Rearden: I might have missed this in your past postings, but I'm wondering if you would indulge us a bit and give us your bio: where did you start trading, where did you become profitable, and what have you been doing for the last several years? Thanks much!
Rearden Metal is a metal lighter, stronger and costs less to make than regular steel. It is also known as the Miracle Metal.
Hi guys, I just found this thread. It's definitely best to keep these questions here instead of the P/L thread, as the mods have requested repeatedly we keep that thread on topic. 1993: I start swing trading/investing in Israeli stocks by phone from my IDF army base. I was 18 at the time... and a clueless amateur, of course. I run my $4,000 life's savings (Bar mitzvah gifts, mostly) up to $13,000... and then lose it all. My military service was the toughest three years of my life. Getting ordered around all day by jagoffs with half your IQ is no picnic, I can assure you. Out in the shit, I become determined to never again be at the complete mercy of other people. I figure the best possible way to accomplish this, is to get rich. After my honorable discharge in fall 1995, I come back to Chicago (where I was born), and get a runner job in the S&P pit. Spring 1996- I start clerking at Schonfeld. Landing this job was probably the biggest lucky break of my life. Summer 1996- Got my series 7 and started trading prop at Schonfeld. I had about $1,000 to my name, and was actually living on less than that amount per month... No car, and a shitty rental apartment with two roommates. Two months after I started trading professionally, I was making enough to cover my meager needs. Summer 1998- The Golden Age Of Trading begins. The LTCM blowup, along with the Asian & Russian economic crises create incredible volatility- hence incredible trading opportunities. I become a milionaire at age 24. This Golden Age, aka the tech boom, aka the dot-com bubble lasts through the year 2000, when it ends in a climax of spectacular volatility. Endless billion$ in dumb money flow into the market through clueless retail investors- and even more clueless mutual funds, run by the likes of Janus and Invesco. Life is one big party... Champagne, blow and caviar for everyone! 2001- What a crappy year. It started badly for me, and marked a tragic wrong turn for the entire country, as the American people get hit with a triple-whammy: 9/11, the recession, and to top it off... the beginning of America's rapid descent into fascism. The American people however, don't seem to notice the implications of the Patriot Act, as they are distracted by Survivor reruns. Spring 2003- After two and a half years of mediocre trading results, I'm not even trying anymore. My attendance at work slips below 25%, and I resign from Schonfeld (which is and always was a great firm to work for),as they shut down their Chicago office. 2003- 2004: My boring & depressing (yet profitable) stint as a professional poker player. I wreck my marriage. www.Prohibition-Kills.com That's all I have to say about it. 2005-2006: The market shows new signs of life, as I sign on with a prop options trading firm. My equities account at EchoTrade quits gathering dust, as finally there's something to do for a change...
And of course, in keeping consistent with how we know the world actually works, its manufacture results in the most toxic byproducts known to man.
Rearden, A quick question: If you were born in Chicago, I assume you were a US citizen while you were in Israel, yes? So why were you subject to the compulsory military service over there? saxon
That's what Rand, who was pre-ecology in her thinking, would have stated. Not a personal criticism, science has advanced our knowledge considerably since she wrote. No, for some idea of what I mean, look into how the "clean technology of the future", the computer, has turned parts of the orchard and vineyard country of California into Superfund sites. : )
Hey rearden arent you afraid of being called up for active duty again. Im assuming from your last PM you were in the marines. Alot of guys around your age and served around your time has been called up for active duty. Supposivly in discharge forms their is a clause, that allows them to put you back into active duty whenever.