Millionaire TradersWe were delighted that he agreed to share his ideas with us
on his brief layover in New York as he was headed down to the
Caribbean for some fun in the sun.
Q: We are excited about having you participate in our interview
series because your story of success is particularly interesting. Let’s
start by talking about your background and how you got into finance
and trading.
A: My education in finance and trading began in my junior year at
New York University. We went on a class trip to the commodities
exchanges. I looked at the gold pits and the crude oil pits and I
thought to myself, “Wow, this is kind of where high finance meets
professional sports.” It looked like an exciting way to combine my
interest in finance and economics with something a little bit more
exciting. I saw some guys making a few thousand dollars in a few
minutes in the gold pit and then, maybe a half hour later, I saw a
similar episode in the crude oil pit.
Q: How long ago was that?
A: It was 1986.
Q: So why did you pick finance and economics as a major? Was
it something that your parents encouraged you to study?
A: No, actually, I loved finance since I was a little kid. I used
to ask my mom to get me two newspapers, one she didn’t have
a problem with and that wasNewsday,soIcouldreadhowthe
Yankees did, and the second one was the Wall Street Journal,
which she could not understand because nobody in my house was
involved in finance. So she used to get me theWall Street Journal
andNewsdayevery day from when I was about 10 or 11 years old,