I started my career at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) as a runner with Goldberg Brothers taking option orders on stocks to the various brokers in the pits and when executed would be sent to pick them up. When hired I was told that only 1 out of 10 of us would make it a full month, and I lasted twenty years. From there I graduated to buying and selling stocks for traders in those pits as they hedged their options positions.

About a year and a half into this crazy world the powers that be thought I may be a good fit in a new role working in the ivy tower helping with a relatively new strategy in trading called Risk Arbitrage. I would participate in selling or buying baskets of stock that could be valued as high as $15,000,000.00 each, and we could do it in minutes and seconds.

We then had a person who would execute (trade) futures against the stock position (if buying stocks, then selling futures and vice versa) that was chosen and locked in the difference in pricing. This was primarily dealing with the Fortune 500 stocks versus the S&P 500 futures, but there were other options we used occasionally. I also was sent to a lunch with Prudential Bache one day to sign the largest stock loan contract of its day for $100 million dollars (it was ceremony in nature, but I was in my mid-twenties and wondering why me?). While I met my wife in this office I longed to get back to the action of the pits. You either love it or hate it, and you’ll know quickly. So, I headed over to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and got a job at a desk with a well known company called Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. in the Eurodollar pit (interest rate futures).

Later I switched sides and moved into the pit as a clerk involved with what was known as spreads (buy one contract while selling another at the same time. It could involve many strategies for spreading that may include several futures all at once). After about 3-4 years computer trading had finally made it to the US and what a splash this made. I was chosen from my group to be the first person in the US to execute pit trading and computer trading side by side at the same time. I had 27 people from all around the pit screaming in one ear piece, with the other ear piece having only one, but it was for the biggest trader taking out whole bids or offers at once on the computer.

I was also executing trades for people around me and the ones who called on one of the six phones I had at the desk. Oh, and the 1500 people in front of me all screaming and watching me. I had twenty plus year veteran traders/brokers come out to shake my hand at what had been accomplished that day.

That was no easy thing to shake my hand as my whole body was in complete convulsion. I’d been involved in some pretty scary situations in my days there, like everyone else who spent time in a pit, but this was way beyond anything I (or anyone at the time) had ever experienced. God, I miss those days!

So, when your world gets taken over by technology where does one go with skills of biting, spitting, stabbing, punching, kicking, and screaming? Certainly not the corporate world, or so I thought. While trying to start my own business I finally landed at Chase Bank in Milwaukee processing loan modifications, and that was depressing as very few were ever accepted. And after a year there I moved back to Illinois with Bank of America processing and underwriting loans for residential deals. I lasted three years there and quit. My boss asked why I quit, as I was a top producer, and I stated that I can’t do stupid anymore. I was just not corporate material and headed back to what I knew best, the financial world of investing. I became a financial advisor and got all licensed up, working for various companies, and thinking how my past experience would help me get a step ahead of the competition.

What I learned was that most people didn’t understand much of what I was advising when helping develop portfolios for individuals and families. It was very frustrating in that I knew I could do great things to help people, but they just couldn’t understand the intricacies of how money worked. So, I left that world with a desire to teach financial literacy and started a radio show that included how to build a business from concept to success. So many people were leaving their jobs in the corporate world to start out on their own with no idea of what they were getting into. After four years I decided to pivot and start a new podcast to go with some public speaking primarily on financial literacy, and in turn, started writing this book.

While my background may suggest I have a great deal of financial experience at very high levels, I assure you there are many who know much more than I do. And I was called to provide basic knowledge to those that know little about how money is controlling them by showing these great people how they themselves can take back that control with a little effort and desire to live a better life. This book is for those who wish to stop letting money stress them out the rest of their lives. I hope and pray it helps…