters and I went to the best schools and had the best education possible. My parents would always sacrifice for themselves to make sure we had everything we needed. Even though I've had some success in the market I still consider myself a student and I'm constantly trying to learn and better my skills. I hope you have enjoyed this first blog and I look forward to writing more in the future. Some of the topics I will get more in depth are as follows. If anyone has a specific topic not mentioned let me know and I may add it to the list if enough people request it.

*The rules I trade by

*The tools I use ie brokers, chat rooms ect

*The stocks I trade and how I find them

*My strengths and weakness as a trader

*Take a recent winner I have and discuss my entries, exists and thought process