TIMradio #3: Tom Sosnoff, Founder of Online Broker Thinkorswim

As I sit here waiting for the near-inevitable crack in VRML’s stock price, I thought I’d offer up a podcast for your listening and learning pleasure: You’ve all heard me talk about how much I love and recommend Thinkorswim as a broker–not only do they have the best customer service/software, but they have solid borrows through Penson and most importantly, the people at the company actually try to help customers instead of ripping them off. Maybe that’s why there’s a Chicago-based firm, not NYC.

So for TIMradio podcast #3, I was fortunate to have a fine little chat with the man behind the curtain, Thinkorswim’s founder himself, Tom Sosnoff. Besides being a legendary options trader and frequent industry speaker, he’s one hell of a laidback / good guy…one of the few out there…so I hope I can still be like him when I’m that rich! Somehow I think all that power and money will go to my head…we’ll see.

Interview with ThinkorSwim Founder Tom Sosnoff

PS You’ll hear me say this is the first TIMradio, well, it turned out to be #3, but it’s still #1 in my heart :)

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TIMRadio #1: Eddy Elfenbein, Mr. CrossingWallStreet.com

Financial blogging has only been around for ages a few years, but already the cream has risen to the top. In my first TIMRadio podcast, I was fortunate enough to be joined by a prime example of that cream, Mr. Eddy Elfenbein, better known by his still-getting-better-by-the-day blog CrossingWallStreet.com. Have a listen and hear us talk about everything from edge-lacking market predictions and Eddy’s old microcap newsletter to my inability to be very outgoing or self-promotional

CrossingWallStreet.com Click here to listen to the interview

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Just Who The Hell Do I Think I Am And Why Should You Care?

It’s astounding how many lazy people refuse to click the ABOUT tab on this site when they want to know more about me. Instead I get anywhere from one to three dozen daily emails asking me—since I have an answer every email policy, I’m beyond tired of this. Guys, chicos, if you want to know how I got started, what kinds of stocks I trade, how I made so much $ so quickly, my life is an open book—literally–An American Hedge Fund. Hopefully this post can save me a few emails so here’s a quick rundown of my journey and how I’m gonna help you:

-My obsession to become the best tennis player led to a career-ending injury senior year of high school in 1999. Since I’d already gotten in to college early and the doctors orders were to rest, I had nothing to do so my parents gave me control of my $12,415 in Bar Mitzvah gift money to play around with and I opened a discount online brokerage account.

-My parents thought I’d lose everything, but after concluding all the most popular stocks were too expensive / random for me, I became a penny stock day trader and turned my little account into $2 million by the end of 2004 (no leverage used). The first $1 million was pretty much all buying breakouts (I focused on chart patterns, little did I know why the charts were so perfect), the second $1 million was pretty much all short selling (when I discovered their charts were perfect for a reason, manipulation!). (Trades, strategies used and lessons learned are all detailed in my instructional DVD PennyStocking)  

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A Legendary Trader’s Music Video…Seriously

Other than legendary billionaire traders, you should listen to legendary-not-quite-a-billionaire-but-still-damn-successful-traders like Ed Seykota who’s featured in required reading Market Wizards. There’s little doubt as to his trading abilities, his musical talent, well,that’s a whole different story…let’s see what you guys think:

Gratzie Covel

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The Office Of A Real Wall Street Player

Forget fancy offices filled with fee-earning overdressed big talkers, this is how a Real Wall Streeter operates:

Gratzie Lindzon

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Good Financial Advice From Real Wall Streeters: Listen To Billionaires Over Journalists And Talking Heads

Here’s a great 3-part interview the man himself, Mr. George Soros, whose current net worth is north of $8 billion, all created through financial speculation. If you don’t know who he is, first be ashamed, then see his bio HERE. Then click the picture below to watch the pathetically unembeddable video:

Now that’s an interview! Always trust the views of experienced/proven-successful billionaires over that of the experienced-sounding but success-lacking journalists, marketers and talking heads who infest our great industry.

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36 Hours In The Life Of A Trading Addict

TIM $15,220, Up $485, An Ugly Way To Make An All-Time High

2/14: Get 2 hours of sleep from a late night of writing/researching potential plays, wake up at 7am for a 9am filming with CBS Sunday Morning. I’ll miss the morning trading session, but this is too big to pass up. Forget the 200k-ish people watching CNBC, this show boasts 5+ million weekly viewers!!

They want to talk about neuroeconomics, aka the science behind making money and the addictiveness of profits/high I get when I make a teacher’s annual salary in a few hours. Sure, I said. Only problem was they want to film at my apartment and it’s being cleaned today due to the massive amount of soot from last week’s building fire. Luckily, one of my friends volunteers his sweet place on the UWS—perfect. See some pics:

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