Millionaire Tradersor three days. I decided that I wasn’t going to do anything until
the market went to unchanged or lower and a few minutes later
the market went to unchanged and I went hog wild and sold as
many futures or options or whatever I could do. Just a gasket went
off to get short where my risk was that if the market took out it’s
highs for the day, I would have lost 40 percent of my equity on the
last three days. So I put the trade on and about 30 or 45 minutes
after that, the market was down 6 percent and about two to three
days later, it was down another 4 or 5, or about 10 percent from
where I sold it. I made another killing, catching it up and down,
and I decided at that stage, a few days later, that I had just made a
killing and I was going to take the rest of the year off. Why should I
become a rat on a treadmill chasing the cheese in front of me until
I croak? I said to myself, go out, hit the clubs in New York City,
relax, enjoy yourself, become a playboy—why make more millions,
why? You don’t need them, so I decided alright, I’m getting off this
treadmill now and I wound down my positions and, in about March
or April of that year, I left the floor and pretty much never went
back.
Q: Was it an easy decision for you to just leave the markets?
How did you pull yourself away from making more money?
A: No! I never thought that I was leaving for long term. I thought
I was going to leave for about six to nine months, party in New
York City, go out to the clubs with my friends, call up my high
school friends, college friends, go skiing every weekend and come
back the next year. So, to me, it was just like taking a long break.
I thought I was the luckiest guy in the world. I could take a nine-
month vacation. I mean, who could do that? I was 29, 30 years
old, and I was just going to enjoy the nightlife in New York City
and maybe go on cruises and go to the beach and do whatever I
wanted for about a year and then I’d get serious again and work.
Well, after about three months of the so-called playboy lifestyle,
you find out your college buddies are all getting married, they all
have kids, they all can’t go out every night. They have to work