Millionaire TradersIndex futures. The only other product available for trading besides
the stock index futures were gold futures. Unlike the wealth of
products available abroad such as oil, foreign exchange, merchan-
dise, and bonds, what I had to trade were Hang Sang and Gold,
both of which did not have very high volume. After the 1987 crash,
I wanted to trade something else, so in 1988 I started trading
currencies and later on I returned to trading stocks as well.
Q: What sparked your interest in trading? Was it something that
you learned in school?
A: Twenty years ago we did not have the opportunities that many
people do today in Hong Kong, so I only finished high school and
never had to opportunity to go to college or get a CFA or CMT
designation. The good thing was that this left most people on the
same playing field, with equal opportunities. Everyone started at
zero. Even if you did get the opportunity to go to college, although
there were economics classes, there were barely any classes that
talked about investments. When I started in the industry, I started
in the financial markets doing administrative work. I didn’t seek
out financial markets—but that came more by chance, and shortly
after I realized there were many opportunities in the financial
markets. That was when I changed my job and decided to become
an investment representative. I was a broker who specialized in
futures and then later on in currencies and stocks. Only after I
became a broker did I begin to trade for myself. That was not until
1988 because, unlike some people who enter the industry with a
pocketful of cash and are looking for investment opportunities, I
saved money first and then used a portion of that money to trade,
which is why I did not begin trading immediately. It took me two
years to save up the money to do so.
Q: Did you work a full time job while you were trading?
A: Yes, I did on the side. My primary job at the time was as a
broker and financial advisor.