Hello from the Upper Midwest...Introducing myself & my story

[Cloaked_Isotope]

As the snow starts to fly up here, I figured it was a good time to start participating on the Forum. I am not much of a story teller, nor do I like sharing about myself, but I suppose this is necessary step.

I grew up with that entrepreneurial itch. It all started in elementary school when I would make and sell finger snowboards out of paper and glue (think tech deck) for classroom money. Then I began trading other teachers' money for more rare teacher currency. By age 12, I opened a stock trading account in my mother's name and made a few pretty successful trades over the next few years.

Fast forward to High School. I hustled kids by selling memory cards for their phones convincing them they needed the highest capacity. I made money by taking up lunch trays. On a more serious note, I ran a successful eBay business out of my bedroom with boxes, shipping materials and inventory stacked to the ceiling. Anything to avoid the conventional retail job. Unfortunately, my margins were eventually squeezed too tight to make a profit.

I decided to get back into stock trading with the money I had made and began making money trading distressed mortgage insurers, Pharma companies with phase 3 testing failures, and companies on the brink of bankruptcy. This was 2007-2008.

Now for the grim part. I became overconfident in my trading abilities and convinced my parents to lend me a large sum of money to begin day-trading during the summer. Despite my success paper trading, one cannot know the emotions that come into play when dealing with real money-especially money that was not mine. I began to double down to make up losses and eventually went below the minimum threshold to day-trade. Got numerous warnings from my broker to stop trading, and my parents had no idea what the phone messages were about. I reassured them that everything was alright. Because I could no longer day-trade, I was stuck in a position with nearly all the capital I had left. I was convinced that come the company's next earnings release, I would make back everything I had lost. I was right. However, greed set in and I hung on for more gains. We are talking a lot of money for a high school student. Then, the catastrophic meltdown in October 2008. The company lost over 70% of its value in a couple weeks, yet I still held on out of fear, out of hope.

That sequence of events was the single most humbling experience of my life. Having to own up to my parents was soul crushing. Literally made me want to hibernate in my room all day, not sleep, and think about how much of a failure I was. It is notable that the sum I borrowed was a lot for my family. However, I had convinced them that their principal was safe, and I only needed it as collateral to day-trade with my own money. This was true right up until I began trading and realized the potential I had with 4x leverage. Effectively, I had lied, and this was what hurt most.

I eventually worked myself out of the funk equipped with the best learning opportunity money can buy (by losing it). I was able to attend a good college, graduate with a marketable degree, and am currently consulting in a large corporation making a good wage. I have nothing to complain about, but I know I will not be fulfilled and achieving my greatest potential without pursuing that entrepreneurial drive. I am too easily susceptible to the comfort I have because my appetite for risk scares me at times.

I am hoping to overcome that here, and provide value wherever I can. Thanks for listening, and my best to all!

 

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