Liquid Millionaire - isaco

Total Immersion Was the Key
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Liquid Millionaire
Albert Einstein once said, “Only one who devotes himself to a cause with
his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery
demands all of a person.”
I decided to totally immerse myself in O’Neil’s philosophy on investing.
I aggressively read all of O’Neil’s books, all the books O’Neil had read,
listened intently to all of his audio programmes and eventually I started
to subscribe to O’Neil’s premium equity research package. 35 I also fl ew
across the Atlantic twice to see Bill in person as part of my learning
programme. I fi rst saw him speak in 2001 in South Beach, Miami. Th e
second time I saw him was in New York in 2002. 36
But what exactly happened?
How did I turn $31,409 into $1.28 million?
Th e best way to explain what happened is to use a time line:
• After reading O’Neil’s book How to Make Money in Stocks (about
three or four times), I started to paper trade the market. In case
you have not heard of the term before, paper trading is simulated
trading that investors use to practice mimicking trades (buys and
sells) without actually entering into any monetary transactions.
Paper trading is a good way to learn the ropes without risking
any money. You can do it simply by pretending to buy and sell
stock and keep notes of paper profi ts or losses.
• As soon as I gained confi dence, I set up a trading account with a
brokerage company called Ameritrade–with a starting amount
of $31,409. Th is was in May 2000.
• Little did I know that I had just started my stock investing
apprenticeship at a time when the market had just begun what
was going to be known as one of the worst bear (down) markets
in the stock market’s entire history.