Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Entrepreneurship North America Bay Area Steve 12/23/08
Family Context: Steve, 52, owns a house in a Palo Alto neighborhood that he shares on a part-time basis with his girlfriend (who also maintains a residence in San Francisco) and their dog. He also has a tenant who rents a room for a few nights a week, and an in-law apartment that was vacant when we met. Steve moved into this house about eight years ago, after his divorce, from another one about a block away.
Steve's two children are away at college: his daughter, 20, is studying at Bar-Ilan Univerity in Tel Aviv, and his son, 21, is at Landers College in Queens, NY. He sees them about once every six months, and keeps in touch with them via e-mail, Skype, and phone. Steve's parents still live in Memphis, where he grew up, and he has four siblings in various cities in the U.S.
Brief summary of establishing questions for domain:
Although Steve stopped working as a consultant in the computer industry about two years ago, when he become a full-time day trader, he still spends his work life surrounded by computers. In his home office, he sits in a corner of the room at a bank of monitors, with at least four computers running at once. He uses his main console for e-mail, web browsing, and general work flow. At the same time, he follows general and business news on another screen, chats in a trading room on another, tracks charts and data on another, and may watch a webinar on yet another.
As a day trader, Steve's job is simple: to make more money than he loses. It's all about positive cash flow, he explained. It is an ongoing learning process for him, and in addition to attending live classes and trainings on occasion, he takes advantage of the multitude of material, classes, and training available online. Until a couple of months ago, Steve traded in currencies. Now he is focused on trading index futures--specifically, the E-Mini (which
tracks the S&P500 Index).
Steve identified three key factors for day trading: (1) understanding financials and the different types of financial instruments that can be traded; (2) working with broker(s) who need to conduct trades for you; and (3) having a system or methodology for determining how to trade. This last factor is what occupies most of Steve's efforts to become a more effective day trader. He spends most of his time in one of two online trading rooms, each of which uses a particular methodology for making trades and offers a moderator, live feedback, the ability to chat with other traders, and charts.
Steve is still struggling to find an effective strategy for trading that will eventually allow him to work less. These days, he is usually online by 6:00am PT, about a half-hour before the market opens at 6:30am PT, and works until about 1:15pm PT when the market closes. However, as his own boss, he can be flexible about getting up to eat, exercise, or just take a break. He usually makes about a dozen trades a day. Steve hopes to eventually learn how to trade effectively enough so that he will have to work only two to three hours a day to make money.
General Insights
The home office can serve as a sophisticated work space, with few limitations on the number of computers, monitors, printers or other pieces of technology needed. Having enough know-how to make it all work, however, is an important factor. Steve is essentially his own IT department. That allows him to maintain his "work nest" (our term), which is something others might have a harder time doing for themselves.
When it comes to mobility, a smartphone does not not necessarily keep everyone connected to their work. In Steve's case, he can conduct trades when away from his "work nest," but he needs to travel with two laptops to do it effectively (and have Internet connectivity, of course). He finds the small screen on a smartphone too limiting. Smaller is better, however, at least to some extent. Steve recently acquired an Acer Netbook, which has lightened his load considerably.
A comfort level and familiarity with technology allows the experienced user to improvise and bootstrap. When several pieces of hardware need to be configured to work together, or a component needs to be swapped out, someone like Steve can make it happen. Steve noted that he doesn't like to spend money, so he will often look for solutions using what he has available (he is a self-described packrat). Recently, he wanted to add distributed audio capability throughout the house, in part so that he could listen to what was happening in the trading room while away from his office space. He didn't want to start running wires, and he decided that the available wireless options were either too expensive or didn't meet his needs. Instead, he installed an old four-line speakerphone in his kitchen that allows him to hear the audio from the trading room over the intercom at his desk.
Emerging trends
* The ubiquitousness of the computer in the work environment is spilling over into the home entertainment domain as services like Netflix providing instant access to streaming videos over the Internet (for free, as part of their regular DVD-in-the-mail plans). You can watch on your monitor, hook your computer up to your big screen TV (as Steve has done), or use a Netflix-ready device (also available for free) with your television.
* Netbooks--lighter (though not thinner) than the MacBook Air, with full Winbdows-based functionality, may provide an appealing option for those seeking greater mobility than the average laptop now provides.