My work situation has been a real roller coaster. I work as a recruiter and a trader. I am hoping the trading part of the equation will work out since I am sick of cold calling. I basically call financial advisors all over the country asking them if they would be interested in making a change. It doesn't matter which firm they go to only that they make a move. Last year I made 30k recruiting and 2k trading although I only started trading again in the fall. This year I am switching trading firms and haven't been able to be involved in the markets since January so once again I am having to rely on the telephone. I should be able to trade again in a few weeks. I am excited about that because I feel like I have developed a good system in my time off from trading and will be able to do well once I am up and running again.
I just recently made a placement in Scottsdale, Arizona with Oppenheimer which is opening a new office there. The broker Bob Perry left Merrill Lynch and was doing about $150,000 a year in commissions which he gets paid about 40% of that $150,000 and Mother Merrill keeps the rest. You may think that is really good but in the cut throat world of Wall Street that production will not keep you at a firm. After 3 years you need to be doing at least $300,000 a year in production to keep a job in a wirehouse. The wirehouses are Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Smith Barney, and Wachovia. And I call all of them. Hoping that they will jump around.
I am about to watch the Cardinals here. I think the Cardinals problem is that Tony LaRussa burns them out so they have nothing left by the post season. They lost a lot of key guys Matt Morris, Reggie Sanders, and Larry Walker. But Scott Rolen, Albert Puljos, and Jim Edmonds in the middle of the lineup is nothing to complain about. The big story in baseball is Barry Bonds and he even has his own reality show on ESPN every Tuesday night. I just read the book "Game of Shadows" and the evidence is so great about Bonds taking steriods that it leaves little doubt that he did it. His personal trainer was put in prision for being a steriod dealer and the trainer had a calendar that had the days he would give Bonds steriods. I enjoyed watching the reality show about Bary Bonds you got to see what he is like. It had him crying at the end of the show saying that he couldn't let his family and fans down just because of all the hatred. If he had been like this all of his career maybe the Anti-Bary Bonds campaign wouldn't be so brutal. I think it is going to be a race this year to see whether he will break one of the sacred records or the US Government shuts him down before he can do it. Play ball...............
