As a stockbroker, I was with Shearson-Lehman Bros and Prudential Securities as well as a regional firm in Washington, D.C., (Ferris, Baker, Watts, Inc.).  I was also a registered investment advisor though I no longer give specific investment advice.  I day traded during 1996 and 1997 with a boutique operation in Baltimore, Md.  I have been coaching traders and want-to-be traders for seven years now. I have been in the financial services industry since 1975 starting with Prudential Insurance, as a financial planner with what is now Ameriprise Financial (back then it was IDS/American Express), and as a stockbroker since 1982.

It is a mistake to think that stockbrokers are naturally good traders by virtue of their profession. They are not.  While I played at trading and cursed the results, there was a broker in my office who did anything but get upset while he traded.  In fact, I noticed that he was having a good time during trading hours.  He knew something that I did not. 

Sensing my frustration, he approached me about showing me the "rules" of trading.  I put my ego aside and listened. His opening comment to me about trading was this, "You first must decide if you want to make money or if you want to be right."  My troubles, he said, stemmed from my insistence that I was 'right' and the market was 'wrong'.  I choose the 'make money route.  Though I did not refer to him as a coach at that time, that is exactly what he was doing– coaching.

     What can you expect from our time together?  There is no magic bullet for trading, sorry.  Traders all have a unique philosophical approach.  Generally, this philosophy has to change to accepting what the market gives the trader and not what the trader demands of the market.  For that matter, we all have a unique relationship to money.  You and I will determine that relationship first and further develop a game plan that will encompass your trading goals within your risk parameters.  You are here to learn and earn.  I am with you to see if you are applying what you have learned.  Learning is a process, a building block process.  It is during this process that you are going to make mistakes.  Good...that's what practice is for- to learn.