The Making Of A Trader

Please join me in welcoming Steven Primo to TradingMarkets. Steve is a 20-year
veteran of Wall Street. He currently heads a private investment partnership,
where he is General Partner and head trader. Previously, Steve was a 9-year
Specialist focr Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette (DLJ), one of the premier firms on
Wall Street.  I’m sure
you’ll enjoy reading his daily commentary.

My Father had always been interested in the markets. As a young boy he used to
take me to the brokerage houses and read the tape. “What do those numbers mean?”
I asked. “Well” he explained, “those 3-letter symbols are companies and the
numbers next to them show the price they are worth. What you want to do is buy a
company at a low price and sell it a few years later at a higher price.” Simple
enough. But it was my reaction to the explanation that surprised my Dad. “If the
numbers are always moving up and down,” I asked, “wouldn’t it be better to just
buy and sell them all day long? That way you don’t have to wait two years for
your money.” A day trader/swing trader was born.

After graduating from college in 1978 (with a degree in music), I needed to find a
summer job. While walking the hot summer streets of Los Angeles I spotted a
building that seemed to call out my name – The Pacific Stock Exchange. I tucked
in and straightened my shirt, entered the building and walked up to the
visitor’s gallery. Everywhere below, in a large, open gymnasium-type room,
people were running and shouting with pieces of paper in their hands. Buy! Sell!
At that instant I knew I was hooked. I began my career as a floor reporter on
the floor of the Pacific Stock Exchange the very next week.

In the years to follow I became a Floor Trader, a Specialist’s Assistant, and
ultimately advanced to become a Specialist myself where I traded over 50 stocks
for DLJ. I traded through the great bull market of the 80’s, through events like
the shuttle disaster and the first Gulf War, and finally through the crash of
’87. I left the floor in 1994 to pursue something most floor traders had never
succeeded at – trading my own account. Little did I know that my evolution as a
trader was just beginning.

In the columns to follow, I hope to share with you many of the experiences, both
up and down, which have led me to become the trader I am today. Good luck and
good trading.