Ryan Mallory is the co-founder of SharePlanner Inc, a financial website
devoted to Day-Trading, Swing-Trading (both long & short) and
exchange-traded funds. Ryan got his start in the stock market at 11
years old when he inherited
$5,000 from
a relative that had passed away. Instead of putting the money in a
college fund until he was 18, Ryan convinced his father to let him
invest it in the stock market. While other kids read the comics section
each morning, Ryan read the business section, specifically that page
with all the quotes on it. That is where he began developing his skills
as a "tape-reader". He never ventured out of the mutual funds as a kid,
but why should he, here is a kid, not even a teenager yet, learning to
make his allowance in the stock market. Growing up in the 80's &
90's, Ryan saw his portfolio grow from
$5,000 to nearly
$30,000 -
a 500% return for a kid who didn't even have his driver's license yet.
But it wasn't until the beginning of 2001, while in college, that Ryan
learned his greatest and most important lesson in the stock market -
the feeling of losing it all! It's a feeling that probably everyone
should experience at some point, but hopes never to have to. The
portfolio, that had grown into an important lump sum of money had
fallen back down to about its original value of
$5,000. Luckily
for him, he still had managed to use a little bit of that money to buy
his first computer when he was 16, and even replaced the transmission
in his car after it broke down on his way home from college.
The lesson learned from his early days, is a lesson that he is reminded
of everyday before placing a single trade - and that is the human
ability to capitulate a financial portfolio - and it is that lesson
that has kept him from ever repeating it again.
Prior to starting SharePlanner, Ryan showed a desire to work on Capitol
Hill, and after a few summers as a college intern for Senator Richard
Shelby (Alabama) and a failed interview at the White House, Ryan opted
out of going to Law School as previously planned and instead obtained
his MBA and got back into trading in the financial markets, which would
eventually lead to him co-founding SharePlanner in 2006.