Daddy Market

Tristan went up to his father one day and said, "Dad, tell me everything you know about the stock market."

To which his dad promptly replied, "No." And walked away.

This frustrated Tristan to no end. His father, after all, was a famous stock trader. Like really famous. Most people who knew about the stock market knew about his father. His father's trades were the stuff of legend and newspapers mentioned his father almost on a daily basis. It got so bizarre that every time any stock made a big move people speculated that his father was the one behind the movement. So naturally, Tristan wanted to be exactly like his father. But his father never talked about the market. Not with his friends, not with his wife, not with anyone. He kept most of his thoughts on the market solely to himself. This created a bit of an aura of mystery that naturally drove Tristan bonkers. He had tried many times to to ask his father about his father's work and all his life the answer was the same.

"No."

Tristan's 15th birthday was coming up, and as most teenagers are when it comes to their parents, he just couldn't take no for an answer. So he went up to his dad one day and proposed an ultimatum, "Dad, I'm sick of you not telling me about the stock market. For my birthday I want to you tell me everything that you know. I want nothing else. If you don't give this to me I will be forever unhappy and never talk to you again."

His dad was cornered. After all nothing is worse for a father than to have no relationship with his son. So he broke his cardinal rule and decided to fulfill his son's wishes. The day of the birthday came and Tristan was eager with excitement. He barely slept the night before he was so excited. He went up to his father first thing in the morning.

"So, will you now tell me everything you know dad?" asked Tristan budding with excitement.

"Yes son, I will," replied his father. "Son," his dad continued, "I cashed out you're college fund and deposited the money in an E-Trade account for you. The account has $200,000 and you are free to trade as much as you want. You are also free to not trade at all. The money is still you're college tuition money and if you lose it, you will have to pay for college yourself."

Tristan was more shocked than disappointed. This was not what he expected at all. On the one hand he felt empowered to have that much money to move around but on the other hand he was a bit underwhelmed. He wanted the secrets not a trading account.

"But dad I wanted to know you're secrets. A lot of people say you are the best trader to ever live, I want to know what makes you so great," plead Tristan.

"Son, you might not see it now but that is what I'm trying to tell you. Start trading, and if in a month or so you still don't understand, I will answer all you're questions," replied Tristan's father.

So Tristan started his trading journey. The thought of not trading and saving his college fund never crossed his mind. Who needs college? You only live once after all. It was the middle of summer so he could trade everyday without having to worry about anything else. And trade he did. Almost nonstop, everyday. He couldn't get enough, he simply loved the action. Most of his trades were losses but it didn't matter, he was happy just to be in the game. Initially he started buying blue chip companies. The AAPLs and AMZNs of the world but he got bored with them. They weren't moving enough and he wanted to make BIG MONEY. After a couple of weeks, he gave up the blue chips and transitioned into what he thought was the hidden gold mine of the stock market; penny stocks.

Surprisingly Tristan actually made money the first couple of weeks. He ran his account up to about $350,000 dollars. He was sure he had real trading talent. Tristan was over the moon. He promptly went up to his dad and said,"Thanks for the account dad. As it turns out I don't need you're secrets after all. I already know them."

"You're most welcome son," replied his dad with a smile.

Then it happened. Black Tuesday. On one day Tristan lost half his account. Surprisingly though, he was still just as confident. He knew he would make it back the next day. Well he did not make it back the next day. Or the next. Or the one after that. As a matter of fact he lost more and more till the account was around $10,000. He was devastated but not defeated. He figured as long as he had money in his account he could make it all back. He just needed a stock that could go up a lot. He had read about a penny stock in the electric car space that was sure to make a huge run. It had recently run up from 1 penny to 7 cents. It was exactly the type of stock that could make him all his money back. He promptly put his remaining $10,000 in the stock. The stock went down a bit so Tristan did what he thought was best; he stopped looking at his account. He decided that he was in it for the long haul and he would just have to wait till the stock made its monster move.
About a month later the stock was below .5 cents. That is less than half a penny. Tristan's account was at effectively zero. He was so devastated he didn't leave his room for a week. For the first time he thought about college and how he might not be able to go. He didn't care about missing out on the education, he cared about missing out on all the fun times with his friends. After high school they would all go to expensive colleges and he would either be stuck at home or working to pay his way through community or state school. He realized the gravity of his mistake and all that he had just lost. His devastation evolved into full blown depression. Having seen enough, Tristan's dad decided to step in.

"What happened son?"

"I lost everything dad. I don't have an account anymore. I lost it all. I thought I had it all figured out but as it turned out I knew nothing."

"I see. So what did you learn son?"

"What did I learn?"

"Yes son, what did you learn?"

"I should have saved my college money," said Tristan trying to smile. After taking a moment to think about it he continued, "Trading is really hard dad. I mean its easy sometimes when you're making money. Or at least it seems easy then. But when you lose money its so hard to stop losing money because all you want to do is make it back. So you keep trading and trading but all you do is lose more and more. After a while you can't even execute properly because you're head is so messed up from all the losing. Its really, really hard to trade."

"Son, that took me three years to learn. Good job, thats the first secret."

"Huh?"

"You wanted to learn my secrets right? Well that is the first one right there."

"Oh. I guess I thought you're secrets would be a little different."

"Everything looks easy from the outside son. But until you actually try to do something you don't really know what it takes to be successful. To be good at trading you have to first respect money and respect the work required to execute the trading process at a high level. A respect that you now have. The reason I don't talk to anyone about the market is because I don't want them to think it is as easy as the words make it out to be. Anyone can talk about the market. Anyone can talk about trading and making money. But it is much harder to do then to say. What takes a second to say takes years to learn. That's the reality of life. That's true with just about everything."

"I guess."

"Tristan now I have another question for you."

"For me?"

"Yes."

"What is it dad?"

"Do you want to keep trading?"

Tristan thought about it for a moment and replied.

"Well I can't go to college anymore."