QUESTION – Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, your background (current and previous career, education, etc).
Answer: Thank you for having me on, My name is Eric most in the Microefutures.com room just call me “E”. Living in the forgotten borough aka Staten Island, NY. In terms of careers, I feel I have done it all from being a private life guard, Helping run a Bounce House company, Delivering pizza (still doing currently), working with contractors on home repair, to now working in Quality Assurance testing software. I graduated Pennsylvania State University in 2013 with a Major in Business Management and minor in Information Technology and was lucky enough to land the position I am in currently fresh out of college.
QUESTION – For our readers who may not know, you are the so called “Captain” of the Mansion Room at Microefutures.com / EquitiesETC.com Trading room. Care to explain what exactly that is – and what is the concept of the Mansion Room in this trading community?
Answer: I am honored the Mansion room considers me the “Captain” although I do not consider myself a captain at all lol. The Mansion Room was created off an idea from a previous BYT interviewee Matthew Mickey. When Mickey joined Microefutures.com he came with an open mind and ready to absorb every detail that was given to him. We had many one on one conversations and said we should do something where after the true Captain of our Room JJ (vwaptrader1) finishes his morning session at 11am est were traders can still watch these funky charts known as TPOs. I was all for it and soon after the Mansion room was created.
The Mansion room is an open discussion and self moderated room that is used within the Microefutures discord channel. It is open to all users where we stream live Market Profile charts on ES, NQ, and discuss what we are seeing in the market throughout the day. As most users may not have the ability to watch TPO or may feel lost after JJ finishes in the morning. I stream in the Mansion Room and talk about what I am seeing happening with terms of inventory and price action. I do tell everyone in there I never worked on a trade desk or within Wall Street I am just hear to reiterate everything JJ has taught us.The room however is open to anyone who wants to stream and it does not have to rely on me I think they get a kick out of my heavy New York Accent. I have even had some say they are understanding and retaining more of what JJ teaches by watching the streams in the Mansion room.
QUESTION – How long have you been trading. And are you more of a day trader, swing trader or longer term investor? What have been your biggest challenges to date?
Answer: I started my trade journey back in late 2016, I was sitting at my desk in Jersey city when a colleague of mine walked by and said have you heard about this bitcoin it’s really on a move. I replied no I never heard of it and he started to show me and tell me. So I began doing research and watched videos of candle patterns and everyday we would step out and talk about these crypto coins and try to make a few bucks flipping them. We would step out and grab a coffee and a smoke and he would go did you see Coin “NEO” and I would reply with na man check this one “TRX”. We did this for a couple of months then Dec 2017 Bitcoins big drop. Was completely wiped of all profits I made because I was chasing the rush of winning. He later left our company and haven’t talked to him since he lives in Cali. A few years passed and I was thinking to myself man there has to be another way to build a secondary income as I just started dating my now fiancée and thought if I could get back to making a few extra dollars it would be nice to put away. The year was 2018 and that is when I found option trading thanks to YouTube and google algorithms. Having the addictive personality I figured I would dive right in and see what it was all about. I saw that I can use the same candlestick patterns I studied in crypto and use them on stocks but didn’t need a whole lot of cash to get started. I was back in the market but this time instead of coins it was calls and puts. As I continued this journey I stumbled upon JJ on twitter and was so intrigued by these Market Profile charts that I dove in and he told me its the futures market and what it is all about which brings me to where I am now trading ES, NQ, and now learning the bonds. Haven’t traded crypto since that drop in 2017 and now rarely dabble in Options.
I consider myself a scalper/day trader, I want to be in and out I am not a big fish so definitely don’t want to be swallowed by one. A quote from a YouTube video I stumbled upon once was showing how traders traded on the floor went like this “That position you are trading right now I flipped it twice, 3 times, maybe 10 times without you even knowing it happened” Thats how I trade in/out on to the next.
Some of the bigger challenges I face is trying to overthink the market, as we discuss in the mansion the market is very simple concept of supply and demand and when trading it I tend to lose sight of that concept by thinking “okay what if this happens?” or “what if that happens?”. The over complicating a simple task is what has been my biggest challenge
QUESTION– What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in trading AND your life that has set you up for later success?
Answer:
My biggest setbacks have always been chasing the high when in profit. I have been getting better thanks to the room and the coaching that Microefutures provides for us. When I am trading the movie quote from Top Gun sticks with me always. The line when goose goes to maverick “Every time we go up there, it’s like you’re flying with a ghost.” I keep that quote written down as a way to say don’t chase the high. If we chase the high then that’s where the overtrading and revenge trading steps in and clouds judgement and miss solid entries.
QUESTION : This is becoming a favorite question for many – plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simply could not live without now?
Answer: This is a great question and the one thing I bought myself last year was a simple exercise mat and few dumbbells. When the pandemic hit I felt trapped inside our 1 bedroom apartment, my morning routine was thrown off since we couldn’t go to the gym or anywhere. So in the winter months we bought a simple yoga mat and some dumbbells just to stay active. I feel when I lift or exercise before the day starts my mind is clear and in the right place.
QUESTION – If you could choose three dinner guests dead or alive, who would they be and why?
Answer: 3 Dinner guests that I would love to sit down with. First would be JJ (vwaptrader1) just to meet the gorilla of house street. He has helped me so much in becoming the trader I am today. My second guest would be Jesse Livermore, after reading the book “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” multiple times I would love to have a conversation with him and see how trading was done before computers. (Maybe bring my laptop and have him watch some globex tape with us). My last dinner guest would be Mark Cuban, After watching his interview with JJ and Ray on “Confessions of a Market Maker” he just seems like a great guy to hang out with and learn from his experiences.
QUESTION – What are your trading goals – Do you always want to trade or branch out into other directions in your life?
Answer: My trading goal is to always trade but do it to my leisure. As of right now I trade as a way to make another income, down the road I want to look into more passive strategies that way I don’t need to be actively sitting at the screen to make profit.
QUESTION – What advice would you give to your younger self and to someone just coming out of school (college or high school)
Answer: Always be humble, whether it’s in business, the market, or just in everyday life. Because the minute you think you are better than someone else is the minute you will be humbled.
QUESTION – We hear you are getting married. When, where and do you feel your full time work and trading schedule will be impacted (how will you balance is the question all)
Answer: Yes I am getting married in August, we are very excited and can not wait. As far as balance after the honeymoon of course I don’t feel their will be a big impact as my fiancée works in a school, and since the pandemic I have not been back in my office so the balance should remain the same way it has been *knock on wood* will have to wait and see when I do return to the office.
QUESTION – If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be? And where can our readers find you on social media? Thank you for taking the time with this interview, is there anything else you like to share with our audience?
Answer: A saying that I try to live by is “Life every day to the fullest, tomorrow is never promised.” Thank you for having me as a guest. For those wanting to follow me on social media you can find me on twitter @_Eric24 and instagram e_herrmann24
QUESTION - Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, your background (current and previous career, education, etc).
MARINA - Hi everyone, thank you for having me.
As a Russian refugee during the Cold War I arrived in New York City with my parents when I was 6 years old. 20 years later I took off on a backpacking journey with no end in mind. While camping in the Tikal Mayan Ruins of Guatemala, I met my future husband, the first Guatemalan I ever met, who was camping in the next tent over. We’ve been married for over 19 years, living in Central America raising our 2 trilingual sons.I have been an entrepreneur for over 25 years. Starting out as a top fitness instructor in NYC gyms with a wanderlust, I became a travel writer (and still host a popular travel blog today). Combining my love of entrepreneurialism and social justice I took on the monumental project of becoming a TEDx organizer (one of the few that included teens in an outdoor venue). How do I do it all? I credit my simple “no fluff” Day Trading strategies as a professional day trader. Today, I am a sought after speaker and mentor to aspiring and seasoned traders. I stand out in the industry amongst the guru’s as one who embraces the spirituality of Day Trading and works hard to help others transform their lives one trade at a time! I specialize in helping the true beginners to Day Trade with confidence and ease. For anyone who has a desire to learn Day Trading but has no idea where to start. I show you the best way to go from newbie to pro (trader) fast while avoiding the mistakes I made.
QUESTION - For our readers who may not know, your are known as the "Trader Chick" on Twitter. Can you explain the story behind behind this moniker?
MARINA - Day Trading has a lot of 'experts' , a lot of people that come for financial backgrounds, math and economic backgrounds. Which is great. However, the reality is listening to them can be intimidating, and complicated. Most of the time people get turned off by all this type of talk.
I personally did in the beginning. I was struggling for years, because of the complexities that went behind it all.
And after losing all my money several times, I had to step away. But day trading kept calling me, and I decided to erase all my charts and indicators and everything that I was being taught, and go back to the basics and simplify it. And that's when I realized day trading isn't complicated at all, and if explained in a fun way it can be accessible to everyone.
I was a fitness instructor before a day trader and a travel writer, without any financial and math background.
Being a Trader Chick allows people to see that it's fun, and they too can do it. My monitor goes exactly with how I look at trading. And this allows so many people to also get into trading.
QUESTION - How long have you been trading. And are you more of a day trader, swing trader or longer term investor? What have been your biggest challenges to date?
MARINA - I've been interested in financial markets for over 30 years. However, day trading has been my passion for 10 years. I am a scalper. Which means I go in and out of trade positions within a few minutes. It's quick and fun and doesn't stress me out as long term holds for the day.
I've been interested in financial markets for over 30 years. However, day trading has been my passion for 10 years. I am a scalper. Which means I go in and out of trade positions within a few minutes. It's quick and fun and doesn't stress me out as long term holds for the day.
QUESTION- What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in trading AND your life that has set you up for later success?
MARINA - Day trading is one of the most in your face conflicting things you can do. It's the only one that will make you face your demons constantly. It humbles you and really makes you view the world differently.
It shows you you either get your shit together mentally or continue living where your demons take over.
After many losses and blaming the market, I realized that it has nothing to do with the market and it's all me. And when I decided to look at myself and work on myself everything started to change.
I always say, Day Trading has been my greatest Master Teacher of my life.
And when I started to work on bettering myself, mindfully, mentally I discovered a spiritualness to trading that has made me a better trader and person.
QUESTION : This is becoming a favorite question for many - plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simple could not live without now?
MARINA - Oh that's a great question! A journal. This is my place to get out all my thoughts, frustrations, it's also a place where I write my goals and schedule.
I refer to it several times a day and really am lost without it.
QUESTION - If you could choose three dinner guests dead or alive, who would they be and why?
MARINA - Madonna - she was literally my (virtual) mentor from 11 years old to my mid 20's. Getting to the top and staying there is pure grit and I would love to learn from the source.
Byron Katie - Her book 'Loving What Is' changed my life. She is the only person that I would really love to do a workshop with or sit down and have a genuine chat with. And, interestingly enough right as COVID began, I was signed up for one of her intimate workshops and - of course we all know how things happened. It was canceled.
Sara Blakely - She simply is a friend goal of mine. How she runs her family, business, life. She just seems like a person I'd love to hang out with.
QUESTION - What are your trading goals - Do you always want to trade or branch out into other directions in your life?
MARINA -Trading if done properly can be fun. HOwever, when I first began I was obsessed sitting in front of my charts for 8 - 12 hours a day, totally unsustainable.
Today I trade 30 minutes - 1 hour a day, not even everyday, but when I feel like it. Because I'm so much more than just that. The goal always was to spend more time with my kids, start fun businesses that I love. Today I'm doing that. SO in a way, my trading goals are realized.
QUESTION - What advice would you give to your younger self and to someone just coming out of school (college or high school)
Learn work ethic. I don't care what your interests are in, without work ethic and structure you will really suffer.
Nothing will ever beat work ethic. And unfortunately today, judging from my own kids schooling (and they go to a 'good' private school) this is something that is not taught. So go out of your way to learn this. And the rest will work out.
QUESTION - What are your thoughts on cryptocurrency - including NFT's & the Metaverse?
MARINA - I just got into crypto last year. It took me a while to stop resisting. I believe there is no way around this, it's here and I'm still at the point of learning myself.
NFT's and Metaverse is totally new to me, and actually my kids and I are signed up for classes to learn.
So my thoughts are, learn what this is, teach your kids about it. And then have fun with it.
QUESTION - If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be.
Make Every Day An Adventure - there is no 'one day' make today day ONE.
Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media. And is there anything else you like for our readers to know about you?
MARINA - Thank you for having me. The best way to contact me would be via my website - https://thetraderchick.com-- Beyond The Trades Interview Series is Sponsored by --
https://microefutures.com/ - https://equitiesetc.com/
I’m bearish on Ethereum. – Article first appeared in TaschaLabs Daily eZine
But it may not be for the reason you think.
Transition from single chain to layer 1-layer 2 structure has large implications for ETH token valuation. And most people aren’t yet thinking this through
In short, think of L1 platforms like nation state economies. You need native token to pay fees in every transaction on platform just like you need USD in every economic transaction in US. The on-chain economic activities thus form fundamental demand for native token.
That means given any starting equilibrium of economy size & ETH price, if ethereum economic activities grow 10%, ETH token demand’ll grow proportionally (assuming stable token velocity). Since supply is relatively constant, that translates to proportional increase in ETH price.
This dynamic btw growth of economy & increase of token price is mechanical & doesn’t require belief in any revenue-based valuation assumptions, which are mostly memes.
Indeed data shows activity growth is single most important driver in ETH price over long run. Using # of txns as rough proxy for size of eth economy, you can see correlation btw txn growth & price growth is overwhelmingly significant— 10% txn growth implies ~13% price growth.
Note this is fundamental-driven long term relationship. Short-term price volatility is obv much bigger b/c of speculative cycles.
W/ this relationship in mind, is there any wonder why ETH price growth has stalled in last 6 mos? Tnxs have declined since May as high gas costs discourage activities & other alt L1s take off. Activity is now even lower than previous cycle peak.
Active wallets, another way to measure activity level, have also declined since May.
If it weren’t for EIP-1559 introducing token fee burns in August & putting downward pressure on supply, we’d have seen bigger ETH price drop given demand dynamics.
To solve scaling/congestion, ethereum is adding layer 2 rollups— to have eth L1 as security/settlement layer w/ contract & tnx executions done on L2s. It could boost speed & lower cost for end users, by a lot.
But as investor, all you need to care abt is this— is this structural change going to increase or decrease activities on eth L1? (Cuz activities—> demand for eth —> price growth, remember?)
By all considerations the answer is negative, at least in short-to-medium term.
Eth L1 does 1.3 million daily tnxs right now. ZK rollups can have 60k-80k tnxs in a batch before submitting to L1. If we move all end-user tnxs from eth L1 to rollups today & all L2 batches are full, that means # of tnxs on eth L1 could drop to 1/20 of current level.
You say, 1) proof verification is high value-add, complex tnx, which costs way more gas than most other tnxs.
2) there’ll be explosion of activities on L2s given lower cost. That’s the point of scaling. If L2 activities grow exponentially, it’ll boost verification needs, i.e. more activity on eth L1.
For 1), L1 verification cost per batch for zkSync rollup is 600k gas. Simple wallet tnx cost on current eth L1 is 21k gas. If a rollup batch has more than 28 simple wallet tnxs, gas cost on L1 is already lower than current. Batch has capacity for 80k tnxs. Do the math.
For 2), activity levels on popular alt L1s give useful benchmark for how much activity you can realistically expect on a new eth L2. Solana, the alt L1 w/ highest activity level rn, has a realized TPS (tnxs per second) of abt 1000 (not counting consensus voting tnxs).
Other chains have much lower realized TPS. E.g. Polygon, the success example all new eth L2s aspire to, has TPS of abt 85. Mind you, low realized TPS on these chains are not b/c of tech constraints (not yet). They can do much higher but there’s simply no higher demand from activities rn.
If one day web3 economy grows so big that numerous eth L2s operate at high capacity & continue growing at warp speed, yes that’d indeed increase activity on eth L1. But that day is not today & no eth maxi can tell you definitively when that day will be.
Btw today & promised L2 land, ethereum has to cross the no man’s land, where L2 growth is taking existing tnxs away from eth L1, while L2s don’t have enough business yet for their proof verification txns to more than compensate for activities they take away from eth L1.
While eth is crossing this no man’s land, activity growth on eth L1 would likely be stagnant or negative. That means to the left & down on our chart of activity vs price. Rational choice for eth ecosystem investor would be to sell eth & long high growth L2 tokens.
You say, what abt institutional investors? They prefer large caps w/ lower risk. So large waves of institutions coming to crypto in near future would shore up demand for BTC & ETH.
It may. But I wouldn’t keep hope too high for dumping bags on institutions, unless you truly have an abysmal opinion on their IQ.
B/c truth is people–whether institutions or individuals– are in crypto for returns, not safety, & large caps are not “safer”.
Here’s Sortino ratio for major L1s, which measures how much you’ve gained for each unit of downside risk you took. LUNA had the highest score in 2021. ETH & BTC both rank low.
There’s another concern abt ETH valuation that’s less obvious but no less important.
(BTW, like this so far? I write about ideas on investment, macro and human potential. Subscribe to my newsletter for updates .)
The network effect of L1 tokens comes from wide ownership participation of those tokens. BTC & ETH become most popular collaterals in deFi b/c almost everyone in crypto owns them. Exchange volumes are high & liquidities ample.
But 180 mn eth wallet addresses are the result of the fact that for the longest time, to use smart contract you have to own some eth.
W/ alt L1s rising that’s already less true. W/ eth L2s coming you won’t need to own eth even in ethereum’s own ecosystem. You can buy, say, ZK tokens on centralized exchange, transfer to your ZK Metamask wallet & spend ZK in ZK L2 chain, all w/o touching eth token.
In other words, as ethereum transitions from B2C to B2B model, direct interaction w/ end users may drop, which would imply lower ownership coverage, liquidity & volume for eth token. All of those are important parameters supporting token valuation.
You say, as security layer of ethereum eco, importance of eth token is paramount & surely users would value that. Yes you’re right. But if “importance” is the decisive factor for token value, ChainLink & Graph would have higher mkt caps than Doge & Shib.
Truth is “face time” w/ as many end users as possible is a precious advantage for a token. (And you should consider this when thinking of investing in any crypto project that only serves “enterprise use cases”.)
This is not just a phenomenon in crypto. In tech stocks, for example, software companies w/ mass-mkt apps have higher P/E ratio than other IT sub sectors like system software or semiconductor. B/c the former get more eyeballs even w/o necessarily having higher growth prospect.
As average investor, it’s much easier to buy stocks of Zoom or Slack—cuz you know & use them often— than investing in something like, idk…”Paragon Database Solutions”.
For a L2 to compete w/ alt L1s they need native tokens for users to rally behind & share the gains of values created on L2 platform. That means they take eyeballs away from eth just like alt L1 competitors.
You say, but other modular L1 chains have same problem. E.g. an Avalanche subnet token would dilute value accrual on AVAX too.
Yes, but AVAX, ATOM or ALGO is not valued at $400 bn mkt cap. They’re much smaller & still on high growth path of their L1 eco, any L2 add-on is not a structural change of status quo like ethereum situation. The starting equilibrium matters.
Crypto is a fast changing industry & my thinking abt ethereum case will surely continue to evolve. But hope this gives you something to ponder on.
TLDR:
Activity growth determines price growth for L1 tokens
Shifting to L1-L2 structure may mean stagnant or negative activity growth of Eth L1 in ST/MT
Transition from B2C to B2B model reduces exposure of Eth token to end users, negative for liquidity, volume, price
Beyond The Trades is Sponsored by the Educational & Live Trading Team at http://www.Microefutures.com / EquitiesETC.com
The US markets move fast, every day is an opportunity for a proper villain to rob you blind.
When you give a promoter stock to do a job you are handing him the fate of your deal. Most of the time he will create a market to sell your stock off into, sell it, blame someone else such as short-sellers for depressing the price of your stock, and walk away from you. This leaves the financier penniless having to either go clean up the market or walk away from the deal.
A bad criminal will simply take the stock and blow it out into the market. It’s obvious and in Vancouver, it can get you killed. The bad criminal just moves on to the next deal, he will usually deal with unsophisticated financiers and public company CEOs. Since the criminal used offshore accounts, for the company robbed there is no recourse. The bad criminal will hopefully have the good sense to not take stock of scary people.
A proper villain will put the stock in an account that the financier or CEO will be able to see. This gives the CEO a sense of security due to transparency. When he starts his operation and starts selling stock into the market the position that his employer sees will be unchanged.
As the price of the stock moves violently about, the villain will cause a huge stink, saying that he hasn’t sold a share, you can see it plain as day. “ You must have given out stock to someone else.” He will say to the CEO.
He will completely manipulate the market. He will show large sell orders coming in. He will say he has $100 thousand dollars of buying coming in to clean up the market.
When he does bring in the buy order it will actually be his. He will sell into it from his account at another brokerage firm. The stock will not move up. The villain will then call the CEO and scream that someone is selling stock and his investors are getting burned.
He will do this a few times, then he will call and say my investor is really upset. You better send him some stock to average down his price. The CEO will then send millions of more free shares to an account that appears to be owned by a regular person. It will show all the buy transactions in it. The CEO will assume this is a legitimate investor. This account will be a nominee for the villain. Now he has even more stock in your deal. This can happen a few times until the CEO finally gives up. The result is that his stock will be well under a penny and he will have to do some major corporate shuffling to rebuild it. Most of them walk away. The investors or dumb money always get burned and are left holding WORTHLESS PAPER.
Now the big villains don’t operate this way. They own everything, They are at economic risk because they pay for everything. From the initial company, the legal the accounting. Everything is a risk. Then they stage a full-blown promotional campaign selling their own stock into it.
They will use the proceeds of this to build larger and better campaigns. This is what the good promoters do. They own the entire deal and never give away any stock. They pay cash for all goods and services. They do this because they know that 0 cost stock. Stock that has been given away has a no-cost basis. It will always “find the bid” meaning it will always get sold at any time.
This ruins a market when you are trying to induce buying from the retail public. Nothing scares a prospective investor more than seeing a stock go down every day. There is no reason to buy it. Retail investors love to see a stock going up every day. Or at least trading in a stable range.
But to get the frenzy going, to get people to chase the price higher, you must own every share and keep moving it up higher and higher. This causes people’s greed to take over and buy it. Surely it will keep going higher.
Good villains will build and develop a large market they can sell stock into. They will do it over 18 to 24 months. When finished they will have 20 to 100 million dollars to show for it.
Now for you folks at home, this is nothing new. It has been done since the dawn of trading.
The way stock is traded. The actual mechanics of the market are so complex to an outsider that we literally can trade a billion dollars of stock around someone and they have no idea where it’s coming from or going to.
Sound familiar? Look at a stock like Amazon, it just keeps going higher and higher. The stock is very very tightly controlled by institutions, The stock also is in limited supply. You keep the supply tight and keep increasing demand. Price goes up and as it goes up it induces more buying. This is basic human nature. People get greedy and keep buying it as it keeps producing a profit.
Now the people that control stocks like Amazon are huge money management firms and hedge funds. Think of them as the financier or stock promoter. They invest in the company usually at a discount to the market. They set the offering price in the IPO (when the company goes public). They place the stock with investors who they know will HOLD it for a long period of time. This way no stock “comes back” into the market and depresses the price.
If you doubt any of this. Take a look at the monthly stock chart of Amazon. Take a look at the earnings of the company. Now, remember the large money managers own Amazon for 30 year hold times, therefore, limiting the supply of stock in the open market. There is no manipulation here but the result is similar to shutting off supply by a large shareholder in a penny stock deal.
The reason the stock keeps going up is that the three largest money management firms on the planet own the largest positions and because they manage over 14 TRILLION dollars.
The stock chart for Amazon is a stock promoter’s dream. It is the mother of all no supply situations
So now you know that everything is controlled you will understand why someone who understands the boring details of how the mechanics could be useful.
The guys in the Ferraris are the flash. The big money in the markets is made by guys you would never ever suspect. They work in the shadows, they understand every little detail of how the system works, they then strategize on how to use those details to manipulate the price of shares. We called them mechanics. They were very rare and most of them always worked alone. The details of their operations were therefore secret, this way no one could step in front of their orders to buy and sell.
How did I learn their ways? These people don’t go to bars, they don’t talk. They take their secrets to the grave with them. They live under the radar, drive Volvos and live in modest homes. Meanwhile, they can literally have billions located in a rat’s nest of offshore accounts circumnavigating the globe.
I looked around and saw some traders and clients who were very calm when the prices of their shares rose. The first time I saw this was on the desk at my firm.
Here’s what I witnessed and it would change the way I think about the markets forever.
It Happened One Day when one of Elliott’s clients came into town from Miami the man was an ex-market maker he punched out of the brokerage business and now was freelancing working for Elliott’s largest client. His job was to maintain an orderly market for all of the companies that Elliott’s client consulted for.
The man came into Elliot’s office and literally took over his trader and all their phones. Also, he pulled out a few cellphones and started making calls and instruction Steve the trader to start moving orders in and out of various stocks. As Steve did so the phones would light up with reports from the market makers on what had been executed. Steve would verbally call out those fills to Miami and he would bark back adjustments. “Ok move NITE up give NAIB 2k on that offer, then move WDCO back off the bid” and it would go on. He was moving market makers around like chess pieces, only playing 6 different games simultaneously as he was making the market look a certain way in six different companies at the same time.
It was like watching Walter Payton play running back, I knew this is what I had to learn.
QUESTION - Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, your background (current and previous career, education, etc). And your journey to becoming a Millionaire Trader in such a short period of time.My name is Mariana Hincapie and i started trading right after i finished high school in 2018 i wasnt very passionate at first but eventually I started getting into it more and more when i gained more experience. I got into trading from my dad when he would give me financial articles to learn from and helped me in every way to have an independent job for myself, he never went to college and i followed in the same footsteps as he also did, i found tim sykes in his articles and since then i have been in the challenge learning as much as i could, i started using very little size and started full time day trading in september 2019 just getting my feet wet and
lost about 3-5k in the first few months without knowing since i still had no real education on the platforms and such, i started being primarily an OTC trader and also traded too much so i took too many trades and the losses piled up with commissions did not make that easy, when i figured out what i was doing wrong i stopped taking trades just because but instead i started focusing on patterns that i wanted to learn, first one being breakouts then first red days then panic dip buys and first green day all otc and i took as many trades as i could to get a feel of every strategy, around january a year later i had taken a little over 1k trades which got me over 100k profits, now it was time to maximinze since the market got very hot in otc land in those 1k trades to find
out what really worked for me, panic dip buys and i sized up maybe 10x more than i would in previous months $TSNP $OZSC $ENZC $INND which resulted in a +$626,200 dollar month and to this current day the best month ive ever had, so that was the main contributor the OTC market as hot as possible and preparation with sizing up after practicing for the past year mainly on the panic strategy.
QUESTION - Now I know some of our readers are going to be skeptical of you making a million dollars trading. How would you respond to them. And how would you respond to those who sincerely want to know how you acheived this.For the haters and doubters, stop finding excuses on why you can't do it too and dont try to bring people down, my best advice is to be positive towards others, and instead dedicate yourself and be inspired, and for those who believe i achieved with hard work and long days, sizing up when the time is right being prepared and taking as many practive trades with little risk as i could until i
found my pattern and ymy trading personality.
QUESTION - Do you feel you get treated and looked upon differently in the trading community since you are a woman. And do you consider yourself a role model to other women traders?
I definitely feel different in the trading community, i have a good example lets pretend that we are at a third grade playground, and there are 10 little boys at the swings and around but one of the girls wants to come up and also try and use the swing, will the girl be comfortable? How will the little boys react? Probably “girls have cuties” and leave well the same thing happens when there is a new girl that has never happened before and all the guys already have their groups, i dont blame anybody for not inviting me haha it just happens and i understood that since the beginning which is why i have tried my best to talk to as many girls as i can
in the trading community, we actually now have an all girls chatroom, and regular zoom calls where we check up on each other, i do see myself as a role model and i love it because i never had that girl inspiration when i started and it makes it more difficult to believe but now i see tons of girls commenting on my twitter and tons starting to trade, and i love it.
QUESTION- Now some non training questions. What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life that has set you up for this success?
I lived in colombia right before i got into trading and there i was able to see what hard work really is but with no reward, the payment is for less than $10 USD a day, and for me i thought was hard to see since some worked from 6-9pm and i never worked but i did have to help out in my cousins shop and i was there so much and the work that goes on behind closed doors i didnt want to live for myself, i wanted to go back and keep trying trading to see if it would work because i know the potential it has.
QUESTION : This is becoming a favorite question for many - plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simple could not live without now?
Honestly for me, the people that know me know that i cant live without my vaseline, i hate chapped lips, so i have one in my office in
my room in my purse and in my car.
QUESTION - If you could choose three dinner guests dead or alive, who would they be and why?
Three dinner guests:
Jesse livermore: I can't think of anyone else that would show me market experience, market cycles and how to deal with emotional barries better than him, being through all of it also when trading was more difficult, less technologically advanced. I would like to get a feel of those times and also get more tips on how to deal with big losses.
Elon musk: diversification and dedication, one of the greatest icons of our time, very modern so i would like to have a guest with very technologically advanced mindset now that i have one that teaches me about the past id like to get an idea of the future and how to think big, how to grow a successful business.
David Goggins: i gotta have an inspirational speaker, no brainer, who else than him to get me started with the right mindset
QUESTION - You just recently took your parents to Italy on vacation. Were they always supportive of your choice to get into trading?
My parents as i mentioned earlier have been the most supportive parents in the world, my dad was the one that introduced me to trading and mom brings the discipline and the emotional support, so my dad one of the best things he ever told me was “treat it like college” “you dint have to make money” and im so glad i took them to italy because thay wasmt the original plan it was actually for me to return, but when i was already there it was just so beautiful theft deserved to be with me there also, so i booked them a flight and they were so happy about it.
QUESTION - What advice would you give to your younger self and to someone just coming out of school (college or high school)
The advice i would give to myself is be more confident, because i lacked that the most and when i was starting out that hurt me since it would be more mentally demoralizing for me.
QUESTION - Timothy Sykes has a love/hate relationship with many. Some love him, others hate him. Since you know him closely, why insights can you give us on Sykes that the general public may not know?
I love tim, so genuine, a very caring person, also eats a lot of food, ive never had one time where i havent gotten inspired by his work dedication, he is definitely the hardest worker i know, and also is always very happy to be around us, very willing to help and guide, he is tough but when he needs to be, his teachings have worked for 20+ years so i dont see why so many haters if they could just turn it around there would be more millionaires, with the right market and the right teacher everything works perfect, also he rewards with beautiful scenery.
QUESTION - If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be.
“GOOD THINGS, TAKE TIME” one of my all time favorite quotes, nothing related to trading better than this quote, and to life in general, everything worth doing takes effort, dedication, love, passion, a lot of hard work, because if it wasnt hard it is not the best in most cases. You get rewarded but only after you have mastered your skill and that will not be overnight.
QUESTION- Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media. And is there anything else you like for our readers to know about you?
Contact me:
Twitter: mari_trades
Instagram: mari_hincapiee
Email: marianawork@yahoo.comBeyond The Trades is being sponsored by the www.Microefutures.com / EquitiesETC.com Trading Community
James Clear dishes out life-changing insights like they’re T-shirts on a college campus. He is the author of the bestselling book, Atomic Habits. Interview is courtesy of our friends at Morning Brew.
We tried not to bite our nails as we asked James all about building (and breaking) habits.
What is one of your ideas that most resonates with your audience?
There are probably two. The first is the idea of systems over goals, or rather than worrying about the outcome, focusing on the process and building better habits each day. The line that people bring up a lot from the book is, “You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”
The other one that has gone over well is what I call “identity-based habits.” Rather than worrying about the results you want, focus on becoming the type of person who could achieve those results. So instead of worrying about losing 40 pounds, focus on being the kind of person who doesn’t miss workouts. Or rather than worrying about finishing the novel, focus on being the kind of person who writes every day.
Many people have been working from home for 18 months. Do you think that’s made it more difficult to develop habits?
One of the things that makes it hard to stick to a habit is if you’re trying to do multiple habits in the same context. Say your couch is the place where you watch Netflix at 7pm, but you want to get in the habit of journaling each night. If you try to journal at 7pm on the couch you have this unconscious bias toward turning on the TV, because that’s what usually happens there.
One of the benefits of going into an office is that you have a defined space for work habits to live. You can utilize that idea in a practical way, by trying to create defined spaces for certain habits. If you want to get into the habit of reading, you could have a reading chair in the corner of the room. And the only thing that happens there is when you sit there you read a book. And you gradually start to associate that behavior with that context. The more explicit you can be about where the habit occurs, and it always occurs in the same place in the same way, the more likely it is that the behavior will stick.
What did you learn about habit formation from being a college baseball pitcher?
I learned a lot about the importance of pregame routines. Before every start in college I went through the same sequence about 40 minutes before the start of the game.
What ends up happening is that a switch flips in your mind and says, “Remember, it’s time to play now.” I think that helps not just with the physical part of the task—it helps with the mental part of the task. It helps get you in the right mindset to perform.
Translating that to what I do now, since Atomic Habits has blown up I’ve been asked to do a lot of keynote speeches. And I have a pregame routine before I walk out on stage.
What do you do?
It usually starts with me getting a glass of water. I take a drink of water, go through the first minute of the talk in my head, and then I put my head down and have quiet time for 10 seconds or so. Then I get up, take a deep breath, and I’m ready to go.
Each of your newsletters contains two quotes. Do you have a favorite quote?
I’m going to pick two but I do just want to say I have like 100.
One is from my friend Morgan Housel: “Your personal experiences make up maybe 0.00000001% of what’s happened in the world but maybe 80% of how you think the world works. We’re all biased to our own personal history.”
The second one is from the investor Josh Wolfe, who said that the most useful advice he ever got was from James Watson, the scientist who helped discover DNA. Watson said three words with two meanings: “Avoid boring people.” I like that a lot because it means a) don’t hang out with boring people and b) don’t be boring yourself. Be interesting, be fascinating, do compelling things.
In the inauguration of Beyond The Trades “Sit Down” Meeting, Beyond The Trades Steve questions- often tough ones- the Confession Of A Market Maker duo all things life & their backgrounds: How did they met, where they grew up, is JJ remorseful for his past & plenty more questions the people wanted answered!
QUESTION - Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, your background (current and previous career, education, etc).
I appreciate you taking in interest in who I am and what I am doing. My name is Brent Phillips and shortly after I left the Army, I decided that I wanted to pursue my passion for software engineering.
Shortly, after I completed my Computer Science degree and started working. I then became really interested in trading. First is was stocks and then I discovered futures.
One thing that kept happening to me over and over was that I would constantly think I knew better that the major players in the market. Short story, I did not! This was a costly mistake on my part.
So, I decided to build a tool that would help keep me on the right side of the Bias throughout the day. This is how biasoftheday.com was formed.
QUESTION – For our readers who may not know. What exactly your company and app does, could you explain. Bias of The Day : Website https://bit.ly/3lVrhoY
When it comes to investing there is a term called Bias. This has several different factors to it but what I focused on the most was the three major indices. The Nasdaq 100 which is composed of 100 stocks, the S&P 500 which is composed of 500 stocks and the Dowjones 30 which is composed of 30 stocks. What my tool does is goes over all the stocks in each index and then does some calculations based on an algorithm and returns a bias percentage. In simple terms, it tells you what is happening to all those stocks in nice and easy way. For example, if the majority of the stocks in the Nasdaq 100 are selling off then it might not be a good time to buy.
QUESTION – Can you explain the need for the everyday trader to have the information your app provides (and at such a low cost I might add)
If you constantly buy or sell a stock/future and you are absolutely certain that its going to go your way only to watch it quickly reverse then you need this tool.
It’s not a silver bullet. It is just a nice and easy way to see the “mood” or “bias” of the market. It saves you the time and hassle of trying to figure all of that out on your own.
If used with good trading strategies and proper risk management it can help you trade with the trend and not against it.
QUESTION– Now some non trading questions. What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life that has set you up for this success?
Before I joined the Army I always believed that I wasn’t smart enough to become a software engineer. I have had the fortune of growing up with the internet and I was there
when it became widely available. However, the Army taught me to believe in myself and to have the confidence and discipline to make it. I have failed so many times that I no longer count. To me it is part of the process.
QUESTION : This is becoming a favorite question for many – plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simply could not live without now?
A New Headset! I have so many meeting throughout the day that I need a nice headset!
QUESTION – If you could choose three dinner guests dead or alive, who would they be and why?
Bill Gates – I just want to ask so many questions about how he thinks and approaches problems
Sylvester Stallone – I really need to hear “Yo Adrian” in person.
Any Founding Father – Just curious what they might think about America today.
QUESTION – Can you explain the markets today versus the markets from years ago, decade ago, etc. And where do you see it five years from now?
I haven’t traded the markets for that long. I have noticed that there are more and more trading bots for sale though. I see them everywhere and they always promise to make you a ton of money but they won’t. The future of trading to me is going to be the people versus the bots. Mostly it will be bots but I dont think people will ever stop trading.
QUESTION – What advice would you give to your younger self and to someone just coming out of school (college or high school)
Don’t second guess yourself!
QUESTION – What are your thoughts on cryptocurrency and will your app have any role in them down the road?
Crypto seems to be a hot topic at the moment. I don’t think it is going anywhere. I am not sure if I will add Crypto to biasoftheday or not.
QUESTION – If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be.
“Think twice, code once”
QUESTION- Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media.
QUESTION: Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, your background as you have an absolutely amazing story to tell?
It was very well written and I still read it and can not believe I lived this life. This isn’t even my Army story which is pretty crazy in the details as well. I just thought this was always normal and when I discovered it wasn’t it just made me value my friendship and people more. I won’t go over a lot of it but the gist of it is below
I was born in 1984. Ask me where, and I’m not so certain. Dallas, Texas, most likely. My parents were travelers, I was told, but I have no memory of them. I entered Maryland’s foster care system when I was 2 or 3. The only knowledge of life before then came later from foster parents and counselors.
“They said they found me in an old shack,” I remembered. “They were feeding me beer instead of milk because they couldn’t afford both.”
I don’t know who my father is. My biological mother is dead. A grandmother who took in my half-sister couldn’t take in both of us. So I entered the foster system alone and remained that way the rest of my childhood.
The early years were spent bouncing “from foster home to foster home to foster home.” Parents came and went. Foster siblings came and went. Usually after giving me something to remember them by.
“I (got) into a lot of fights with other foster kids,” This was a constant thing.”
It was the older ones that liked to pin me against walls, I remembered.
“Those boys tortured me,”
For an escape, I often turned to a world where people lifted each other up. Where they counted on each other. Where leaders were born.
I used to play a lot of backyard imaginary sports games, like football, basketball, pretending I was on a team playing a championship.
Jordan and Shaq often showed up to play in my imagination. The scenarios, like for so many other young fans, borrowed from big games on TV. Exposure to television, however, was not common for me then. I was drawn to sports.
That was the only thing I ever watched, I picked it because it was a team effort. As a young kid, that is what I lacked in life…In foster care, nobody (was) a leader. Nobody (was on) a team.”
I was 13 when I lived with a foster family outside Washington D.C. My foster parents provided a place to sleep and three meals, but required me to be out of the house otherwise. The door was locked, and I was not allowed in.
I was allowed to use public transit, but I wasn’t allowed to use the phone or watch TV. I found family elsewhere the best I could. Sometimes it was with friends. Often it was not. I liked discovering things. A weird-looking tree in the woods. An old, rusted-out car. Things like him. Alone in the world.
“Even though I had a rough childhood, I still saw value in people, and places, and things, I still had an appreciation for life. Because of this I was able to persevere through any adversity I might have faced.
QUESTION: We understand you are very active with a mission to help returning veterans protect and grow their money the proper way. What are your goals and objectives here. And how is the EquitiesETC/Microefutures Trading Community helping you here?
MICKEY: First and foremost HUGE Shout out to the team at EquitiesETC/Microefutures trading community. There are so many people offering courses and signals for thousands of dollars. Most of the time they don’t work and honestly are a pretty toxic way to protect your capital. Choice the hard right over the easy wrong. With the EquitiesETC/Microefutures trading community they teach you how to fish so when the piranhas are coming to you, you can have the mental resilience and emotional intelligence to respond with critical thinking. They do this at a price that only covers the equipment they need to run the room. They make their income through the trades that they take. This speaks volumes on the characters that run these rooms. As my Soldiers and I would deploy to Iraq/Afghanistan and any other exotic places across the big pond. I would see these barrel chested freedom fighters do some of the most amazing things. Their ability to micro focus and push all adrenaline and emotions aside while dealing with any variable that was thrown at them was a science/process that came with experience. EquitiesETC/Microefutures trading community has the experience in the room to teach us how to do the same in the trading arena. Now as these amazing Soldiers would come back home, they would have a good savings account of 5k to 20k sometimes more. I would watch the responsible ones that were good stewards of their funds try and do the right thing and not blow their funds on useless items and try to invest it in ways they thought was right. Within months, weeks, and sometimes days their money would get wiped out by the market. This did not settle with me right, I knew their small savings account had blood, sweat and tears on each dollar. I know this because I was right next to them. They didn’t get paid enough to throw their money away and we didn’t have the network to be taught the profession correctly. So we would read hundreds of fluff to get to 10-20 pages of applicable information. We would spend thousands of dollars through credit cards to take course that taught us RSI, MACD and blah,blah,blah. By this point I was left standing there alone. I told myself I would go out there and figure this out. While my Soldiers went on and worked however they did. I told myself that I would find a way to teach veterans how to trade for an income and seek financial freedom. I would teach them the profession. This way Soldiers could focus on the profession they were passionate about, or that they had the freedom to deal with any demons they might have brought back to America. I knew the last thing I wanted them to worry about was money.
QUESTION: Tell us what person(s) played such a key pivotal role in your life (both good and bad) and why?
There isn’t one person and it would be unfair to single one person out. Weather I was a new bulldawg team leader kicking in doors with my men in Talifar Iraq, a overconfident Platoon Sergeant in R.C East Afghanistan, a degenerate Drill Sergeant, University Instructor, Logistic or human resource leader and all of the other roles I played in the Army, I always had good and toxic leaders that taught me how to be the leader and not a boss that I currently am now. We all have toxic traits and professional characteristics. As I saw the same displayed in others, I would focus on what I liked in the good leaders and get rid of the traits I didn’t like in the bad leader.
QUESTION: This is becoming a favorite question for many – plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simple could not live without now?
MICKEY: WOW This is my favorite question too. My favorite hundred dollars that taught me the most in life went like this. No shit there I was. It was February at 04ish in the morning. I was heading into work and stopped at a gas station. This homeless bum approached me and I thought well here we go. He asked for any spare change. Just like most people out there I question his intentions with my 45 cents of spare change. He said honestly dude it has been a cold night and I haven’t ate, I just want to buy beer and numb myself from my bad life decision. I melted like the wicked witch when water was poured on her. A light bulb went off and this single experience changed my life and taught me empathy, humility and the importance of being transparent. Not only did I buy him a case of beer and a crapload of food/cigarettes I gave him 100 bucks. If I could comfort this dude during this trying time in his life then I did my work for the day. This man just like many got trapped and squeezed in life. He had already paid the price with lost relationships, missed opportunities, and not even having a house to sleep under. Who was I to judge and how dare I do anything to make his life suck anymore. From that moment I vowed to not judge and be part of the problem but to help others. I always have enjoyed seeing others succeed. That is all I want to do with veterans. Help them pay their credit cards off and get that financial freedom while I deal with still paying mine off. Haha it sounds weird and I can’t understand why I am wired this way.
QUESTION: What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life that has set you up for this success?
MICKEY: I went through a couple of DARK days in my life probably more than not in my first 30 years on this earth. My last 10 have been bomb thought and made up for the crappy ones. As we would return from deployments, my Soldiers would get out of the service. Months and years later I noticed a spike of times when my old bosses like Christopher Mcmillian would call me up and say bad news bud this guy killed himself. I would go into a deep depression that stirred up lots of hate and rage. It wasn’t bad enough we left loved friends in unspeakable ways overseas. Now I had to deal with this. I had to get helped and all of my buddies I would reach out to would typically say stuff like I am dealing with my own demons, I am not qualified or stop being weak. So I finally had to swallow my pride and ego to give my wife and daughter the man they deserved, not the raging jerk I had become. I signed up with counseling and the pressure of my kettlepot decompressed. This was much needed. If you are dealing with anything no matter what that makes you think about suicide call me serious.
QUESTION: If you could choose three dinner guests dead or alive, who would they be and why?
MICKEY: Hmmmm, easy question my three amagios that are good hearted dudes that actually care about people and think like me. JJ, Steve and Ray. That is my wish haha. Why? Because they are trying to change people’s paths in life for the good. They are building legends with their life work and experiences. They see a problem and aren’t waiting for others to fix it but are spending their days doing so with their rooms. This isn’t going to just change people’s lives but their grandkids’ lives and I think that is pretty cool. I know teacher suck up.
QUESTION: What advice would you give to your younger self or someone young who may have lost all hope?
MICKEY: Pick yourself up, don’t feel sorry for yourself, walk it off and rub some dirt on it. You learn alot of awesome lessons from being knock down. The first one is as you are on the ground seeing stars, identify what you did wrong so when you get back up you don’t get knocked back down. Once you are up and walking it off, this is when you are learning new traits that will make you better and not fall for what knocked you down to begin with, then you rub dirty on it which is to always remember what it felt like to be knocked down and the pros and cons that came out of that blow. Improve but don’t forget the emotions and feelings as you laid on the ground initially when you got knocked down.
QUESTION: We understand you and Steve (BeyondTheTrades founder) have discussed ideas to help veterans, what can your picture five years from now this looking like?
MICKEY: I want to see a self-sustaining organization that is ran off off values teaching veterans and people to trade for base hits not home runs. Although homeruns make life easy to get freedom from debt it is more realistic to lose more money. I don’t know how to do what I am trying to do or where to begin. I am just trying to figure how to trade or get a job outside the Army myself. I am in dream phase. I will be the best return on interest Steve, JJ, and Ray ever had in a student.
QUESTION: If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be?
MICKEY: Embrace the suck, invite it in for tea, become friends with the suck because at the end of the day it will buff out in one way or another, it always does.
QUESTION: Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media. And is there anything else you like for our readers to know about you?
MICKEY: Sure find me on linkedin at Matthew Mickey I am the handsome one according to my daughter. If you guys have any ideas how to find a 40 year old man his grown up job
NOTE – We apologize for some formatting errors that may be appearing in this interview – technical difficulties
QUESTION – Thank you for taking the time to participate in the Q & A session. Would you like to share with everyone who you are, your background and why you have the title, “most photographed person on Wall Street”?
Hi guys thank you for the opportunity to share my story. My name is Peter Tuchman and I am a trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. I’m commonly known as the Einstein of Wall Street and or the most photographed man on Wall Street. I enjoy my titles. I’ve used my notoriety and fame to create a brand to promote, inspire, and motivate young people to get involved in finance, trading, and Wall Street
Wallstreet and Trading are my passion. Education and motivation are my mission. I’ve been down on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange since 1985. After a wonderful childhood growing up in New York City, I spent my formative years studying agriculture, finance, marketing, and business. They led me to numerous endeavors in the entrepreneur world–record store owner, music and artist management, owning record label Krona records. I spent a while trading commodities in early 1980’s as well.
I went on to work in west Africa for a Norwegian oil company (Saga Petroleum) doing accounting for a year before coming back to New York 1985. I started my career at Cowen and Company on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as a Teletypist and over the next 2 1/2 years went on to become a broker….the top of the world.
While I’ve worked for a number of firms over the years trading, equities, convertible arbitrage, and the S&P 500, I’ve maintained a presence on the floor for the last 35 years as a broker. The title of the Most Photographed Person on Wall Street was given to me many years ago in an article done by BuzzFeed as the 2007 financial crisis hit the stock market and the New York Stock Exchange; The presence of the media on the floor had become a daily event and my boisterous, wild, Einstein, adrenaline filled personality became a magnet for a lot of the media photographs. Over the last 14 years my face and emotional expressions have been noted on front pages on magazines, on television interviews, and billboards throughout the world –thus, the title.
For me I love the attention, I love the forum, I love the platform, I love the brand, I love the opportunity to use my title, my face, my emotionality, and my name to inspire others to get interested in the world to finance and Wall Street.
QUESTION - We understand you are very active to this day in teaching the younger generation on the positive and negatives of investing and trading. Care to elaborate for our readers?
Over the last year we’ve seen an incredible movement towards the democratization of trading and investing throughout the world partly due to the pandemic, partly the new trading apps, partly the barriers to entry coming down of underserved peoples getting access to trading the markets–all of which are great things in my opinion. We have also seen the crossroads of wild volatile markets and social media butting heads over the last year –not necessarily a good thing. The jury is still out on that. So where does this leave us ??? The analogy I like to use is if I wanted to become a pilot and fly planes across oceans, I wouldn’t just ask the airport to give me a set of keys and just hop in the cockpit and fly. I also would not just read a book about flying and then hop in the cockpit and fly. I would do whatever necessary to learn the game because it’s a life and death experience. I would want to study, take courses, hire a teacher, get flying hours, and copilot a plane long before I would ever get in the driver seat and fly a plane alone across the Atlantic Ocean. So while money and trading are not life and death experiences they do affect our standard of living and our future. If done correctly and or incorrectly the results are quite different. Therefore, I’ve taken it upon myself as one of my most recent missions to try and address the platform of education when it comes to this new generation of millions of new traders and investors in the marketplace…. www.wallstreetglobaltradingacademy.com. Wallstreet “ stock market” 2020 and 2021 are a brand new breed of markets. We are in the midst of a perfect storm. A failing economy, a very volatile stock market, a new generation of traders, social media, fundamental analysis, technical analysis, and the thought that Wall Street is a get rich quick scheme, people without an education in trading getting involved slinging around dollars and losing millions are all pieces of a dangerous puzzle when happening at the same time. Granted some people are making $ as well, but not for the most part. We just don’t hear about them !!!! However, where we are historically, economically, and financially in the market, we find that the only defense against a volatile market, in my opinion, is in fact “technical analysis.” A lot of the old rules, standards, and practices for trading and investing can be thrown out the door.
Yes , we are hearing about some crypto millionaires, some game stop and reddit millionaires, but we’re not hearing about the thousands and thousands of small accounts that got blown up because people think, “ hope and wishing” are a strategy of trading, and that following the social media mob is a strategy of trading, but they are NOT !!!!! You may win once, you make win twice, but eventually without the tools of technical analysis your account will be blown up, guaranteed.
So as someone who’s mission in life is to get people to love trading and investing, to love finance, marketing and branding, to get people who are consumers to get excited about the stock market, my biggest fear would be that someone finally when the barriers of entry are gone and they get involved in the market and have a couple of good days trading suddenly lose it all. That’s my biggest fear and there is a solution to this problem and it is “education “ www.wallstreetglobaltradingacademy.com
My path has introduced me to incredibly bright, smart people, educators, investors, hedge fund managers, and media marvels. And along the way, 35 years ago I met a man named David Green. He was first the clerk, then a market maker for Goldman Sachs, and then went on to make it his mission to educate people on day trading and technical analysis. Not everyone can be a good teacher, not everyone can be selfless enough to make it their life’s mission to help people understand markets, understand trading, and understand technical analysis. Mr. Green has been that person. As recently as two months ago, I partnered with Mr. Green as the host and moderator in chief of the Wall Street Global Trading Academy www.wallstreetglobaltradingacademy.com, an online day training seminar on technical analysis– seven sections 21 videos from A-to-Z day trading 101–“language of the stock market”, “risk and money management”, “chart set ups”, and “technical analysis trades”. We also offer fun, interactive banter and tales of Wall Street all wrapped up in a beautiful package. Technical analysis is the only defense against wild, volatile markets. Our hope is that people before they open up and start trading this market, which we call “new rules 2021” with percentage moves up and down of 10% on a moment to moment basis, where fortunes can be made and fortunes can be lost instantly at the drop of a hat without having the tools to know what to do, will see the course we offer online. We do live trading videos, we do Q&A‘s every Thursday for those who buy the course. We’ve made it our mission to try and help educate this new generation of traders, to learn technical analysis, which we feel is imperative in order to trade this market.
The opportunities that are out there now are generational. With the volatility in the movement of this market, as we see it, to trade without these tools, it is a “field full of landmines”. With technical analysis, we are offering the probability of winning more times than loosing and finding some financial independence and enjoying it along the way. The course is available online and we are available as mentors. We’re excited to help educate the new generation of traders out in the marketplace.
QUESTION - Tell us the main differences and similarities you see between "old school Wall Street" and the current "new school Wall Street".
I’ve kind of addressed this question a little bit in the differences and similarities between Old Wall Street and New wall Street in the question above but I will go over it. While markets often trade predictively due to historical data, in my opinion, the playing field has changed a lot over the last couple of years, particularly during the pandemic. The democratization and the barriers to entry to a large generation of new investors have changed the flora of the market. The health crisis, the global magnitude of the crisis, and social media’s involvement in the marketplace all have changed the flora Of this ocean. It has changed the way we do business, it has changed the nature of finance, investing, trading, and analyzing fundamentals. Everything has changed. I won’t say for the better or the worse, but I will say it’s opened incredible new doors for millions of new people to trade and invest in the market. It has made the volatility, something that I believe will be here to stay. The generational moves in stocks that we’re seeing now are incredible opportunities to make money and to lose money. All the more reason to promote education as the best defense against this new storm.
QUESTION- What personal or professional failure/setback have you experienced in your life that has set you up for this success?
After pondering my 35-year career on Wall Street and a wonderful childhood with the normal trials and tribulations of growing up, I ended up circling back to the last year of my life. On March 17, 2020, I contracted Covid, tested positive on 23 March and proceeded to be incredibly sick for the next four months with acute fevers and the illness basically ravaged my whole spiritual and physical being.... lung damage,
Meningitis, and brain swelling. To be perfectly honest they were not sure whether I was going to survive. I was home alone in quarantine for 3 months before I finally tested negative for Covid and positive for antibodies. Well I was hoping at this point that I would get my life back, that turned out not to be my destiny. In July I started suffering from insane headaches, neuropathy throughout my body, brain fog with unbearable neck pain and loss of use of my left arm. After multiple MRIs it turned out that my cervical spine had collapsed due to dehydration of the disks from Covid and it was necessary for me do you have a four level fusion of my cervical spine.
I’ve been in the neck brace for more than six months and I am now suffering from acute long term Covid symptoms that are too long to describe. I say all this to say that my physical, spiritual, and emotional being has been rocked into the fourth dimension by this ruthless, deadly virus that has changed the course of my life for the last year and probably will for the rest of my life. While throughout this illness I’ve had incredible support from my family and friends, from social media, and people at work the isolation the trauma, the pain, the uncertainty and the outlook on the future have really tested my resilience as a human being and my spirit. There is no playbook for this virus and for me personally there’s no playbook for these challenges. I’m still deep in it, I’m suffering on a daily basis, and while I get up, I get dressed and I go to work, fatigue ravages my body and pain persists on a daily basis. What does one do when this happens? What does one do when doctors do not know how to help you with your complaints? What does one do when your spirit is broken, your body is in pain, your mind plays tricks on you and the future is uncertain? At numerous times throughout this year I found myself in a state of deep trauma and in a spiritual conundrum. I have a beautiful family, a wife and two children, and an amazing job. I have a great career, lots of friends and a year ago was on the top of the world, and a level of success in my career that I could never have imagined. Now a year later while I am suffering through all of these challenges when there are days where my get up and go has got up and left, I reflect on the last year and the resilience of the human spirit. I reflect on the challenges that I’ve overcome to be sitting here today on April 3, 2021 once again at the top of my career, closer than ever with my family and friends, and spending my life trying to motivate and inspire others to find something they love to do. How did I get here? How did I navigate through all the darkness? My parents were eastern European Jews who spent four years in concentration camps in Germany after having their families decimated by the Nazis. They spent four years starved, beaten, freezing cold and uncertain when and what day they would die. They shared their experience with me regularly throughout my life so that I would understand the resilience of the human spirit and what it takes to survive this life when it throws unimaginable challenges at you. I drew from their pain, I drew from their experience, I drew from the resilience of their human spirit, of their desire to survive as I navigated my way on a daily basis through the past year of my life.
They are no longer here with me but they lived beautiful long lives into their late 90s. What they taught me was perseverance, inner strength, spirituality, downright stubbornness, and that survival was the best revenge against any challenge that we sustain as humans. I was forced to confront what is really important—the things I need to live and go forward with, things I want, what things I can’t live without, and what is meaningful in my life. When one is confronted by a physical and spiritual bottom, two scenarios happen, either the bottom falls out of the bottom or one harnesses their deep inner strength and starts climbing out of the darkness and into the light. They climb out with a zest for life, and with the grace of God and every ounce and iota of power they have in their physical body and spiritual body with a will to survive. It’s happened since the beginning of time and my trials and tribulations don’t compare to those of my parents, though for me they were deeply traumatic. But the bigger picture is we are all a product of our past. My parents’ journey and the fact that they shared it with me on a very personal level helped me in so many ways to harness the deep pain and challenges, and turn them into opportunities to be of service and help others. And that’s where I am today with smile in my heart, a hop in my step, and, no matter what. grateful to be alive.
QUESTION: This is becoming a favorite question for many - plus readers get some good gift ideas from it. What purchase of less than $100 have you made in the past year that you simple could not live without now?
So what purchase of less than $100 have I made in the past year that I could not live without??? I’m a foodie, I love to eat and I love to cook. I used to be in the food business, so I love new products that are exciting and different. Janiebakes.com
JannieBakes is a new company that makes piecrust cookies….chocolate, pecan, triple berry…they are like “heaven in a cookie”. The dough is flaky and delicious, the insides are just spectacular, and the different variety of flavors are wonderful. You can heat them up and have them as ice cream or you can just eat them as a cookie. They are delicious!! Janie is a friend of mine. She is a wonderful young entrepreneur who is taking her business to the next level. She will be soon opening up a brick and mortar in New York City on the Upper West Side
They make great gifts and they are available online. Everyone, I guarantee you, will go crazy for them.
Next up OliveOiljones.com
Steve Jenkins well known cheese monger.
Former partner at Fairway recently opened up a Artisanal olive oil and vinegar company. They have vintage olive oils from around the world with “choice” vinegars as well as some other beautiful products that make great gifts with great flavor. I use them every day. Who doesn’t like amazing olive oils, great vinegars, and fun gourmet foods. It’s a must for every kitchen and every cook… great gift.
QUESTION - If you could choose three dinner guests dead or alive, who would they be and why?
Choose three dinner guests alive or dead who you would like to dine with….. Great question and after much pondering I came up with three that I think would be exciting.
First of all Alexander Hamilton the founder of our banking system has an extraordinary bright personality, is a big thinker, workaholic, and an adrenaline junkie. He is a great writer, great orator, fighter, and businessman man on a mission. I love history and obviously his history and mine up to a certain extent, so that would be fun for me. These are all qualities which I respect.
Next up Sean Connery — James Bond … Bond , James Bond In my opinion the coolest guy ever. I always wanted to be a secret agent. My uncle was a spy during World War II and I always kind of was intrigued by the job. As you will see if you ever Google me, I’ve met tons of celebrities and wonderful people in my world on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and for me the coolest of all was Sean Connery. In person, he was a humble, sweet, awesome guy. James bond himself was the ultimate of cool. I love the way he dressed, the way he spoke, the way he acted, he was the king of cool.
Next up, Shaquille O’Neal. Once again someone who I’ve met. If you Google “Shaq kisses tiny trader” you’ll see a great video of him and I. He is an incredibly, humble, nice man, super bright but for me his expertise as a branding and marketing gangster is what intrigues me the most. He’s taking his talents, his name, his face to a whole new level in the branding and marketing advertising world. Once again qualities which I respect and aspire to.
Now if you could imagine the dining room table with Alexander Hamilton, Sean Connery, Shaquille O’Neal and I, that would be a heck of a dinner!
QUESTION - What are some of your hobbies? How do you escape from the real world during these crazy times with Covid the past year?
What are my hobbies and how did I escape from the madness of covid over the last year??? I would say it in three easy words…it would be ART, MUSIC, and FOOD. Those are my three go to’s for relaxation. I can sit in my home or drive in my car and listen to soul music, R&B, opera, classical music, and jazz all day long, super loud, scream and yell and dance around makes me happy. I love art. I love street art. I love collectible toys I follow and mentor a lot of young artists through Instagram and other platforms. Art makes me smile, colors make me happy, and creativity is a great inspiration for me. I’m actually coming out with a collectible toy of my Einstein of Wall Street character and that makes me happy.
And finally, FOOD. I love food even though I must say that for the last year during Covid I have lost my taste buds but it still has not squashed my love for cooking and cooking for others, which makes me happy. I’ve studied cooking and have been cooking since I was a young guy. It’s a wonderful family activity, though I prefer to cook by myself, for others. In the 80’s, I created a hot sauce named Johnny Wishbone Secret Sauce. It was a super fun condiment to help as a cooking aid. I love flavors, I love different textures in food, and I love plating beautiful well-made dinners. These are things that occupy my mind, they relax me and make me happy.
QUESTION – Do you have any mentors now or when you first got started in your career?
To be honest, mentors in my field of work not so much, but mentors in my life I would say are my parents.
My parents grew up in Eastern Europe. They were incarcerated in concentration camps during the war. They spent four years in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen and lost a majority of their family to the Nazi occupation. They fell in love in a displaced person camp after the war. They married and came to America and found their dream and followed their dream. They were inspirational, they had great humanity, their characters were impeccable, they were kind, they were loving, and they were empowering. Having experienced what they had, the total in humanity and to have survived it and to have come out of it not angry or bitter but kind, loving, and empowering for me has been my greatest inspiration.
Anger resentment and bitterness are not constructive qualities for a productive life. Looking and living while you stare into the rearview mirror, nah…it’s not the best way to drive down the highway or live your life. Being positive, carrying an inspirational message, always coming from a loving place, finding kindness in your heart, being a survivor, persevering, following your dream are the mentorship qualities I got from my parents and that have carried me through my journey. They lived to be late into their 90s, their love affair never ended, they were married for 66 years, and they were happy, joyous, and free. That’s how I live my life!!
QUESTION - We understand you know someone we interviewed last year, "The VOZ".. Care to share any funny moments with her from the floor of the stock exchange?
Do I care to share any funny moments about “the Voz” If I share any funny moments about “the Voz”, I’ll just have to kill you…. let’s leave it at that. The Voz is da best. We’ve known each other for many years. We had a wonderful weekly show called Wall Street Wisdom that we did from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She’s fun, she’s bright, she’s boisterous, she’s shattered the ceiling on women in finance and media and she’s a good person.
QUESTION - If you could have a big billboard with your favorite saying or message on it, what would it be?
The billboard…I love it!!
“If you find something you love to do, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
It’s my motto.
And
“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”
And finally, something which is important to me, which you could kind of just put on my grave stone, “He who dies having affected the most people in a positive way is the winner!!!”…”Toys don’t mean shit”
They are not my sayings…they’re just great sayings and I live my life that way.
QUESTION- Thank you for taking the time for this interview. How can our readers contact you, including on social media. And is there anything else you like for our readers to know about you?
Thanks for the opportunity to share with you guys. What a wonderful interview. Again, thank you.
Beyond The Trades 