Option Fanatic, RIA (Part 1)

Trading has given me freedom to retire from corporate America and to successfully pay the bills as an entrepreneur for six years running. Today I begin deliberation over whether to go into business trading other people’s money (OPM).

Part of me has trouble understanding why I even entertain such an idea. I am admittedly somewhat jaded with regard to the financial industry. This very blog has made common usage of the term optionScam.com!

Short of sticking heads in the sand and blocking out all media, I am sometimes surprised how anybody can have a positive view of the industry. I agree that we shouldn’t necessarily believe everything we hear. Nevertheless, stories about investor fraud, Bernie Madoff, Ponzi schemes, and financial corruption in the name of the almighty ravage informational websites, television programming, books, and magazines to such an extent that some negative influence would seem to be inevitable.

Trading money for myself is one thing but doing so for others would be a jump to the dark side. I would become part and parcel of an industry riddled by greed. Do I want to risk being perceived in this light?

As long as something sets me apart from other financial advisors and money managers, the answer is yes. For me personally, this is necessary to at least ward off cognitive dissonance (hypocrisy). Let’s put an asterisk by this point to be revisited later.

Since I have been successful making money for myself, wondering why I don’t apply myself to make money for others is the next logical step. If one store is operating successfully then common business practice is to open a second location. This idea dovetails nicely with the reality that I have time, which I currently spend on “optional” activities, that could be allocated to trading OPM instead.

I will continue analysis of this point in my next post.