Childhood

I was born in 1979 and raised in Liverpool. My father left and moved to Germany when I was four years old and my mother had to work long hours to keep the house running for my younger brother and I. I spent the majority of my childhood playing football and getting up to mischief with groups of kids on the streets. My peers and I became streetwise quickly because we had to and became adults quickly because we had responsibilities to ourselves at a very young age. In my teens I came to realize that my world was very small and everyone around me had a very narrow focus. I decided at the age of 13 that I wanted a better life and that I had to get out . I spent the next 5 years planning and building that dream. I worked whenever I could in whatever I could to get by. My jobs as a teenager ranged from working in a supermarket freezer all summer to selling clothes on market stalls at weekends. I made a few thousand pounds, enough money to take a risk! I decided to make an investment in myself and applied to universities knowing I would likely end up £30,000 in debt in doing so. I knew this was a burden my family could not even partially afford to bear, so i took it on myself.

The Professional

I was the first in my family to go to University. I was accepted as an Economics undergraduate at Manchester University and from the age of 18-21 studied hard and tried to achieve my dream of becoming a trader for a top Investment Bank in London. At a presentation by Goldman Sachs in 1999 I was invited by the company to attend interviews. I’d been offered a job as a trader at the world’s top Investment Bank at the age of 20, a full year before my Graduation. I returned to University and completed my degree. Three weeks after my final exam I was in London working as a trader. I took my professional exams and was sent to work and train on Wall Street in New York.

On my return to London I traded on the Pan European Equities Trading desk and quickly made a reputation for myself as a trader that wasnt affraid to back his convictions, take calculated risks, spot trades that others had missed or hadnt considered, and who built successful franchise trading businesses. After 4 years at Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers headhunted me for their European Trading Operations. I worked for Lehman Brothers for 2 years and built a number one ranked European Trading franchise.

At this time i felt id become an established trader in the market.  JP Morgan then headhunted me for their Pan European Trading Desk. From my time at Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan I became very disillusioned with Investment Banks. I managed sizeable, well balanced porfolios using rules and risk management techniques that my managers refused to understand.  I left the world of trading in April 2007.  The following morning I recieved three highly lucrative job offers  to start with immediate effect. After a week of consideration I turned them all down. We were at what seemed to be the tail end of a five year bull market. I decided to fulfill my childhood ambition of travelling around the world with an open ticket. Starting in a new role the following week just seemed like the wrong trade! I did what all of my peers thought at the time was a “crazy” decision. I left the city! I sold everything I had in two months, my apartment in London, investments at home and abroad, consolidating everything i had into cash in the bank. I bought a round the world airline ticket and left with one bag of clothes for Central America.  I wanted to be in control of my own destiny and I needed a break before considering new challenges. Travelling the world would hopefully give me some inspiration.

The next phase

My trip around the world gave me an education I had never previously experienced. I had time to think in environments that were new to me. I travelled in over 25 countries through Central and South America, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, South East Asia, mainland China and Japan. One aspect reverberated constantly. People with nothing,  were willing to give the shirt off their backs to help me. People were happy, much happier than those chasing “The Dream” in the rat race back home. The lives of the countless people I met on my travels were rich with empathy, generosity and family. Greed and materialism were alien concepts and didn’t even register on the list of priorities. I will never forget them. I had gotten back in touch with my genuine childhood dream. I was inspired to create something special and to take control of my own destiny.

Now

I returned to London in April 2008 and embarked on two new projects.

In 2008 and 2009 i was involved with like minded ex-colleagues and close friends Lex Van Dam and Raoul Pal. We shot the TV show “Million Dollar Traders” which was aired on BBC2 in January 2009. It was a project that was very important to me. Using our combined experiences in the professional world of trading we decided to show the world the secrets of how to become wealthy from trading financial markets and dispel the perceived myths of what it takes to be a successful trader. We aimed to show how the man on the street can manage and monitor risk effectively, have financial responsibility for oneself, control their own financial destiny and become wealthy (not quickly) but over time. If there is one lesson everyone can take from the last recession, in the aftermath of the previous credit boom, is that good things DO take time! Effective risk management is the key to financial success and planning. A lack of effective risk management and its understanding is the reason why so many Wall Street firms and professional traders blew up. The aim of the show was to educate and entertain. Hopefully we  inspired people to take control of their financial destiny responsibly, and help people make money for themselves, because we know the government or someone else wont do it for them.

Secondly I decided to set up a business that I’ve wanted to establish for a very long time. Whilst dealing in multiple property transactions over the last 8 years in the UK and abroad it became apparent due to the deals I’d been involved in that I never needed to pay an estate agent. I’d made a lot of money doing my own research and dealing privately. It was obviously much more difficult than simply knocking on an estate agents door, registering, seeing ten properties and buying one like everyone else did and paying the 1.5%-3% fee for the privilege when you come to sell them. However, the rewards were far greater. I specialised in buying reposessions at home and abroad, often buying property 20% cheaper than market valuation. I also sold many of my properties for a higher price than I would have if id have used a traditional estate agent and paid estate agents fees.

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Thanks for reading my About Me section. I’ll keep it updated when things in life change or move.