Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes...

Those who have known me since I moved to California in 2001 know that I moved here to start a commercial real estate finance business with my partner Raymond. It started slow, then took off then got slow again, ramped up again and now it's dead. And I don't mean it's just bad I mean it's DEAD. Real estate is NOT where one should hang their hat these days and I unfortunately never left when things were good and so here I am on the Titanic with the band, praying for a life-raft.

After a year of making no money (hyperbole, this is not) and being frustrated, trapped in a business and career that has never fulfilled me in any way, I find myself looking in the mirror saying "what the f*ck are you still doing here?"

So, I quit.

Arcadia Capital, LLC is getting ready to close it's doors for good. Well, not totally closed for good...just closed to those who don't have the super secret password to get in, like great Clients I've made friends with over the last 8 years. But for all intents and purposes, my life as a commercial real estate broker is over.

So what am I gonna do? In the words of my Mother who told me many years ago "do what you love, the money will follow..." I've found what I love and have changed my scenery for good. I have made the decision to trade. "Daytrading" has such a shitty and negative stigma, so let's leave that moniker behind or at least for the people who think it's "cool" as it's anything but cool. More specifically, I trade equity index futures; the most liquid and actively traded markets on the planet. What does that mean? Well, it means that on any given day I capitalize on price movements in various indexes you see every day in the news: the DJIA, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100...basically, if it's an index that tracks a collection of stocks, I'm trading it. How do I trade these indicies? I buy or sell contracts worth the value of the index then sell them or buy them back as the price develops, preferably at a profit...a lot of small profits, actually. I may do this 3 times a day, I may do 30; I'm flexible like that.

Once I get proficient, I may start trading commodities like corn, gold, pork bellies or the venerable FCOJ (frozen concentrated orange juice). Sound familiar? Watch Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd; that's me.


Dan Akroyd and Bryan Mills in the hit film Trading Places

The lyrics to the title of this post (a fantastic song by Jimmy Buffett) have always been an inspiration my entire life: "yesterday's over my shoulder, so I can't look back for too long...there's just too much to see waiting in front of me and I know that I just cant go wrong..." Well, here I am with so much to see waiting to see in front of me and I know that I just can't go wrong. I'm super stoked to be a trader and welcome the challenges and hurdles in my path to success, and there are many. I get more energy and motivation from trading than any endeavor I've ever undertaken in my life and soon I'll be able to direct that energy and motivation into my trading efforts and get back what I put into it, and more. To say that trading is highly rewarding is a gross understatement, in the same way that saying Paris Hilton is sort of a money grubbing whore.

I'll tell you more later if you're not bored already.

Chow.