My mother passed in January of 1991 and left me about $100k.  She had
done well through the 80s investing in blue chip stocks and I knew of
her success.  Actually, noboby  in the family imagined she had amassed
a hidden fortune of about $650k even though we all knew she invested
in stocks while working at the phone company job she couldn’t stand to
be in.

When my grandfather passed in the mid 70s, he left me 500 bucks, which
my mother helped me to invest.  A number of shares of AT&T that began
to grow on her advice. I thought she had taught me something over the
years, so I could not begin to imagine that, when I told her, on her
deathbed, that I would do well with my inheritance, I did not have a
clue what I was talking about ;-).

I proudly opened a brokerage account with my new found fortune and
prepared to make it big!  Trading on full margin, using the infallible
principles of William O’Neil and his recommended 7% stops, I quickly
took that $100k down to around $30k.  Needless to say, I was
demoralized and also felt I had betrayed my own mother in my failure
(all this happened over only a few months time).  I felt bamboozeled!

I had two choices. One, I could fold and go back to my miserable life
licking my wounds, or, I could grab my own bootstraps and figure out
what on earth had just happened to me.  I grabbed my bootstraps, yes,
but I could not have ever imagined the incredible road it would take
me on.  An unforgettable journey of unconventional living…..

The first step in realizing you need to fix something, is in the
realization that you are the problem….

In my next post I will cover some of my background and how different
trading approaches have different statistics that impact your
personality and your ability to trade.