Turbulent Money

By Todd Sheldon and Akira007 Akira007

What do cycles, cosmic cycles, filters, instruments and pictures have to do with understanding the changing direction of your money?   What do sheep, Rockefellers, gangsters, billionaires, presidents of countries, bishops, and the IRA have in common? How does turbulence, corruption and manipulation influence changes to stocks, commodities a

• Language: English
• Publisher: Todd Sheldon
• Release date: Oct 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9780995289406

Book preview

Intro-My Life Before and Working Up to Being a Trader

I was born in Saskatoon, the largest city in Saskatchewan, but was only there for a short period of time (a year).  My parents moved to Calgary, and my mom and dad bought their first home in Marlborough Park.  It was a show home with different colored shag carpet in each room.  I remember my mom raking the carpet with a wire rake so it was all the same way – more like grass, is what it looked like.  I thought it was crazy. 

During my younger years in Calgary, I had the life of a typical kid. I went to school, played with my friends, rode my banana bike around and helped my dad fix old classic cars (actually classic today) – like he had a mustang fastback with a 427 4 speed in it.  How I fixed the car is the reason why I am telling this story. It is a story of patience and trying what works.  Sometimes, it is what we least expect that gives us what we want. 

My years in Marlborough Park were good, but we eventually moved to another area of town – Rundle Park, where I got my first motorcycle and started being bullied by a kid at the end of my block.  This is the beginning of the years that I would be ridiculed for having big lips – and was called some nasty things and constantly picked on for years to come before I eventually moved to BC. 

I started getting into trading when I was 16 and moved from Calgary, Alberta to BC.  I started in High School there but continued here with grade eleven and twelve.  When I started, I realized that I had already done a lot of the courses in grade 10, so I told my teachers this. They tested me and saw it was the case, and I was therefore advanced to grade 12 courses in grade 11.  What I essentially did was all my academic courses I needed, so when I was in grade 12 all I had left was English 12.  Well, I left out the part that my English teacher did not want to advance me, so I had to stay through another grade.  it was like I had 2 graduations.  It was hard though, as I saw a lot of my grade 12 friends in grade 11 finished and moved on.  When I got to grade 12, I took subjects such as accounting, calculus, physics, business classes and one called machines calculations and procedures.  This course was boring because after 3 months I had pretty much done everything.  I then started skipping the class along with my English as I was going downtown to the stock market.  At the time in my city of Vancouver, this was known as the VSE (Vancouver Stock Exchange).  I found it amazing, as it was before electronic, so it was very chaotic.  There were guys pushing ladders around the floor that were attached to the side on rollers, whereby you could push them around this circular room pretty fast.  The guys on the ladders would mark the boards with stock prices and so forth.  I was addicted from this point on.  This is what I wanted to do.

I do have to thank my business teachers Mr. Mumfries/Mumford for accounting and Mr. Moffat for the business side of education during my high school years.  Also, Mr. Moffat allowed me to go downtown and learn the real world stuff about the market since I found this extremely interesting.  When I graduated, I continued working in the glass industry since my dad had a company which employed me and my friends.  I then went to Kwantlen University to take accounting and head towards a CGA destination but dropped out as I was too exhausted of going to school and working at nights at my Dad’s glass shop.  I realized I was dozing off in class and just decided that this was not for me.

My Dad had his shop, but like many people in the area, their businesses were struggling – like that of Quick James Parker of the BC (Lions). At his Sports Bar, where we hung out, he had an interesting setup of a trampoline surrounded by nets, on which we bounced and put a ball in a basketball hoop. My Dad’s business eventually closed its doors on West 7th Ave, but he did not give up.  He opened another shop in Richmond, and I followed and worked with him for a bit until I eventually went to work with one of the largest mutual fund companies at the time. 

When I was working at the mutual fund company, I was doing extremely well, especially as an entrepreneur, and I advanced quickly. I was making near 5 figures a month back in the early 90s.  After a year, I was up for the rookie of the year, and doing well but I decided to resign as I met two gentlemen in the Bentall Towers downstairs – when you could still smoke in the buildings then.  This was Paul Spehar and one other fellow, Nino Lazarius, who was a chain smoker – he always had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.  They liked me and saw I could benefit them, but I saw the $$ signs and quickly became independent here – working directly with public companies – First was Luxor Industrial Corporation with Terry Lashman then ADI with Bob Hunter. When I worked with Terry and Bob, I quickly became set up in the brokerage industry, having accounts at Cannacord, Yorktown Securities, Global Securities, Georgia Pacific, Union Securities, Wolverton, Odlum Brown, and Haywood Securities, just to name a few.

I reaffirmed that this is what I wanted to do after leaving the mutual fund industry and spending some time with Bill Griffiths over at Yorktown securities.  I was going to become a stock broker but he recommended that I actually work with the companies first to get a better handle on what makes them tick.  Fortunately I was hooked up with some of the best people in the industry at the time.  These were the infamous days of the VSE, Murray Pezzim was around, and Frank Guistra ran Yorktown and had not started Lions Gate films yet.  I was also connected with top guys at the brokerage accounts because of working with Bob Hunter and Lashman at the time.  My accounts at Global were with Craig Rademaker, who worked directly with Art Smolensky, the CEO.  I remember I was doing an option play when I was heavily margined in my accounts and the 1500 options I purchased at pennies on the dollar were worth a cool 30,000+ dollars – this worked great as I really needed it at the time as the markets were soft and this company had a buyout and it exploded to the upside.  I remember getting the call a couple of days before my birthday and Craig said what do you want to do?  I said what do you mean?  He then said that the options were worth a whole lot and I stated sell them.  He wanted to know if I wanted to hang onto them longer.  No way – made a pile and I was liquidating as I was already having sleepless nights. 

Being involved in the market brings great times – when you’re on top of the world - and tough times - when seems like the sky is falling.  When the times were good when I was young, I was naive.  I loved hanging out with Mr. Lashman at the Vancouver Club, where we would discuss the activity in the stock as well as business over a game of snooker and a glass of Cognac.  Ill Giardinos was also a regular hangout for all the stock promoters, brokers and the like – anybody and everybody associated with the stock market.  It was a buzzing place with Ferraris, Porsches and all sorts of exotic cars parked out front.  You went here to not only eat, but to find out what was going on – who was pushing what.  I got to finally park my 1994 Toyota Supra Twin Turbo (Red of course) out front.  I had my gold Halliburton brief case, Versace Sun shirt, Purple Versace Blazer, Alligator shoes etc.  I was a walking-talking promoter and since I was working alongside Bob, people listened.  It was exciting times going to big Charity events where Tony Parsons was there chatting with Bob - with everyone talking deals. 

During the days of working with Bob and Terry, I enjoyed my relationships with people.  I would travel down to LA to all the brokerage houses down there – go to see Bill McCarty in San Francisco, a broker down there and do the dog and pony shows as they called them back then.  I would travel a lot between LA, San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego as we had lots of people in the stocks in those areas, since the markets were more active on the west coast with the VSE and San Francisco Financial communities. 

These were the days when I had a big computer at home with a green screen, and the quotes were that – just quotes with bid, and asks, and sizes, and that’s it.  We never traded off charts back then, just price action, volume and highs and lows.  I had a small Vancouver firm that provided me the quotes which is quite archaic compared to today’s technology and standards.

Today, I have a simple life – trade from the computer, a recluse, drive a Buick and live in a modest home.  Is life good? – Yes.  Would I like some of those exiting times back? Sure!.  But one must be careful.  Back then, I blew money like there was no tomorrow.  I also was a heavy drinker and a heavy smoker.  It seemed like everyone was doing it.  It was part of the times – you could smoke everywhere – there were no laws like today. 

Over the years, I would leave the industry and then come back.  Maybe not in the same position as I would flip flop between a stock promoter, then a C-Level Executive, Trader – FSG Futures, CFG, Refco, MF Global – I have always liked trading.  I have always liked digging into the company to see what makes it tick.  Today I am more conservative which means that I have slowed down.  I look for value and I am not scared to dump losers, but look for bounces first.  Do I get caught off guard? Sure, who doesn’t? I am only human.  That is why so many use algorithms to trade – the black box or computer.  These have been around for a long time, believe me.  I remember Peter Steele, a friend of mine over at Refco.  He originally came from Australia and said he was using an algorithm and trading a black box for about 2 years. The returns were phenomenal, he mentioned. But then they got wiped out, completely decimated.

Peter and I liked enjoying the good times or a rough day by going to the F440 track in Tsawwassen as we both had Carts there; the professional racing ones.  He also had a Mercedes C65 which we literally flew to the track.  It was a great drive from Vancouver to Tsawwassen.  I eventually had my own Mercedes C65 too but I felt it was overrated, and I did not care much for it.  It was nice, believe me. But there is more to life.  Today, I have a wonderful wife, my kids are slowly coming back into my life, and I have a good relationship with my parents right now. I also see my sister Melissa with her husband Neil and my wife Laurie and I enjoy time with my nieces Sofiya and Aneria.  A lot of that wasn’t the case years back.  My life would get very chaotic. I have been bullied by more than just kids at school making fun of me because of my big lips which are (vogue) now.  I have been bullied by companies, executives, and the MEDIA. Yes there is a price to everything.  Stories are not always what they seem to be.  This applies to companies, and the Media.  Yes, they all want to sell something – ratings, stock, stories, books – I know I am offering my book here, but I am doing it out of my heart. I am not really concerned about making money from this book. I am only hoping to give back to other people who are being bullied. Honestly, it comes down to all the violence out there.  I am not saying it is right, but some people who get ridiculed all the time just eventually snap. I have been there or close to it, and I have spent years in a shrink