Community Magazine October 2009

It’s early Monday morning. One of the first things I do is check CNBC.com for the pre-market indicators of how the U.S. market is going to open, and immedi- ately I feel a warm rush. U.S. markets are indicating a strong open and there’s a big chance that the stock and option positions that I bought right before the market closed on Friday afternoon will make me a lot of money, more than most people make in six months. Unlike most people, I’m so excited it’s Monday and I can go back to work. I arrive at work at 8am. There are no manag- ers to answer to, and no clock to punch. I don’t produce anything and I don’t call anyone to sell anything. I don’t have a salary. My income is based on performance and there’s no limit to how much I can make. I turn on my computer, and with a couple of key- strokes I log in to cyberspace and start my stressful, exciting, but profitable job which I wouldn’t exchange for any other job in the world. Many people don’t understand what I do; some think it’s gambling, but I disagree. I’m a professional stock trader for my own com- pany, Star Alliance Capital Partners. I trade stocks and options daily, and I teach other people how to make money based on my 12 years of experience. With just a couple of keystrokes, I can buy stocks and options and then sell them several seconds later for a quick profit. I keep my position anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes. Three minutes is an eternity for me. I use different methods to pick the stocks, and depending on my time frame, I can make anywhere from a couple of hundred to several thousand dollars per day per position. It’s now 9:15am, and all the traders are in front of their computers monitoring the pre-market activity and discussing their trading plan. I brief the other traders on developing stories and give them a game plan. It’s 9:30am and the New York Stock Exchange bell is ringing; the market is officially open. Prices move up and down, and as the positions I bought on Friday afternoon keep going higher, I am well in profit. The phone rings. It’s my friend. He’s happy because he got in the same positions on Friday on my advice and is calling to thank me. But I quickly hang up the phone, since each minute in the morning is key to making profits. The market continues rising. It’s 9:50am. Based on my indicators, I feel the market has reached the point that I should get out, so I start to sell my positions, and in seconds I liquidate most of my profitable positions. I look at my screen. I’m up more than $23,000, and that profit is locked since I sold my positions. No matter where the market goes from here, no one can take that profit away from me. This is why I love this job. It’s 11:00am and I hold a training class for our 15 junior traders. I discuss their tactics and review their individual trades. Each one asks questions and we analyze their decisions. We talk about what they could have done to avoid a loss or to profit more. At 2:00pm I go back to my seat and look at my scanner, an application showing which stocks to trade based on predetermined criteria which I have programmed. After several minutes, I notice unusual activity on a stock; it’s making a new high. I look at the chart and I realize there were strong buyers throughout the day and now the stock is heading higher. I buy 500 shares of the stock to test the waters. The stock is moving higher and I see buyers stepping in. I add 4,500 shares, and now I have 5,000 shares. I don’t have a problem buying more shares because our broker-dealer allocates my company more than enough leverage to buy shares and positions in order to make a hefty profit in a few seconds. All of a sudden, the stocks start to push higher and I am selling into the strength. In less than 30 seconds, I purchased and sold 5,000 shares of the stock and I made more than $500 in profits. All throughout, I didn’t notice the day speeding by. It’s almost 4:00pm, and the Audio News announces 10 seconds until the market closes. The NYSE bell rings, the market shuts for the day, and I return home, having completed yet another profitable and exhilarating day of trading. A Day in the Life of a Private Stock Trader David Rakhsha 90 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE