Episode 94 ... Kenny Glick (80:28)

A funny interview with a guy who must be right around my age, clearly a Gen-Xer.

From Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
Did stand-up comedy when 19 years old
Opened up for Andrew Dice Clay, the "thrill of his life"
Did internship at Saturday Night Live
Hung out with Adam Sandler, had a lot of fun
Answered phone with stupid voice, got fired
"Who fires a slave?"
Worked on Jon Stewart show pre-Daily Show
Trading is hard but stand-up is harder
5th grade math teacher did stock market project, Kenny got interested
Guy in suit at comedy club asked him to come sell stocks on Long Island
Turned out to be a boiler room, Kenny had to make 300 calls a day, paid $400 a week, hated it
Some guys from this Long Island boiler room opened another room, sponsored Kenny for Series 7
Kenny went 30 days without smoking weed before Series 7 exam
Kenny got 93 on Series 7, expected them to hold a parade for him, they laughed at him instead
Boiler rooms super shady, just pure fraud
"Don't put any of your friends or your family into this stock."
Kenny breaks into the schpiel he used as a boiler room man [I'm falling off my chair laughing]
Built a book of 80-100 clients, which was pretty good in 18 months
Noticed all slot machines in Vegas made by IGT
Recommended IGT to all his clients, one guy wanted to buy $100K worth
Movie Boiler Room dead-on, completely accurate
Knucklehead friend Ben made $25K a month doing boiler room sales, bought a Ferrari
"Rebuttal Book" the key to Ben's sales, no matter what the client said, he had a comeback
Kenny didn't like ripping people's heads off, he was just a funny guy, enjoyed schmoozing clients
1992-1993, this was pre-SOES, pre-day trading
1997-1998 Kenny started SOES trading with his Bar Mitzvah money
1998 Kenny started trading stocks on his own, quit the boiler rooms
Dawn of the Internet, mentions Netscape, Iomega, RealNetworks, Doubleclick
Saw the internet stocks jumping 10% a day, incredible
Adaptec, the SCSI drive, all these things started flying
"Once I learned about options, I got in trouble"
Developed a gambling habit with options
Got in a bad situation, wandered the earth
Grew a beard, wore jeans shorts, Timberlands & Grateful Dead t-shirt [he hit rock bottom]
1999 -- All you had to do was buy breaks of the previous day's high
Made $5-$10K a day, quit by 11 AM, would go to the park, smoke weed, and play hacky sack
Buddies at trading firm taught Kenny to think in "If Then" statements
Trading buddy "Isaac" taught him never to rush
"It's better to be late and right than early and wrong." [Isaac is a wise man]
Isaac taught him about the "dash for trash" at the end of a bull market
Isaac told him in February 2000, "the end is near"
Mentions CMRC, Crossroads, CMGI, SDLI ... Kenny started shorting them
Kenny made a lot of money on the dot com crash
But then he bought all the dot com stocks after they dropped 90% ... and then they went to zero
Akamai (AKAM) the only survivor that he still holds from that era
2007 he had friends at Bear Stearns, they asked Kenny if he could find them a job
"Why are you asking an idiot day trader for a job?"
Shorted Bear Stearns on the basis of this
Didn't do as well on the 2008 Crash as he did on the 2000 Crash
Tried to pick a top in QQQ in March of 2011 or 2012?, position size 50x larger than usual
Got crushed, dry mouth, sweaty hands ... took only half off into the close
Gapped up the next day, ripped higher, his loss grew even larger
This experience turned him into a megabull
"The reason I day trade is to find swing trades"
Kenny tries to identify "exhaustion situations"
Trade from one consolidation range to the next consolidation range
"Analysts are paid shills"
Analysts only upgrade or downgrade stocks at the end of a move
Losers take a losing day trade and turn it into a losing swing trade
Losers take a losing swing trade and turn it into a losing investment
Kenny likes to take winning day trades and turn them into winning swing trades
Kenny will take off 80% of his winning day trade and hold remaining 20% as a swing trade
If the swing trade is a winning trade, then Kenny will buy call options
Kenny prefers holding options instead of large stock positions
Once you find something that works, just do it over and over again
Trading should be boring
"I appreciate you having me on and shooting the shit like this"
Don't short until you see something gap up, roll over, and go red
"Let the top pick itself" -- another Isaac-ism [Isaac is a wise man]
You're never going to pick the top, so don't go broke trying
If you ever say "let's see what happens," get the hell out [tears of laughter rolling down my face]
You hear someone say they're stuck in a stock, you think, "Really? Rip the Band-aid off!"
If you're in a losing trade and mutter "let's see what happens," get out!
"What's the worst that can happen?" Get out!
Kenny has a list of stocks that he has "banned," refuses to trade them
Don't hang around all day watching the market
Once you win the money, you leave
You don't need to trade constantly
Not trading is a position
If you're sitting at your computer between 11:30 and 12:30 or 2:30 PM, you're sick
"Flat, my friends, is a position."
Kenny runs a private chat
People can come and hang out with Kenny in his trading room for a month for free
"I'm a Jewish fellow [but] can make an amazing ravioli"
Can pay a one-time membership fee to be friends with Kenny
The hardest part is sticking to the concepts that you know work
Kenny says some kind things to Aaron in parting
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