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The up coming month marks the 27th
year of my life in the United
States. I arrived at Los Angeles International
Airport on March 6th,
1980 after staying in Hongkong for a little more than 9 months.
I considered myself a lucky young man when I was
admitted to the United States
under the Southeast Asia Refugee Program
in the 80’s. I have long been
dreaming of coming here and I got my dream realized. I was an excited young man and I
determined to make the most of what this country has to offer.
Like most other refugees, one of my first stops
was a visit to the Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) to apply
for welfare benefit. I remembered
my case worker sent me to the Employment Development Department (EDD) to
apply for a job first before he could process my welfare
application. When I had an
interview with the EDD worker, she was surprised at my English speaking
ability. To me, it was a bad sign
because if she knew I could speak relatively good English, she could
easily send me to work instead of approving my welfare application. To my surprise, she told me I could get
my welfare benefit and continue to go to school. Thanks to her generosity, I was able to
continue my education and set a stepping stone for my next leap to a
higher goal.
I spent 4 years at UCLA for my B.S. degree in Math System Science. My original major was computer
science. However, after taking one
computer programming course, I realized computer programming was not for
me. Back in the early 80’s, Pascal
was one of the popular computer programming languages. If we recall, computer was at an early
stage in the early 80’s. PCs were
not popular back then, not to mention they were very expensive. We had to stay in line all night for
about one to two hours in the computer lab typing our program. Doing computer programming requires
incredible detailing skills. One
comma or quotation in a wrong place and we will end up with syntax
error. For a computer program with
several hundred lines, it was not easy to detect the error. I was thinking if I had to do this task
for a living, I could easily get a “brain cancer”. Some of my friends did not agree with
me though. Not surprisingly, most
of them are computer programmers now.
I decided to change my major to Math System Science which was a
major encompassing math and engineering courses.
After my graduation, I actively sought a job in
both engineering and financial field.
I got a job as an appraisal trainee at a Chinese bank. My boss told me I was over qualified
for the job and he was glad I didn’t mind to take it. The reason he hired me was because of
my math background. He also liked
the fact that I could speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Vietnamese
which will provide better services to the bank customers. I took the appraisal job because it
involved math and photography which I loved to do. One more advantage of the job was
working on the field which, in my opinion, would make my work day
shorter.
After working for the bank for several years, I
found out the bank was in the process of changing ownership and operating
structures. I gradually felt my
job was not fun any more with strict regulations and unnecessary
pressure. I began to look for a
way out.
I have long admired the job of my
brother-in-law. He was a stock
trader in Taiwan and
he continued his job after immigrating to the United States. He looks so relaxed and has such
flexible working hours. I told
myself I would be like him one day.
I made my first trade in the stock market in mid 90’s. Lucky for me, I was in the market at
the right time during the “golden era”.
I was excited and flying high in those golden years. Regardless of the trading style, most
stock traders should make money in the 90’s.
The reality hit me in March of 2000, shortly
after the NASDAQ hit
its all time high and the market began its down trend. I realized my mainly buy and hold blue
chip stocks trading style didn’t work well in the new market
environment. I need to educate
myself and develop a new trading style.
I traded conservatively while I was looking for an investment
education company. I found one
company in 2005 and spent almost the entire year of 2005 to learn how to
actively trade stock and option.
That year marked a major turning point of my trading style.
I used to be one-dimension trader making money
only in an up market. However,
with my new trading style, I learn how to alter my trades so it is
possible, though not always, for me to make money in all 3 market
conditions: up, down or sideway. I
used to be a stock trader. Now I
am mainly an option trader. My
favorite strategies in an up market are selling naked put and trading
diagonal bull call debit spread. I
sell covered calls against the stocks I own in a sideway market. I sell short call or trade bear call
credit spread in a down market.
My trading style does not give me “home run”
very often but it makes consistent profit in most of my trades. Consistency and discipline are my main
trading philosophy. I attended an
investor conference in Las Vegas
in early March 2006. The event was
organized by my investment education company. During the conference, I found out some
of the traders were still struggling mainly because they shot for the
“home run” and wanted to get rich overnight. They let their emotion take over their
discipline and let their fear & greed trigger their decisions. I, however, had a chance to chat with a
former engineer from MCI who had become a full time trader 2 months
earlier. We talked briefly during
our walk from the elevator to the conference room and found out we were
mainly spread traders for consistent income. We all didn’t believe in a magical
formula for consistent “home run”.
Common sense tells us if there is such a “formula”, everyone
should be trading stock right now and no one would be willing to work for
the 9 to 5 jobs. We have to
develop our own trading style based on our trading philosophy, capital
and risk tolerance.
With my trading style established, I now spend
less time doing my homework nightly before the market opens the following
day. I now have a set of stocks
which I trade regularly. By
trading them regularly, I pretty much recognize their price movement and
make my trades accordingly. I have
so much fun trading that I now have fun 5 times a week from Monday to
Friday. I finally have a lifestyle
just like my brother-in-law with flexible hours for work and family.
I love my life in the United States, I like my
trading style and I certainly enjoy my current lifestyle.
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