Editor’s Note: I want you to write this name down – Andrew Keene. Trust me, you’ll want to get to know him immediately… Because he’s in the business of completely transforming lives. What Andrew has to share will completely disrupt the way you think about trading – and your future. And today, I want to share his story. So without further ado, here’s Andrew.
My first “real job” was an analyst at a bank… and I remember the day I got fired like it was yesterday.
It was so boring I would literally fall asleep at my desk in the middle of the day. So they decided to give my job to someone else.
My second “real job” wasn’t any better. I sat in a cubicle looking at endless spreadsheets all day for CVS-Caremark, where my boss was some corporate stuffed shirt, always in my face.
I was absolutely hating life – it got so bad I could barely sleep at night.
Not that I had much to get up for every day; my pay was peanuts, too. My salary was only $45,000 a year – around $500 a week after taxes. It was barely enough to afford a decent car, let alone an apartment in Chicago.
So I had to move back in with my parents just to make ends meet. It was so embarrassing, but what else could I do? It was right after 9/11; there was a recession on, good jobs were scarce, and I needed the money.
So I went to work every day, and did my best to stay awake. But I hated every minute of it.
Time for another change. I didn’t know it at the time, but this one would be big – really big…
It didn’t quite start out that way, but it opened up the door to incredible, life-changing wealth (and more fun than ought to be legal) …
I decided to take a clerk’s job at the famous Chicago Board Options Exchange. Before you get too impressed, you should know I was pulling down just $24,000 a year. It was about half of what I was making at CVS/Caremark, maybe $275 a week – barely enough to pay for a few interesting dates.
But I didn’t care. I’d wanted to be a trader ever since I was 13. This was my chance.
So, I kissed off my corporate job at CVS/Caremark and started taking the 5:40 a.m. train from Deerfield, Illinois to Union Station to learn how to trade. I had such a knack for it, nine months later, I was promoted to floor trader, where I spent my days standing in a frenzied pit at the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
This is back in the day, when there was barely controlled chaos on the floor. I’m talking hundreds of screaming brokers throwing hand signals and shouting orders all at once.
It was like trying to get a drink from a fire hose. Absolutely relentless.
I had to trade fast; I couldn’t make any mistakes, but I loved every minute of it.
Ultimately, a couple of veteran traders took me under their wing. They taught me how to make serious money working the floor.
Soon I was raking it in hand over fist. So much so that I became one of the biggest market-makers on the floor, right smack in the middle of the crazy action. I made markets for some of the biggest stocks on the floor – Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)… General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE)… and Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO).
But it didn’t last. Before long, computers replaced every last one us; the chaotic, oh-so-lucrative trading pits were no more.
That’s three jobs gone if you’re keeping track.
You know, it was kind of depressing, but I didn’t let it get me down. I walked out of the CBOE as one of the top traders on the floor. I left on a high note, you could say.
And it wasn’t long before I was making my own trades, pulling down cash without missing a beat.
Life was phenomenal: cars… sweet apartments… dates with girls at all the best restaurants… vacations at the top resorts… you name it.
I was making more money than I could possibly spend.
And then out of nowhere, the bottom dropped out.
I hit what you might call a “really bad stretch,” and by that I mean I lost more money in four months than most people make in their entire working lives.
Nothing I was doing was working. I was getting crushed, and I didn’t know what to do.
So I got out for a bit…
I went to a Buddhist monastery in Thailand and taught English for six months, just to clear my head. But there was no way I was going to quit…
When I got back, I swore to myself I would make it all back again – every stinkin’ dime, and then some. That’s when I discovered an unusual new trading strategy. Suddenly, I was making more money than I ever had in my life.
$15,000 here…. $25,000 there… It wasn’t long before I was banking over $200,000 a month.
And it was so easy. Two years later, I’d made 50 times my money, turning $100,000 into $5 million before my 30th birthday.
The rush I felt was amazing. But beyond that, more importantly, trading had made me free.
I only had to “work” about an hour a day. An hour a day, four days a week. That’s all the time it took.
And since I wasn’t stuck at my computer all day, I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and from wherever I wanted – countries all over the world. And the money just kept rolling in. Since then, I’ve been on top of the world.
But I’ve never forgotten how I got here – or where I came from.
So for years now, I’ve been helping everyday people experience the same life transformation I had. And on November 21 at 1 PM ET – it’s your turn.
So, stay tuned. You’ll be hearing from me very soon.
Andrew Keene
