This following excerpt was left out of the book by the publisher:

The reason for this decision was the desire to keep the book strictly on the topic of trading. We
publish this omitted excerpt here to offer the reader some colorful background of the book. We
hope you enjoy the book and find it useful in your daily quest to become a better trader.
- Vad & Chris

CHAPTER ONE: The Early Years in Soviet Union

First attempts to run private business. Learning to live and work in rapidly changing
environment. Mafia rise. Decision to emigrate.

The early 80’s marked a time of political, economic and military unrest in the Soviet Union.
Tensions between the east and west continued to build and the Cold War was further fueled by
events such as Solidarity conflict in Poland, the downing of Korean Jetliner 007 by the Soviet
Air Force and strong rhetoric between the leaders of the two most powerful nuclear nations on
earth. President Reagan entered the cold war with new tactics, aggressively outspend and
outlast the economic ability of Russia to keep up in the arms race.

The tactic was extremely effective, shaking the very foundation of an already desperate
Russian economy and the government began to come apart as economic turmoil set in during
the mid 80’s. With new political and economic ideals under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev
the government began to rebuild and “Perestroika” was born.

Communist ideals were under fire and new issues and discussions, formerly not allowed began
to be commonplace. Citizens began to critique the government, the lack of freedom of speech,
the absence of other political parties other than Communist. People began also discussing the
very hot topic, free enterprise. Free enterprise was a radical thought, because private business
was forbidden over the previous 70 years. Any activity that was a sure a road to prison during
the previous 70 years was now more or less permitted, even without the country’s full
blessing.

My experiences during these times of rapid political and economic changes, as well as the
challenges that I faced both in business, personal and cultural, taught me a lifetime of lessons
and played a huge role in the how I learned to trade. Many seem to look at those of us with
Russian descent with mixed reactions. Some with lingering anger from cold war trifles and
some with compassion from western media painting of a less than stellar picture of what life is
like there now, since the advent of the capitalist ideals that overshadowed decades of
communist reign. However, I had spent over 30 years in Russia, seeing it’s changes and
eventually emigrating away. I can honestly say that what I went through, from those days to
these, helped create the persona in me, that when reflected upon, is one of success and
confidence, and most of all, pride. It has helped me form who I am and one of the main
reasons I am successful as a trader today. Let me explain a bit more so you will understand.
The impact on society with the introduction of free enterprise was shocking. Just imagine that
for over 70 years, generation after generation was taught that people should not be working
for other people. The state is the only legal owner of plants, factories, land and buildings.
When they would teach us propaganda about capitalism, there was no difference between the
entrepreneur and the thief. Imagine after a lifetime of being taught only the ideals that the
state wanted us to learn but now the greater powers who were the protector of state ideals
now say “Go ahead, do it!”

The transition and migration of thought to this new way of life or understanding of life was
very difficult. Imagine growing up with a man that is your father, only to learn he’s not.
Imagine finding out a daughter that you’ve loved and nurtured for 18 years was not really
yours. You can’t just turn off your attachments to something you’ve believed in for so many
years. This transition from communist ideals to free enterprise was no different. The majority
just wouldn’t consider it the right thing to do.

The other side of the story is that a few would do it, but they lacked energy, knowledge, and
courage. Some were afraid it was a provocative move by the KGB. To some degree this was
true, since the KGB kept an eye on brave pioneers, ready to pounce if government superiors
reached certain annoyance levels with the economic games being played. When anything new
comes around, it seems human nature tends to be skeptical about it. This is especially true
when there isn’t any personal experience to back up your initial assumptions. This transition in
thought was not any different.

As with anything else, while the majority is slow to respond, to have vision, to see opportunity
in a sea of chaos, there is that select few of us that were not afraid to try and take advantage
of any new situations. These ambitious and intelligent individuals began to explore areas or
industries that allowed them to set up some type of private business. Although this seems
simple to mostly everyone in the free world, this was a foreign concept to those of us behind
the iron curtain of communism.

After a short period, these brave early entrepreneurs began to dive into this newly formed
economic system and fully understand it, at first, starting in the service industry then
migrating rapidly to other sectors. This service industry took the form of cleaning, cooking and
small cafes, much like you would see on almost any street in New York City. The first form of
free enterprise was given a colorful nickname that most American’s would enjoy; "shishkebabers"
or shashlychniki in my native tongue. These types of cafes started to become very
popular and began their integration into the Russian culture. Along with this increasingly
popularity came unwanted attention of the “professional clique” of Russia.
These professionals learned more and more how to make a lot more money working without
any huge overhead while avoiding large state tariffs. I could see the transition clearly. I
watched how these first inklings of free enterprise were brought to light and how the
professionals began to take it a few steps further. With the knowledge that I gained from
observation and general intuition, I became aggressive in ambition and desire. That was the
moment when I felt I could do something to change my life in a dramatic fashion.
I was a young 27-year-old construction engineer working as a Chief Technologist at a concrete
manufacturing plant. After my graduation, I used the next few years to develop deeper
relationships with those I met becoming friendly with many people in the industry. In
particular, I became close with designers that could engineer anything from a doghouse to a
metallurgical guild. It was natural to pick this field to give an outlet to my energy and desire
for activity. I could cook great shish kebab, but I was a well-educated engineer. I wanted to do
something “intellectual”, so my abilities to cook a great shish kebab remained for picnics with
family and friends.

I discussed my new business ideas with several of my friends who all enthusiastically jumped
onboard. They assured me that a project of any degree of complexity could be done
professionally and quickly in their free time. I registered my own enterprise (co-op or
cooperative as they were called) and started looking for our first job. I wanted to test the
waters with a small and simple project to learn the ropes at first then move to larger projects
as I learned. By watching a few failed businesses I learned an easy lesson, don’t start big
without the proper knowledge or understanding of the process. Doing so only led to failure. I
chose to be a bit more practical than those failed business owners and it was the right
decision. Throughout my life so far, most of my decisions have been done with the desired
outcome as a result. I continued to feel that I was doing in life what I was supposed to do, as
each new venture or project worked out properly.

One day, a fortunate event occurred. One of factories in our city needed some designer job to
be done, too small for big state enterprises and relatively cheap to get them interested. WE
took this job and finished it in two weeks. This was period of time any big state enterprise
would have required just to look into an agreement, unlikely to sign it, let alone to start
working.

We signed an agreement for 8,500 rubles. Three engineers and I received 2,000 rubles each.
My enterprise received 500 in profit. It’s not possible to give dollar equivalent because of
artificial rate at that time (there was no currency trading in USSR). To put this into perspective,
let me give you an idea what 2,000 rubles meant for me in the late 1980s. My monthly wage
was 230 rubles, and I was well paid by Soviet standards. Most of my friends were getting paid
150 -180 rubles a month. You could buy a new car (well, it was a Russian car) for 6,000 –
7,000 rubles. Buying a car in Russia is different than what you might be used to. In order for
me to buy a car, I had to pay the full amount at the time of purchase. There were no bank
loans, credit cards or mortgage loans, etc. in Russia. This made buying more expensive things
much more difficult. I was finally able to do this. This first pay off was not only nice; it was
large in comparison. After this initial success, I got more of a taste for it. This was creating
even more confidence that I was doing what I was supposed to in life.

My next challenge was to repeat the process. I needed orders and I directed all my energy to
finding them. The whole process was a challenge that I enjoyed and was defining my business
character. I was able to respond intelligently in periods that needed quick decisions, and the
outcomes of those decisions were favorable for the most part. I liked what I saw and so did my
co-workers. I was making them just as happy in this new free enterprise world. It was a great
feeling to do right by your own decisions and then let this spill over to those you deal with
everyday, making their lives brighter too.

My first contract was not luck. I saw this niche and went after it. I’ve always been able to find
obscure opportunity where others could not. I found a great niche of unsatisfied demand in
smaller construction projects. In just five months, I asked myself why I still worked that day
job. I quit the next day. Three months later and I bought my first car without a second
thought. I didn’t even notice the expense to my savings (don’t laugh, it was a big deal for a
Soviet citizen). This type of freedom financially and personally was unheard of by those I knew
growing up over the past 70 years. It was a new state of success and freedom.
My enterprise was working on three to five projects at the same time. I had six teams of
designers waiting to exploit the next job. Local plants and factories of our heavily
industrialized city quickly became aware of our existence. Success travels fast in all areas of
the world. As a testament to my desire to make a decision and implement it, we did our job
with unmatched speed and charged less than the state firms did. A key to our success was the
absence of a huge overhead. We had no infrastucture to feed or no buildings to maintain.
People were working in their free time, in their kitchens. The money they received for these
additional jobs greatly exceeded their salaries; many started to neglect their day jobs. This
resulted in finally bringing to light one of my true intentions that I kept to myself. I knew that
if my co-workers were making more money with me than at their state firms, it would raise the
interest of their superiors. Learning to think ahead and anticipate events has always kept me
ahead of most of my competition.

One day the receptionist from the head of the city’s largest technology designing state firm
called telling me that her boss, Anatolii wanted to see me immediately. Her intonation and
wording was quite inappropriate considering that I was not Anatolii’s employee. I had about
30 people on my team that worked in his firm. I asked if she knew what it was about but she
declined to comment. I wasn’t particularly busy on this day, so I went to meet Anatolii.

Anatolii was an impressionable man, well in his 60s. He was an all-powerful man, having about
700 people under his supervision. He was a top level executive and quite friendly with the
city’s big shots. He even had a direct phone line to the Ministry. You could imagine his anxiety
when the rumors about some of his workers making triple of what he made reached his ears.
Ones financial ego was always a nasty trait in high-level executives, but one that I could
always use to my advantage. The problem with many high level executives was that the state
controlled them in very interesting ways. They did have many privileges. There was an
abundant supply of food and merchandise that were not accessible for average men, but their
salary was relatively modest. This way the state did not allow them to gain independence and
self-reliability. Should such a manager lose favor, it was easy to take everything from him by
just cutting his access to those privileges. With all their power, they were always just one step
from poverty. That's how the state kept a tab on them.

He told me in an angry voice that any of them, if caught working for me, would be immediately
fired. He boldly stated that I undermined the socialist society (with this I would agree and
would not be particularly ashamed of doing that). I was looking at this dinosaur of the Soviet
era and sorting out my approach to discuss my true intentions that I derived months earlier. I
could simply leave his office or say something polite and meaningless. I finally had my
opportunity to bring it to reality and I got aggressive. As I said before, when I have to do
something, I decide and I implement it. I said to him:

“I understand and appreciate your concerns. The situation is really abnormal, and the major
abnormality as I see it is that you are the boss of a huge firm. You have incredible resources
that I could only dream of and you are not included in the process of development of the new
economy. In my opinion both you and the process of development suffer. If you looked
through the orders backlog of your firm, you would probably find plenty of overdue ones. If
you were so kind as to transfer them to my company, it would be a win-win situation for
everyone; your clients, your workers, my company and you personally.”

I delivered it perfectly and I knew I had him, but I awaited his response. It was as expected.
After all, he was a powerful man. How could a younger man than he have a great idea? To him,
this discussion was audacious. His face went red, but boy, those dinosaurs were trained well.
After some pause during which his eyes showed computer-like calculations of all possible
outcomes in his brain he said quietly:

“You go now”.

I walked confidently from his office, careful not to show the smirk on my face as one does
when he knows he caught the interest of someone that lets ego dictate business decisions. As
it turned out, I had to wait only one week. I was counting on a bit longer, which showed me
that he wanted it more than I expected he would, consequently, putting me at an advantage in
this situation for when it was time to discuss profit-sharing. Once again, seeing the
opportunity and taking it at the right time, not unveiling my true intentions to anyone until the
optimal moment, had paid off. After one week, a substitute of his asked me to meet and
discuss the details of collaboration. As a result of my vision and implementation, the order flow
for my company tripled. My co-workers were even more appreciative of how things were going.
I was glowing inside as well.

As this niche business continued to expand horizontally, meaning a new host of orders in this
single aspect of construction, I did not want my company to remain limited to a single kind of
activity. I wanted to expand vertically. During the next two years my enterprise developed
several new directions. I moved into operations that dealt with renovations, transportation,
and even fascinating projects like the conversion of car engines from gas to liquid propane (the
fuel deficit created big demand for this). In those times, five or six cars were getting converted
every day. My enterprise had a three-month long waiting list.

Those were early times of the newborn Soviet free economy. Those times were also the first
rudiments of the rise of the Mafia in the Soviet Union. It was much later that the black side of
the transition to a free market economy soaked in all business (and not only business) circles.
At that time it was quite a primitive racket that was interested in cash only. Primarily, they
were focused on “shish-kebabers”. The logistics of work involving more civilized accounting
such as bank transfers, rather than cash exchanges were not attractive for them. It was much
more difficult to get around those things that left trails. Fortunately, my partners and I enjoyed
a racket-free work environment, mainly shielded because of our legitimate business practices.
Unfortunately as we grew and learned, so did they. But I will talk more about it later.

The business landscape was changing constantly and quickly. In just three to four years of new
economical developments, an evolutionary situation occurred that the country leaders did not
foresee when they allowed private commercial initiative. Instead of primitive co-ops intended
to satisfy simple day-to-day needs, much more complicated structures appeared. Private
banks, financial companies and merchandise exchanges were surfacing everywhere like
mushrooms. Even the media (a major weapon of communist ideology) got infected with
commercials (something quite new for USSR population) and the first private TV and radio
channels became a reality. Seeing this change and preparing for all I was about to go through
with this new environment taught me a few lessons of how to stay sharp and focused, so as
not to get blind-sided by the unexpected.

During this evolution, new economical phenomena started to blossom; the middleman. The old
system of planned supplies could not keep up with new demands. Middlemen were playing on
the difference between ”state price-list” and real prices. The company that needed
metallurgical products wasn’t able to buy it from the plant producing it, but there always was
some private enterprise near that plant that could sell the product for the commercial price.
The difference was huge, in some case 300-500%. This kind of scheme created big room for
corruption. The more I thought about it, the more I understood it. Why would high executives
of the metallurgical plant sell their product to that private enterprise for firm state price
without any under-the-table reward?
This lure of easy money that was made in a blink of an eye could not go unnoticed by the dark
side. Thus, the criminal element moved right in. >From primitive “protection money”, the Mafia
element went to more complicated business. Now they had their people in banks, in tax bodies
and among customs staff. I knew that once legitimate business began to give way to this
element, I had to think out of the box and create options in case my business became a nearterm
target.
The Mafia became well informed. Their areas of influence separated the business world. Mafia
guys were now patronizing contracts, making sure that all the parties fulfilled their obligations
and of course receiving their share of the profit. Businessmen started their negotiations now
with the question:

Who is your “roof”?

“Roof” bandits were those that were protecting and patronizing you and your contracts.
Unfortunately, they became a necessary element of the business environment. I wasn’t too
excited for my life in this unstable economy with Mafia as integral part. It looked ugly. I say
looked because future events showed that the worst was yet to come.

For a while I was able to avoid the middleman business, trying to stay away from the rapidly
criminalizing area. Unfortunately the designing business started to shrink. The economic
situation in a collapsing country was getting worse and inflation started to show its ugly head.
In 1988 I bought my car for 6,000 rubles. In 1989 I paid 12,000 for a cute little cottage with a
small orchard. In 1990 a VCR cost 26,000, more than I paid for the car and the cottage
together!

Big enterprises had no more money to build or renovate, thus the need in design jobs
diminished. Not having much choice, I tried to remain as civilized as possible. I live by the rule
that I have to do everything my whole life the right and moral way. At least no one can take
that away from me no matter how poor or rich I get. The honest “F” is better than the cheated
“A”. Nice guys might finish last, but they always seem to have the biggest turnout at their
funerals and the truest respect from those around him. This is what a man’s measure in life is.
Who they’ve helped and who they’ve touched.

So in order to stay legitimate, we bought a seat on the merchandise exchange. We trained
several brokers and commenced supply operations using our good relationships with
executives that we were working with for years.

Overall it shaped out pretty well in spite of the fact that many of the partners just wouldn’t
fulfill their obligations. There was a popular joke at that time. Two brokers meet. One of them
asked another, “Do you need 50 tons of jam?” ‘Yes, sure”. They shook hands and left each
other. The one to search for jam and the other to find the money to pay for it.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t escape what was becoming part of everyday business in
this environment. I was experiencing some pressure from the Mafia element to use their
“protection”, but it was not that bad for a while. Two bosses, Boris and Sasha, patronized the
city center where my office and apartment were located. Both were slightly older than I was,
soft-spoken, polite, and pleasant.

Boris was quite a philosophical man, often descanting about the positive role of the Mafia in
maintaining order in business relationships. His favorite justifications came across as if it
weren’t for the Mafia element, we (businessmen) would cheat on each other constantly.
Considering the weakness of law enforcement (which was true), no force would make anyone
pay for an obtained product, or supply the product after the payment. It sounded logical and I
might have even believed it if I didn’t know how often Mafia guys participated in operations
intended to circumvent one of the sides or even both of them.

Sasha dubbed himself with a smirk “The only bandit in the city who graduated from a
university”. These two guys ran quite an organization. It was well structured. It had a
treasurer, with a couple hundred of “torpedoes” divided by squads. Torpedoes were the lower
layers of performers used as brutal force. You could recognize them easily by their typical
uniform including a sports costume, snickers, a gold chain and a buzz cut. Torpedoes would
never fail to carry out any order given.

Like I said, it wasn’t too bad for a while. I managed to maintain a rather distant fellowship
with them. We opened a supermarket and I asked them to provide guards for 24 hours
protection of the premises. On another occasion we asked them to provide an escort for a truck
we sent to another city. This kind of thing helped to show just the tip of the iceberg to them for
some time, enough time. All the while, I was creating the options to get out of this
environment with my family safe.

As time went along, the situation was becoming less and less stable. In 1991, the USSR
collapsed and the former Soviet republics became sovereigns. Economic links were
disappearing and Inflation developed at galloping speed. You could wake up in the morning to
see the exchange rate worsening twice against yesterdays. In addition to this, there was a
total lack of structure or civilized way to handle the money turnover. By this I mean there was
an absence of electronic plastic cards and a reliable banking system. You had to have your
money in cash. People and their apartments became the target of criminal attacks to the scale
that no civilized country could imagine. Cases of kidnapping and assassinations by order grew
to every day’s reality. The school my kids were attending was located just 10 minutes away, by
foot. I couldn’t in my right mind allow them to walk it, even just 10 minutes away. I was
sending a car to pick them up. During this time, a conventional saying appeared:
“To take someone to the forest".

When bandits wanted to make a businessman do something for them and he got stubborn,
they would force him into a car and take him to a remote forest. Several hours of beating him
and burning the skin with cigarettes would guarantee an absolute agreement. Actually much
less time was needed, but tortures continued for a while to make a lesson well learned.
All this was creating great uncertainty, and I was continuously preparing for the inevitable
flight to safety. There was no slightest sign of stability in sight. Contracts were falling apart
because of jumping rates and the unreliability of partners. I was still able to provide quite a
decent living for my family but I saw no future. A few events really were etched in my mind
that will never allow me to forget just how bad it was getting and how desperate the situation
was becoming for me.

There was a store near our supermarket. It had a mix of clothes and electronics. An energetic
woman in her 40s ran it. She was getting supplies from another city, paying for them as she
sold a certain amount of goods. She was selling for local currency in her store, but paying in
American dollars to the supplier. The exchange rate jumped on her in the middle of the cycle
leaving her with half of what she owed. After two weeks of unsuccessful negotiations, her
store was burnt down. She hurriedly left town with her life, as it was all she had left.
Another incident occurred with one of the city’s well-known private companies. They
announced the creation of a trust that carried the promise of a big interest return, something
like 60% annually if I remember correctly. The trust worked for about a year, then disappeared
overnight. Angry deposit holders were left to look at an empty building with no record of their
money. After a while, rumors surfaced about the trust’s high executives living a nice life
somewhere in Western Europe.

A friend of mine who ran a small private bank told me some horror stories that took place in his
business. A car that delivered money from another city got attacked in a real-life “Die Hard”
type action film. There was a tape with nails across the road, shooters from the ditch, etc.
The seemingly endless escalation of the dark side of the new economy brought constant
thoughts of emigration, if for nothing else, my family’s safety. Emigration wasn’t as easy as
just getting on a flight, nor was the thought of changing my whole way of life easy. I realized
that my business skills would be most likely unusable in the Western environment, nor would
the language barrier help us. In addition, emigration itself was not easy and could take
enormous amounts time and effort with an uncertain outcome. It’s not like you just come over
and they let you right in. Most look at the emigrations of Haitians, Cubans, etc. as somewhat
comical or as a burden. I wish I had this luxury. Unfortunately, I was living this same journey,
but from a different part of the world. With all the options I created, emigration became more
apparent as the only solution, but it was difficult to make the final decision to do so. Some
push from the outside had to occur to make this decision easier for me, not to mention, final.
Finally in 1994, after many years of business and months in emotional desperation, that push
came.

I had just finished a big contract and all the custom papers had cleared. Surprisingly, the
money made its way through the banks. I prepared the usual “hide and seek” game with the
roof bandits. However, this time, instead of bandits, guess who came in demanding their
share?

The militia. That was the last thing I needed to decide on leaving. I learned to live relatively
peaceful (as much as one can) with the bandits. It certainly was not a big pleasure, but if you
manage to keep their impact under the lid, it’s bearable. I was able to bear with corrupted
police. Again, not a nice situation to be in, but after all, it wasn’t really a big novelty. But how
could I live in a situation where they exchange information and work against you, not leaving
you any way out?

Maybe someone can. My answer was, I can’t and I don’t want to.

I was 33, with a wife and two kids. I wanted a future for them and for myself and I started
opening the back door.

CHAPTER 2: BEGINNER

Start of immigration process. Overcoming the language barrier. Picking a profession. First
trading attempts. First hard loss. The formation of trading mindset.

In 1995, I became one of the organizers of an international trade show where Ukrainian
enterprises showed their products in Canada. It took an entire year to finish my part of the
project in the Ukraine. In February of 1996, the opportunity to immigrate came, and I took it. I
came to Canada to work on the final part of the project and filed the immigration application as
an entrepreneur and in 3 months my family joined me. A new chapter of my life has started. I
was on my way to becoming a Canadian citizen!

The first impulse of many businessmen that immigrate to North America or Western Europe is
to do business with their native country. This seems natural, as they know the environment
they just left and see themselves as a link between new and former business partners. In
reality it’s not that easy to make it work. In everything, as I find out later in trading, it’s not as
easy as theory would have it be.

Western business mentality is very different from what I was used to, as are the practices and
methods. Besides, this is not something I really wanted do, doing business with the
deteriorating environment I just left. Instead, my inclination was to start a pure western
business, with no links to the collapsing Ukrainian economy. This decision was supported by a
message that I received in June of 1996. Boris, one of the Mafia bosses I have told you about
earlier was shot to death. This was one of the signs of the ongoing distribution and redistribution
of power and territorial control. I wanted to stay as far away from this endless war
as possible.

At the same time there were obstacles in my way to establishing a business in Canada.
Obviously, the lack of knowledge about how things worked here was one obstacle. I don’t care
what anyone tells you about new business in a foreign country, in the beginning, the hardest is
obstacle to overcome is the language barrier. English-speaking natives will not have any clue
what I mean as most speak English as a first or second language. But throughout the cold war,
English wasn’t high on the scholar’s list for teaching it’s sons and daughters. Almost every
immigrant has some funny stories to tell about awkward situations caused by his poor
language. I have my share also.

One time my neighbor, a Russian lady, tried to talk with my other neighbor that was walking
the dog. Instead of 'I have a dog, too", she said "I am a dog, too". Imagine my other neighbor
saying in a hurry "Yes, yes, sure, how nice" and backing away as fast as he can. I still see these
things even in conversation with my peer group now, as I use the wrong phrase to describe my
intentions for communication.

I remember trying to buy insulation tape to stop a water leak in the faucet. I went to the store
and played charades with young salesman, not knowing the words “tape”, “leak”, and “faucet”.
Try saying all this with only your hands and you will know what it feels like! Add plenty of
situations that can be compared to living on another planet where you just have no idea how
things work and what they are supposed to do.

In business, there is an assumption that communication between people is clear. This was my
weakest trait as I only knew Russian and I had to integrate myself into the English language.
Don’t laugh, but Al Bundy on “Married With Children” became my first link to the English
speaking world. I’d watch this television show, learning how to speak, eventually progressing
to full conversation many months later. As much as Al was a slob to the American and
Canadian society, he was a very convenient teacher. To this day when my manner or tone of
language isn’t understood well enough by those I mean to communicate with, I blame Al and
people laugh. I was also watching movies that I saw in Russian translation which helped
understand text better.

But my English was still not good enough to learn new business or make realistic contacts to
do business. I realized that it was going to take years for my English to improve to such a
degree that I would communicate fluently with native English-speakers. I began to think of
what kind of business could I run alone, with a minimum of communication, to alleviate the
impact of an accent and labored speaking.

The natural idea was that it should be something Internet based. Typing and reading is easier.
It left me more room to use the dictionary, compared to immediate person-to-person
conversation. The English Dictionary became a staple of my daily ensemble. It didn’t take me
long to understand the concept of Internet and browsing. Armed with an electronic dictionary,
I was wandering all over the Internet getting comfortable with searching and reading of web
pages. Still, I had no answer to my major question of what was it that I could do for a living.
Canada required that I meet business standards, in order to stay. I had to have an office, an
employee and pay taxes. There were others but I won’t bore you with them.

I knew that life never puts us in a situation with no solutions. When we are ready, then the
appropriate door opens. It’s not always easy to see that door as it sometimes appears as an
insignificant event. In my case, it was an accidental conversation with the guy who helped me
get familiar with the Internet.

Like many others, he was investing his money trying to exploit stock market movements. He
showed me the chart of some stock he bought several months prior at $11. The stock was now
around $18 and he was going to sell it to lock in his profit. Looking at the chart, I noticed that
the stock made several moves up and down before it reached its current point.
I asked him with curiosity, “Why don’t you sell each of these tops and re-buy each of these
bottoms? It looks like you could make 14 points while stock moved just 7?”
He replied, “Well, it’s great in theory, he said. In reality you never know when these tops and
bottoms occur. You cannot time it right. It’s obvious only when you look at the chart of past
events.”

I nodded and returned to what I was doing, but some thoughts about this conversation
continued to brew.

The next day I called him and asked, “OK, you can’t time it if you just look at the prices at the
end of the day after you finished your day job. But what if you could watch the prices during
the day in real time? Would it be possible to see those tops and bottoms as they occur? And is
there a tool that allows seeing them in real time? And is it possible to buy and sell right away?”
He replied, “Well, if you could sit in front of the computer all day then maybe, but I’ve never
heard of anyone doing this.”

You may laugh that he didn’t hear of anyone doing this, but remember that it was 1996.
Daytrading was not a buzzword yet, not even in the USA, let alone Canada. It was much later
that the media started highlighting numerous stories about people quitting their day jobs to
pursue day trading as a career. At that moment, I practically invented day trading “for myself”,
even though it had been around since the first day of speculation.

One more reason I looked into such a short time frame as intraday was that I realized that I
lacked knowledge about the US economy and couldn’t make much out of company reports.
Therefore, I instinctively wanted to exploit the movements that were less impacted by those
factors.

>From that day, my Internet search became goal-oriented. I tried to dig out everything that
could help me find direction. There weren’t as many web sites devoted to trading as we have
now, so my education was incredibly superficial. I’ll show you why.

In a couple of months, I was armed with an online broker, with quotes and with the Wall
Street Journal as my news source. It looked pretty simple to me. I find some good story, buy
the stock, watch it going up, sell it when it stops rising. I just couldn’t see why it wouldn’t
work and was I in for a rude awakening.