People on the google finance boards call me Gordon Gekko.  I'm sure if you dug a little deeper you would eventually figure out that I'm not a full time day trader, but just an average joe just like everyone else with a full time job, but with the exception of a unique talent for trading stocks.  I first started trading many years ago during my freshmen year of college and was pretty successful at it. Looking back I call it luck because a couple years later I lost everything on a few bad trades.  But those bad trades eventually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it forced me to really understand the stock market and learn to identify the essential skills that made a successful investor in order to never commit the same mistakes again; thus, allowing me to become the consistent and profitable investor that I am today.  In addition, like I've shared with many investors I've come to establish wonderful friendships with over the years, trading has taught me more than just how to accumulate wealth, but more importantly, what I have learned to value most beyond anything in this world...family and friends.