------------ Original Message ------------
From: Cheng Xu [mailto:evinc@star ... net]
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 1:56 AM
To: internship@greekshares.com
Subject: Internship for www.GreekShares.com
To whom it may concern,
I am 20 years old, no degree yet, no corporate experience. Yet I have something special to offer you, and especially the company that hires me.
I am a college student looking for an internship at one lucky firm. I know you are laughing and about to dismiss this as some joke, before you cast this into the trash heap. Well here's the punch line, I have the investment expertise that can match the Legends of Wall Street, the Ganns and Livermores, and have produced my own unique and risk-proof trading strategy.
Ha. Ha.
I know, if I were you, i would think this is spam too. But I urge you, read on, hear my story, if not only for a brief coffee break, it may prove ... profitable.
On my 12th birthday, my parents gave me a rather... unorthodox present. A stock market trading account and four thousand dollars, which at the time meant nothing to me, except "boring." It was 4000 dollars I could not use; I could not buy my favorite toys with, 4000 dollars of nothing.
They invested the money for me, some in AAA, some in BBB, a handful of the Blue Chips. And then I continued on with my N64, oblivious to the fact that my life has just changed.
No more than a few months later, by casual glance I noticed a change in my account. It grew. A lot. Before I could say "Duck sauce" it doubled. Ah such were the days of the late 90s as I reminisce now. Put up a few bucks in the ole techies and even a 12 year old can make money.
And this exuberance as Alan would like to call it is what drove me. Drove me crazy.
It started with a tinker here, a trade there. Online trading replaced my old friend Nintendo. It grew more. It grew faster. CNBC and Bloomberg news took the place of my Saturday morning regulars.
Power Rangers was now Power Lunch and Squawk Box. Stan Weinstein and Jesse Livermore became my heroes. I read books, and searched all over the web. I was obsessed. I took in everything. Like a sponge. I was young, ignorant, willing, and learning. Learning the right, the wrong, and the ugly.
But now that i think about it, i was just repeating what the talking head on TV said, which is nothing. Gibberjabber. Useless.
But it didn't matter, because it grew more. And even faster. So i had to be doing something right. Right? My piano teacher told me about a stock. Exodus Communications. I bought it. And it grew. Simple. That's when i knew what i was going to be when i grew up. Rich. If I double every 4 months, by the time I am 23 I should be able to buy the Houston Rockets. Sweet.
My plan was right on schedule by 2000. My 4000 dollars turned into 20,000. The market was at an all time high, going strong. And I was about to go all in ... For the kill.
And then, school was in session. And I started to learn ... Truly, this time.
As the market plummeted to depth that I thought could not be breached and then plummeted some more � And then some more. I went all in some more. This is what poker players would call "On tilt."
No, no, I was on my side. Bleeding. To death. And Exodus? Ha, by now it was bankrupt. And piano? I quit.
But no, the talking heads would tell me, the market is prime for a rebound that has to be true if Maria Bartaroma says so. Right?
And then i noticed something by casual glance. I was broke.
By late 2001 I had nothing. I guess that's what a few margin calls will do for you. With around a thousand dollars, and a world of despair, I plotted a comeback. It failed. And I was left with a few hundreds.
I know you are probably shocked that anyone could fall this far. From 20,000 to a few hundred, that seems impossible. How could someone be so reckless, so clueless, so perfectly exactly opposite of right? Oh, I'm sure there are a few more out there, but you don't know about them because they did not live to tell about it.
Which brings me to why I am so special. The greats all had to fail before they triumphed. How many bankruptcies did it take before Gann could build his empire?
How many losses did he have to endure before Michael was known as the greatest basketball player ever?
The reason is failure and loss is what begets knowledge. We as a species have evolved and invented ourselves through trial and error ... The key being error.
Only through error can right be known.
That's what separates me. The world of investment is different than any other; it is not a science experiment. Make an error, just do it again. No. You lose your investment, and you lose you home. You lose your life.
There is no start over button. You quit. And try a different profession. Maybe computer science, or accounting; something that you can't lose your shirt doing. Because, you can't afford to do that again. There is no trial and error.
It is error and over. Except for me.
Because I was a kid. There was no risk of losing my home. This was all a learning experience. A class if you will, a very ... very expensive class as my mom would say. But after I lost everything, and reflected upon it all and uprooted my previous hypothesis and conclusions, I could start again. My parents were adamant, they saw my dedication and the knowledge I gained, they are not stupid and about to throw their money away. They knew I would not make the same mistakes twice.
And they gave me a second chance. A second chance, which does not exist in the world of investment. But did it for me. And that's what makes me better than everyone else.
I will not tell you everything that I came up with in this, lets say resume, because it would be too complicated. But a summary to what i am doing would be technical manipulation.
Its not analysis, because i am not here to analyze. I am here to see the future, and act upon it. I have developed a strategy where I can limit my risk to near zero. And assuming that to be true, the logical investment target would be the highest of risk/return.
That way I can benefit from the highest of return, and limit my risk. It was not perfect at first. But it was much more effective and efficient than the "oh lets listen to CNBC" or what "analysts" say.
Lets face it, every single news or information that we receive, from company announcements, earning reports, guidance, to economic numbers are all useless.
Many would disagree with that, since that would cost many their jobs. But it's true. Because everything is in real time. And you can't profit from real time. There will always be someone higher up that will move faster than you.
Especially, if you are a retail investor like me. Real time is useless for me, what I need is the future. And I can get that for you. No, not through a mirror or a well, but through the past.
Yes; the Market is driven by events, earnings, news and etc. But at the most basic core of it, two things drive it:
Greed and Fear!
Specifically, it's by the investors themselves.
And the investors are driven by those two emotions. So adamantly are they guided by these emotions they have formed patterns of themselves. And we, when disciplined enough to be outside of those emotions, can trade according to the patterns.
I tried to follow this exactly, but yielded mixed results. There is a saying, that 90% of day traders (or any technician) lose money. Now I know why. Because they followed the rules exactly. If everyone followed the Technical Analysis for Dummies hand book, they we would all be rich. That doesn't work. Because it's not that easy, and no book can teach you how.
You need to learn from experience. From failure, and by now, you should know that I am very familiar with that.
In the end, I did it. I stepped out of the circle of Fear and Greed and I am now on the outside looking in. And I see the future.
For the last year I have perfected my method and I am back. So impressed by what I was doing, my parents gave me their account and retirement savings 3 months ago. It is harder to manage that kind of money, but I managed to make around 20%. Anybody can do that; many can do that just through luck. Hell, remember, I was able to turn 4000 into 20,000 when I was 12. The key here is, I am now able to limit my risk so much that it is near 0.
My technique does not depend on me being right 100% of the time. The core of it is that if and when I am wrong, I lose a minimal amount. And when I am right, I ride it out.
This is my story, and if by chance you have read enough to read this, I am sure you are at least curious about what I can do. Don't get me wrong; I am not looking for a management position nor do I want to look after someone's retirement fund, other than my parents".
All I am looking for is a summer internship. Maybe one that could lead to something more, later. Just a chance; an opportunity. I know I would be grateful if that was offered to me, but I am also confident that this will be an opportunity for the company that hires me.
For just a try, or interview. I am not saying I am the next William Gann or Charles Dow, but you wouldn't want to miss out on one if I was. Would you?
Hopefully this was not a complete waste of your time. At least there was some entertainment value right?
In all seriousness I hope you consider what I have written.
Sincerely,
Chris Xu
evinc@starpower.net
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