Your Survival Guy’s First Job in the Investment World

By zulie @ Adobe Stock

Your Survival Guy’s first job in the investment world was before I even graduated from Babson College in 1994. It was back in 1992 when I was a sophomore working at a firm called Wall Street Games, founded by Babson alum (’82) Tim DeMello.

At Wall Street Games, later renamed Replica because it also offered fantasy football, participants would call up and place their lineup to me or other employees working the phones. The Wall Street part of it was a game where participants were given a large sum of money to trade, and at the end of the quarter or so, the one with the most money won the prize.

Stock options were the tool most used to get there.

I remember studying and studying how options worked so I’d be ready to put together the trades for participants. It was a lot of reading and talking to coworkers after the shift to understand some of the intricacies of the trades being done.

Showing up for my shift, I’d grab a seat in front of one of the rows and rows of computer terminals and headsets. As soon as you logged in, the phone would beep with one caller after another and continue at a rapid-fire pace for the next several hours.

Big brokerage firms would have their new hires play the game to learn how to build options trades and not lose “real” money. As you can imagine, it was a pretty competitive and intense group of players.

This is where I cut my teeth in the world of options, an area that is today teeming with participants, many of whom wish they had never heard the word “options.”

Sure, one can write options as a side hustle, but that’s not what we were doing back then. These traders were swinging for the fences like the guys in Liar’s Poker. It’s why students at surrounding schools wanted to work there. It was the best education in town.

That was a long time ago.

Options are like living in Willie Nelson’s “You Were Always on My Mind,” because you’re always dealing with them, whether it’s taxes or the calendar. And you had to be right twice: first with the direction of prices, and second, when they would get there. To me, that’s no way to spend Your Retirement Life. I’d much rather be in Paris.

Action Line: Want a Survival Guy type portfolio where you can sleep well at night? Email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com, and we’ll talk about building a portfolio for you. And, click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.