Hi, my name is Mike.
I started investing in 1996. The first stock I bought was Applebees ($APPB) and it proceeded to go down 25% the day after I bought it on the back of a bad earnings report. Talk about baptism by fire. I learned quickly that I had to know more about this whole earnings report thing.
After this experience, I realized I didn't know anything about what I was doing and I started my lifelong journey of becoming a better investor.
I've had a lot of success with investing (I turned $4,000 in 2003 into $45,000 in 2005 and then $8,000 in 2009 into over $10 Million by 2021), some epic failures along the way (I lost over 80% of my money in late 2015/early 2016 and 50%+ multiple times along the way), and even more epic comebacks (each time I made back all of those losses and went on to new all time portfolio highs).
But more importantly than all of this is the simple fact that investing has given me the freedom to live a life on my own terms. I never made more than $80,000 a year in salary and I quit working for the man in 2012 and outside of two brief stints in the workforce, I've been a full time trader since.
As an investor, I've become frustrated with the investing sites out there. Yahoo Finance turned into an ad wasteland, Seeking Alpha and Motley Fool are riddled with pump articles to help their authors get out at a profit, and Youtube is littered with Engagement videos that focus on terrible companies that are popular on Reddit's Wall Street Bets.
With two teenaged kids now, my mission is to give back to the investing world in any way that I can. I want House of Trade to be a fun place for investors to share in their fandom. I also want it to be a valuable resource on investing for anyone just getting going with investing, as well as for people that are hungry to learn more about investing and about achieving financial freedom.
Investing has provided me with so much and I want to give back to others.
My mission is simple:
To give people the tools they need to make their own investing decisions and to create a fun place for people to join like minded investors also on their path to financial freedom.
My core values:
Honesty
Integrity
Hard Work
Helping Others