The News Junkieand that’s fine when I’m in a down streak. But when it’s time to
trade, I want to be there—to have real money in the market.
Q: Let’s talk about your results. You said you’ve done very well
in the markets, what was your return like in the currency market
and in the stock markets?
A: My stock account I did pretty well in. I was able to double it
in 2002. At that point I got a little more conservative, and then I
started dabbling in the currency markets. I felt like it had higher
leverage. There’s a higher amount of money to be made. So once I
learned a little bit about it, I put a couple thousand in the account,
started trading it, and didn’t take long to blow that one up. I did
it again, started trading it, just like I trade stocks, got it up from
$2,000 to maybe$7,000 and then blew that one out.
Q: I’m surprised you didn’t lose your confidence.
A: No [laughter], I knew I didn’t know what I was doing. So the
third time was the charm. I put in$10,000 this time and started
trading, actually drove it down to around$5,000 and then all of
a sudden I switched, things turned around, and I started having
successful trades. They would be small,$400 to$500, but they
would build. I would just check the statement at the end of the
month and realize, “Hey I made 70 percent. That’s pretty good.”
Just over the course of the year 2005, I went from$5,000 to over
$100,000. Well, the amazing part was I was sitting in an Internet
cafe in Thailand and I was trading. It was an NFP [nonfarm payroll] ́
day, I had like$60,000 in the account, I put$40,000 to work, the
trade went my way, and I realized when I closed out that day I
had a$100,000 in my account, and I thought, I’m on vacation. I’m
enjoying life. I just tipped everyone in the Internet cafe and bought ́
everyone drinks and it cost me$10. So I was very excited, but I
got a little scared once I had that amount of money in the account
because that was a lot for me at the time. I took some of it out and