ABOUT US

On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average cratered by 23 percent, its biggest one-day decline ever. Stocks were plunging so quickly that NASDAQ market makers—the middlemen who grease the markets’ wheels—stopped picking up the phone. Retail investors who wanted to salvage their portfolios were left out in the cold.

In response, Nasdaq tweaked an existing system that would automatically give retail investors preference in the trading queue. It made it mandatory for market makers to instantly execute trades of 1,000 shares or less by retail investors in its Small Order Execution System, or SOES. Market makers and institutional investors, who usually traded in much bigger chunks of stock, had to wait in line behind the SOES traders.

A small coterie of savvy investors smelled an opportunity. Since the SOES trades were automated, meaning they received almost instant execution, and were given priority ahead of the rest of the market, a fast-moving trader could move in and out of stocks using SOES at a far-more rapid clip than large investors, generating big profits.

Perhaps the most famous of these traders was Harvey Houtkin, who ran a tiny investing outfit called All-Tech Direct. In the 1990s, Houtkin, started to spread the gospel of SOES trading, writing and publishing the “Secrets of the SOES Bandit”, and conducting clinics for would-be bandits around the country.

Oblivious to the evolution of these dynamics taking place, and near the same time, I began my 30+ year career in the markets as a boiler room broker in 1991. I spent the early years bouncing from one shady firm to another recommending with enthusiasm and sales scripts whatever my firm suggested. Unbeknown to me, these were crap stocks, no research/analysis was available, volume was spotty at best and spreads one could drive a car through. No sooner than I would start at a firm, regulators would shut it down.

I smartened up (or thought I had) and escaped the boiler rooms to Raymond James in 1996, it felt great to be recommending “real” stocks to my clients. They had “real” research reports from a huge reputable firm with some of the “top” analysts on Wall St. By 1997 E-trade was sending my clients free f-n boxer shorts and recommending people to “trade in their underpants” for $9.95. I’d be recommending a stock to client and kept hearing “I’ll buy 500 shares but the other 2000 shares in my new Ameritrade account”, or “I just got my boxers”. It was maddening, I felt like a guy throwing tips and getting a vig, not a broker earning a commission.

Frustrated and angry, I had decided to leave the retail world. However, my passion for knowledge and beating these players in market system had intensified incredibly. Day Trading was at this time evolving because of these online players. Individuals of all types (investors and active traders) were going online. Some companies were recruiting for positions on their proprietary trading desks (similar to hedge fund).

They would offer training, and then if qualified a position trading the firm’s capital. I decided to take this path and began to search for these companies. I landed on a trading desk for All-Tech Direct, owned and operated by Harvey Houtkin. Under his tutelage, often sitting side by side with him through market hours, I gained knowledge of the market systems, the market makers, the analysts and the other “players in the game”. I had become one of small group of individuals the industry referred to as “SOES Bandits,”

Hungry for knowledge, and a quick learner, I was positioned as a lead instructor for the software and execution platforms used for direct access trading. I had worked with a few dozen traders over the summer of 99’ sending them off to trade from their home, but many opted to trade in or satellite office throughout the country. There would rent a desk, with computer setups, T-1 data lines (remember this is 25 years ago, broadband wasn’t what it is now).

Then CNBC live interviewed Houtkin, me and few others as tragedy struck. Mark Barton, a trader I had befriended, trained, and worked with, apparently lost all his money, snapped, killed his wife and children, 5 traders in my Atlanta office, proceeded across the street to kill 4 at Momentum Securities (another day trading firm), and left thirteen others injured. In retrospect, it was one of the first mass shooting incidents in the country. I was nothing less than mortified. Marie Bartiromo put that microphone in my face live that morning, and informed me in vivid detail, the event that took place. I listened in utter shock, disbelief, and bewilderment. Then, after a full narrative, I was asked only one question, a question that forever changed my life and mission: “WHAT DID YOU TEACH HIM”?

Intimate with the feelings and effect it had on the handful of us that were part of Houtkin’s inner circle, those on the frontline at All Tech then. I would not dare to expand on the devastating emotional impact Houtkin and the other few suffered. My psychological scar was permanent.

We were giving traders the newest, state of the art, direct access execution systems (DAT). I thoroughly trained individuals how to use these systems for order entry. How to use: SOES, SELECTNET, SELECTNET “PREFERENCE”, INSTINET (INCA), ISLAND (ISLD), REDI BOOK (REDI), ARCHIPELIAGO (ARCA), posting trades with ECNs, and much more. These systems enabled instant execution of orders, bypassing the order flow schematic that virtually all online and retail brokerages endorse. Our platform, the ATTAIN system, with our ECN ATTAIN (ATTN) , was incredibly powerful and offered near instant executions, ability to choose any ECN when placing your trade, and ability to choose, or direct your order to a market maker or other ECN.

We were giving would be traders a loaded weapon, a system that could execute a watchlist of 10 stocks, each at the trader’s defaulted quantity. One simple hot key, our “Sweep the Street” function, and within 5 seconds or less, all 10 trades will be placed, executed, and confirmed. I was teaching a weeklong class on how to execute orders, how to use ECNs, which ones and when, how to take spreads from the market makers, at speed of light.

It was only a few days later that it dawned on me. It hit me hard. I felt sick to my stomach. I was giving these people this weapon, I trained them well on how to use it; how to load it, aim it, and fire it. What I hadn’t considered at the time was that most, just as currently, had no idea what to shoot at (underlying security), when to hunt (timing/charting/ techs). Simultaneously, retail investors were all going online with their investments and trades, and I couldn’t blame them. Their brokers, have no idea what they are doing. They read off a research reports that one of their firms top analysts put out and earn high commissions whether you win or lose. The reality is that these “million-dollar analysts” have no clue either. More on that another time.

I stayed at All Tech sponging as much knowledge as possible for another year or so. However, in my free time. I had already begun to design instructional program. Classes, workshops, and seminars for would-be traders and investors that were serious about their financial independence. Programs for Individuals that were smart enough to realize that without investing time and money on an education

and training, failure was inevitable. I resigned from all Tech and immediately launched a school offering various classes and workshops based upon individual’s objectives. It has since been a life-long mission to give individuals the tools needed to remain successful in all market conditions. The events on September 11, 2001 led to the closing of physical school, yet the mentorship and instruction privately has never ceased.

Recently, I started to interact with social media and “stock chat” boards, seeking trader comradery and I got that sick feeling again. So many simply don’t understand the market, its dynamics, the trades they’re making and why. Additionally, unlike 20+ years ago, there appears a massive number of coaches, mentors, academies, courses, reports and strategy offerings. Most of these I’ve seem offer regurgitated information and market data immediately wanting subscriptions annual fees. It was time to re-establish the Dojo. I was there when the online brokerages began. I was mentored and worked for the founder of it all, I have traded daily for 20+ years. I dedicate myself, from the moment I wake, to pursue perfection in my craft.

I AM A TRADER, I AM A WARRIOR, A SAMURAI...I AM A SENSEI (One who has lost more times than most have ever fought!)