Hello, trading world. My name is Ryan, but acquired the nickname Ryno long, long ago for reasons I can’t recall. Not sure if being called Ryno is a good thing since rhinos have very poor eyesight, easily panic, and often run into trees during traumatic attempts to escape whatever the hell scared them. Seems quite opposite of how I play the markets, but the name stuck. Running, panicking and not seeing what the market puts right in front of our faces can be very painful – going broke can feel like running into trees.
I’ve been trading, and more importantly, managing my own portfolio, since the late 90s and of course, I thought I was the stud of Wall Street OFF Wall Street at that time (I grew up and live in Austin, Texas). Then, to my astonishment, I discovered that everyone else was making money during the tech boom, too. Duh. What I didn’t comprehend at that time is I had no idea what I was doing – I was riding the wave. When did I come to this epiphany? Well, the markets gave up on the dot-coms and the tide of money went back out to sea. Being heavily invested in anything with a URL, I was left standing naked on the shore holding empty money bags next to a bunch of other young guns with empty money bags. In the big picture, I made a lot of money between 1998 and 2001, but then gave almost all of it back. It was time to learn what the hell I was doing. My trading account was almost empty, but my determination to make it work was overflowing.
I spent the next year reading and educating myself while, at the same time, staying away from trading.
My schooling is in advertising (Graduated from the University of Texas back in ’96) and my career is in marketing – currently an Online Project Manager for a Fortune 50 tech company. My day job is all about understanding people – buying habits, trends, consumer money flows, etc.. A perfect marriage actually – I feel that consumer sentiment has a larger role in macro economics than often credited. I often trade by economic calendars and trend data gathered by gallup.com. Can the market really sustain a large bull move with decreasing consumer confidence? I setup short plays when the divergence grows.
These days, I spend most of my hours holding down a career while fitting in time for my true love – day and swing trading. I primarily focus on momentum breakout setups. I study the charts and even dream about them – yeah, that’s sick, I know. Since I rarely hold a stock more than a day or two, I spend little time in the fundamentals. It’s all about volume trading for me – satisfies my addiction. I often look for segments/industries on the move and then search for the laggards with the best setups within that industry. My goal is to leave the corporate lifestyle some time next year so I can trade full time with nothing but a swimsuit on and a cold beer within inches of the keyboard.
If you ever want to talk about weather (I’m a weather freak), college football, cold beer, best places to listen to good music, or macro economics – ping me.
The stock market can be intimidating with all the CNBC talking heads (clutter in my book), money scandals, and fancy suits. But, we have BullsonWallstreet to sort through the clutter. I’m here to be part of a team that brings education, encouragement, and excitement to the individual investor.
Enough talk – let’s make some cash-money.
