I love learning about REAL people, like Fred Franzia and the story of Two Buck Chuck, and Charles Kirk, owner and operator of linkmaster The Kirk Report, is a real person…a real Wall Street person.

Check out the entire long long long interview at Wall St. Cheat Sheet, but below are some of my favorite segments:

Have you ever heard of the investor who grew $2000 into more than $1 million? (Uhhhhh, YES!!!) Meet Charles Kirk. Charles is not your average fast-talking, infomercial-star pitching to sell you his get-rich-quick scam. Rather, Charles is one of the most respected investing and trading bloggers on the web.

Charles is best know for The Kirk Report: a blog which provides readers with a steady flow of excellent tips for becoming a better investor or trader. He works hard to help educate people on how to build a skill set which will benefit them for a lifetime. Rather than promise quick riches, Charles takes pride in being honest when explaining the time and discipline required to become a successful investor. In a business full of charlatans, Charles is a gem.

Damien: You trade stocks full-time. What is your advice to someone who aspires to try the same path?

Charles: Trading is very similar to any profession that requires a certain amount of skill: it takes vast amounts of time and dedication to learn. Only liars and crooks who want to sell you easy short cuts, trading advice and alerts, expensive software, etc. will tell you different. In fact, even the brokers are guilty of the same “it is easy, anyone can do it” type of mentality in order to fill their own wallets with your trading commissions. Remember the cute baby who trades at E-trade?
However, to do well over a lengthy period of time in a consistent manner takes a tremendous amount of skill. This can only be acquired through a dedicated, extensive effort. My suggestion for anyone who aspires to do what I’ve done is to spend several years just learning everything they can about the market and exploring different types of trading strategies. The Kirk Report can be helpful in this capacity especially if you take time to read through all of the links and resources I share. During this time I also think it is important to build trading skills by trading in simulated “paper trading” accounts.

Only after you’ve acquired these skills and have proven some measure of consistent success, can you even start to think about trading full-time. By then, it should already be patently obvious if you’ve got what it takes to make it as a full-time trader based on your current and past performance. And, remember, this is not a profession suitable for everyone and that’s OK. Find a career that makes you happy and able to provide for yourself and your family. Trading provides that for some, but certainly not everyone who desires to set out to trade full-time.

Damien: Would you say being away from Wall Street helps you feel more objective and less susceptible to the emotions of the masses?

Charles: I once thought there was a distinct and clear advantage, but I no longer think so. With access to the same real-time information and tools that those on Wall Street use, for good or for ill I am unfortunately impacted by the very same opinions and emotions that traders who work on Wall Street face every single day.

However, because I am an independent trader who trades only my own money instead managing other people’s money, I have a tremendous amount of freedom and flexibility to trade the way I want to at all times. Those on Wall Street who work for others simply don’t have that luxury and that’s to their own detriment as well as their clients.

I’ve been doing this long enough to understand that sometimes it is OK not to trade and be patient while your strategies aren’t working well. There are times, for example, that I will significantly under perform the market and that is to be expected. For example, if I had to meet weekly, monthly or quarterly profit targets irrespective of prevailing market conditions to make others happy with me and my job performance, my trading would suffer because I’d be forced into making emotional “performance anxiety” trades that I wouldn’t otherwise be tempted to consider.

While I set extremely high goals for myself and my trading, I have learned not to let those goals control my trading decisions.

I’ve also learned when I have to be very aggressive in the market and to recognize when market conditions are such that pays the most reward for the least amount of risk. As you might suspect, those times are exactly when other people are flooding the exit doors and running away from the market. If I had to justify my actions to others during those key market junctures, it would make my job that much more difficult. The market is challenging enough. So, my complete independence allows me to zig while others zag and be able to see and take advantage of opportunities during market panics and bubbles. In that respect, my 100% independence is a true asset.

Tags: Interviews, Real Wall Streeters