About our Head Trader and
Co-Founder Alex
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Alex Wasilewski aka AlexLW, our head trader in the live room, and
co-founder has a rich and eclectic background that might more easily
have been described by what he has not done. Click here for
information on contacting Alex by phone.
He has never sat upon a mountain top and counseled Ringo Starr, never
sacked Bart Starr, and never danced with any of the stars. He has
done everything else.
He was a NYC cab driver during his college days at Manhattan
College in the Bronx NY. Rudolph Giuliani graduated two years
before Alex but they may have bumped into each other at the
Pinewood. Alex later owned a NYC taxi medallion and relates the
awe of listening to Wall Street power traders talking business in the
back of the cab. A few of them took him on the floor of the NY
Stock Exchange where he got his first exposure to reading the Big Tape.
Among the other businesses Alex owned, a cocktail lounge on Long
Island, an over-the-road tractor trailer freight hauling business, and
more recently a Budget Blinds window treatment franchise.
In law enforcement and banking, Alex was a Suffolk County NY police
officer, an I.R.S. auditor, and an accountant for the Federal Reserve
Bank of NY.
Finally, related to trading, after opening up a brokerage account at
Bache & Co. while a police officer in 1980, his interest and early
success trading soybeans after his night shifts prompted the local Long
Island branch office manager to recruit Alex to become a stock
broker. Most people eschewed the stock market in early 1981 but
Alex, always the contrarian, saw good times ahead for stocks. He
graduated the Bache (now Prudential Securities) training program on the
day Ronald Reagan was shot, and that was around the time the stock
market started up from its lows and even in the face of numerous
setbacks, never looked back.
Neither has Alex.
Though his first efforts in the brokerage business met with little
acceptance, Alex cold-called skeptical investors on the merits of
buying an out of favor dog stock whose "pie in the sky" CEO was busy
touting his obviously flawed ideas of competition. Chrysler did
OK for those who listened to Lee Iacocca and Alex Waselewski. There
were many other out of favor investments that did well for clients over
the years.
The big thing that bothered Alex was the fact that no matter how astute
and profitable the calls, he always felt like a "cheap salesman"
forcing people to see it his way. Life was tough for a contrarian.
That is where the lure of independent trading began to present itself
as an alternative to trying so desperately to help others.
Alex knew, however the dismal record of independent short term
traders. Over 90% of his clients who called their own shots lost
money. A greater than number even lost money listening to
the advice of the brokerage in-house analysts.
But there were the few. There were some great traders who defied
the odds, who proved the random walk might not be so universal after
all.
Alex began a multi-year campaign to read every book he could on
trading. He did not stop there. He attempted to contact
every big name trader in the world. A few returned the calls and
letters. Little tidbits of advice stuck, and slowly turned losing
ideas into profitable ones.
Alex even paid large sums of money to personally train under some of
the more notable trading advisors. From these people he slowly
took certain ideas, setups, strategies and filters and adopted it to
use in his own account.
Although Alex has been an outstanding investor over the long term in
individual stocks, short term day trading was a cold shower. He lost
money consistently over a 3 year period: a typical newbie making
every possible mistake. The only good news was his devoting a
very small piece of capital to his day trading adventures, roughly
$11,000. His pride was not losing it all, he grinned when first
explaining it to us.
Alex strongly believes that the keys to trading success are alive and
present in ALL traders. He believes that what you program in your
subconscious is far more important than what you program into a
computer. Your personal will can conquer any obstacle. In 1985 Alex
developed an extraordinary fear of flying when his boss at the time, a
personal friend, and the man who introduced Alex to a career in
trading, died in a plane crash at LI MacArthur airport. It was even
more traumatic since Alex had been in the right seat of that aircraft
only moments earlier while his friend demonstrated touch and goes at
the airport. Huey's death was so traumatic that Alex became a veritable
John Madden when it came to flying---only driving or taking a Greyhound
Bus.
When "TOLD" that his fear had won, the challenge so intrigued Alex that
he forced himself to conquer his fears. With counseling and
determination, Alex did get his pilot's license a year and a half
later---not a world record---but a tribute to the power of the
subconscious. The world record came later.
Just a week after getting his pilot's license, and buying his own
airplane, and a bad weather experience, Alex knew he needed an
Instrument Rating. His goal was to obtain an Instrument Rating in 2
months. Pilot's at the local airport, and his own flight instructor
laughed at the idea of a former flying phobic individual could get an
Instrument Rating that quickly. "It took John Glenn six weeks to get
his IFR rating," they laughed---"you are no John Glenn."
Alex was not John Glenn. But he did believe that you could do anything
you program yourself to do. He hired a former airline pilot and Naval
"Top Gun" instructor.
A very reluctant FAA flight test examiner presented Alex with his
Instrument Rating 5 days later! "As far as I can see in our database
Alex, was the first pilot who ever achieved an Instrument Rating in
less than 5
days. Don't make me feel
guilty by flying into a garbage dump one night."
Experiences such as that have contributed to Alex's philosophy of
trading. To become successful, emulate the habits of a losing trader
who became successful, rather than study those who won lotteries.
As most successful and honest advisors will tell you, first all newbies
lose money. Then they learn to break even. Then they
discover the magic of discipline, a high probability method, and
personal positive psychology. AND THE NEWBIE BECOMES A PRO.
Cajun
TTW
Sr. Trader |
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