Welcome everyone to the new ChartYourTrade.com! As you probably know by now, CYT is now part of the 50 Park family. I want to thank Michael Lamothe for all his hard-work and support over the years and I want to wish him the best of luck with his new venture: MaraWealth.com! Since I will be writing to you from now on- I want to take a few minutes to introduce myself and share my story with you:
My Mission & Story:
My mission is simple: Empower you to become a better investor. I do this by providing you with reports, information, tools and resources that I wish I had available when I began my journey decades ago. I’m a self-made/self taught student of markets that began with nothing and had to overcome just about every obstacle you can possibly think of to make it on Wall Street. I am driven by helping others. On a deeper level, I wish someone was there for me when I began my investment journey and could help mentor me, guide me, share their insight and experiences with me to accelerate my path to help me get to where I am today. Thankfully, I’ve been very blessed over the years and love to give back/help others and I’m here to help you. I really enjoy seeing things “click” for people and love to hear success stories and learn how members thrive. I have heard some really priceless heart-warming/life changing stories over the years and I look forward to hearing many more going forward.
Humble Beginnings:
I started my business in my dorm room in grad school and have made just about every investment mistake possible. I never worked at a big investment bank- instead have had just about everyone tell me “NO” in my early years. In an interesting twist of fate, years later, many of these same firms became clients and, like most things in life, the early obstacles, became blessings in disguise, made me stronger, and helped me grow.
My Biggest Strength: I Know I Don’t Know
What I love about this business is it’s a level playing and that anyone can play—and anyone can win. It all depends on your decisions and actions. Armed with that knowledge, I knew I didn’t know and that became my biggest strength. I was on a mission to learn. Nothing would stop me except myself. So I spent the next several years (close to a decade) reading everything I could get my hands on, attending seminars, and making every mistake under the sun. The first book I read was Peter Lynch’s famous: One Up On Wall Street and that basically said: Buy stocks that you know, buy what you love. Then, I read just about every other credible book about fundamental analysis under the sun. After that journey, I read Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, was introduced to technical analysis and dove in deep into that world.
Two Competing Schools of Thought:
What I quickly learned was that most people who subscribe to one school of thought dismiss or don’t like the other school of thought. Almost like two rival sports teams or two competing religions- it just didn’t make sense to me. There was good and bad in both.
My First “Real” Wall Street Job: CANSLIM.net
Then, in my early 20’s I came across William O’Neil’s CANSLIM investment system and loved that he combined the two schools of thought. I read all his books, took all his courses, met him, met his son and actually my first “real” job on Wall Street was working at the old site: CANSLIM.net. I met the founder of CANLSIM.net, Ken Gruneisen, and we clicked instantly. Until today, I have a lot of love for him because he is a great guy and was the first person to believe in me and give me a real shot to make my name on Wall Street. At the time, CANSLIM.net was the largest independent provider of CANSLIM research outside of Investors Business Daily. Kenny started the website in 1996 before anyone really new what was going on with the internet. To his credit, Kenny built a very substantial audience and did a great job providing people with tools and information they could use to find strong CANSLIM stocks.
Back To The Drawing Board:
Within no time, I started writing just about all the reports there, got several financial/investment licenses and was officially in business- managing money and writing research. Shortly after I joined, Kenny sold the site to Bill O’Neil. A few years later I left to focus on my business, and O’Neil eventually closed the site a decade or so after he bought it. Unbeknownst to me at the time, most people using CANSLIM were not beating the market and most were not making big money. Of course, we all heard the handful of “success” stories but I spent most of my 20’s traveling the country and deeply involved in that world — I literally could not find one person that could show me a REAL track record. All I could see was the AAII so-called returns of CANSLIM- which were outstanding on paper but could not be replicated in real-time. In theory it’s a great system, logically it makes a lot of sense but no one I personally knew consistently made money using it. Since then, countless mutual funds and financial “pros” tried and not one (that I know of) managed to produce similar results by strictly using that system. So, I left it and found myself back back at square one. Now what should I do?
Psychological Analysis:
After years of drinking the kool-aid, banging my head against the wall, and not taking money out of the market on a consistent basis (even though I managed a lot), I went back to the drawing board and unlearned everything I “learned.” Something didn’t make sense: How many times have you seen a great stock with strong “fundamentals” and strong “technicals” go straight down? Or vice versa, crummy fundamentals and crummy technicals go straight up? Something was missing and I was determined to figure it out. I flew to Washington D.C. and went to the Library of Congress. I spent quite a bit of time flying back and fourth reading old books that were not being published anymore (this is before the internet made everything so readily available). After reading countless books about the market from the early 1900’s and even some in the late 1800’s- the proverbial light bulb went off and I created the concept of psychological analysis for investing. It is a complex topic and I am actually in the process of publishing a book on the topic. Put simply: price is a function of perception. I also have a webinar about it I did with ChartYourTrade- watch it here a few years ago. The other big component is to remove your emotions from the decision making process. Please feel free to get in touch if you want to learn more – (Email: adam@chartyourtrade.com).
Introspection & Push Yourself Intellectually:
Most people are intellectually lazy. To succeed on Wall Street the key is to push yourself intellectually and overcome common mental walls that are preventing you from getting ahead. Another important component of Psychological Analysis is to look forward, not backward. Where do market participants perceive future value/growth to be? I realized, the only thing stopping me from getting ahead in the market (and in life) was myself. It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s not the market, it’s not any external factor, all that matters is what you do! Once again, another proverbial light bulb clicked, I identified and overcame another mental wall that was standing in my way, and all of a sudden things started to make sense. I could see the world differently. I realized that I had to do things differently in order to compete and win in this business. I revamped my entire approach. I went back and did my own analysis on what works and what doesn’t work on Wall Street. I developed early entry points, a strong emphasis on risk management and of course, psychological analysis. The next big “aha” moment came when I started to understand the power of introspection. We all hit mental walls- my job is to identify them, break them down, and keep pushing to get to the next level. Finally, things fell into place and I started consistently taking money out of the market.
Business Story: “Why Should I Invest With You? I Don’t Know You From Adam”
Now that you’ve read my personal journey, here is a little bit about my business. Early on, I thought I would get my big break. I had a meeting with a big investor at the Breakers in Palm Beach a few weeks after I started my business. He was worth $300 million liquid cash and I thought even if he just gave me a 10% allocation I would be set! Instead, I was in for a big surprise. I sat down this this guy and he ripped me to pieces. Looking back, I don’t know if he just had a bad day, lost a lot of money, or what. But he said, Why the BLANK should I invest with you? I don’t know you from Adam. I’ll spare you the details of the rest of the conversation but I’ll ask you to imagine what your younger self would do if you were in that situation in your early 20’s? Of course, I tried to zig and zag, I tried everything to save and close the sale but no luck- he got up and left. And after that proverbial smack in the face- I realized I have to learn how to overcome that objection and overcome it fast. Since I didn’t go to Harvard or Yale or work at a big investment bank- I decided to get in the media. I spent the next several years building strong relationships with the media and I have been on every major financial network and have had several really good public market calls. Then, Forbes asked me to become a contributor and I graciously agreed! Now, a few years later, I have over 2 million views a year on Forbes and when someone asks me that question- I just say, “Google me.” They see everything I have accomplished over the years and it doesn’t hurt for them to search my name on Forbes.com..
Knowledge Really Is Power
If we were alive 1,000 years ago the wealthiest people in the world owned land – and were farmers. Then, during the industrial revolution people who owned factories and sold goods flourished. In the late 1900’s services exploded. Now, we live in the age of information. Information is the most valuable commodity on the planet and time is our most valuable asset. I’m very fortunate because I get to do what I love and talk to investors all day long. I speak with everyone from small individual investors just getting started all the way up to some of the largest hedge funds in the world. When I get invited to speak at different events around the country/world- I always ask people if they know the top 10 strongest performing stocks in the market? I can tell you with certainty: NO ONE could answer all 10. I’m not talking about Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Netflix or Google, – or the latest glamour names du jour. I’m talking about the strongest performing stocks in the market. No one I met knows. That baffled me because anyone who follows sports could instantly tell you the top 5-10 teams at any given time. But in the market? When real money was at stake- most people are clueless. To fix, I developed FindLeadingStocks.com– which helps investors find and own leading stocks. I also give a model portfolio with specific entry and exit signals so people can follow along at home. Over the years, the results are fantastic and that became very popular and took on a life of its own. Last year, the results tripled the S&P 500 and Mike even made a video about it here. Recently, it dawned on me that most people don’t know what the strongest stocks in the market- they probably don’t know the cheapest stocks either. So, once again, I started asking, and no one had a clue. So, I developed: CheapBargainStocks.com and that is a much simpler service and a much lower rate. Every week, I publish a list of the cheapest stocks on Wall Street. To be clear, I don’t cover penny stocks- I only deal with big liquid institutional quality stocks. I also have a coaching/consulting service that allows me to work 1-on-1 with individuals and a money management business as well.
If you made it this far, thank you for listening, I hope you enjoyed it.
Tell Me Your Story:
I am passionate about helping others and want to hear your story. I want to know what challenges you face/have to overcome in the market. I would love to hear your ideas on what you want to see at ChartYourTrade.com, that is not currently here, or available elsewhere. Please feel free to email me directly at Adam@ChartYourTrade.com if you have any ideas on how to improve the site, want to share your experience, or just want to share your thoughts.
Hopefully this week’s content can help you move a little quicker. It’s a pleasure meeting all of you and I look forward to working with you more closely in the future.
