Ron Pollack, My New York Dinner With An Old Friend
I met with representatives of am institution that was considering investing in my new hedge fund on a recent visit to New York. Then, I met with an old friend that I’ll call “Harry.” Stocks
Harry has a Sales Trader job, which is a person who handles the order for institutional clients such as hedge funds and mutual funds. He was very successful in the business, and used to cover me, and I was one of the accounts he had in “Ron Pollack Bulldog Days”. Though we did continue to keep in contact with each other, he and I retired from trading around the same period of time back in 2004. Hedge Fund
Harry and I, both, engaged in a variety of unrewarding and unprofitable business ventures after exiting Wall Street. After some time, Harry began to miss playing and questioned if I would ever return to trading. Really, I miss it also. In early 2008 I informed him I would return to managing money; he was thrilled and was eager to get back into it also. Brokerage Firm
The launch of my new fund was postponed as a result of the market upheavals in the latter part of the year.
In the fall of the last year, Harry looked stressed out, which is not normal for someone who is used to handling million share orders in volatile stocks like a machine. Firms were closing down everywhere, and he was relying on my account for his own return but that was not there.
Who runs a small brokerage firm that caters to hedge funds,soon after seeing Harry I met “Doug.” Right away Harry can time mind and I put the 2 of them together. It went well because Doug gave Harry a trial run, and Harry did very well. During his first couple of phone calls about some old accounts, he found a big order and it increased from then on.
Harry has become one of the top producers for Doug and he has only been on the job for four months. So it wasn’t surprising that when we met for dinner Harry was beaming. He’s earning money–good money–and enjoying himself at the same time. I was so pleased. In fact he said, “Ron Pollack I am going to treat you every time you come to NYC,then Harry announced that dinner would be his treat.I was very pleased as we were at a great location, one of the city’s best steakhouses.
,“Every day we’ve been hearing stories of doom and gloom like the end of Wall Street, the end of hedge funds, the end of the world as we know it,toward the end of the evening, I asked Harry this question. Of course things are a mess but I want your perspective about what is different about your current success.” His answer was refreshing and went something like this, he said, “Ron, there are a lot of people hurting right now and I truly feel for them, but I am living proof that if you’re good at what you do, have the willingness to work hard and apply yourself and are realistic in your expectations, you can make it and even flourish in times like these. While my paycheck has shrunk, I really can not complain. Individual who are like us are fighters, we are there when there is business to get finished. For people who can somehow find ways to be productive, buisness will always be open.”
Harry, here’s to you my friend! Continue to show us how to do it. logging off for now.