Drastic changes or opportunity of a lifetime?  Well, it really depends on how to you look at it.  2011 for me was an odd year and an opportunity presented itself to me out of the blue.  One day I was working and my boss called me out of the blue.  She basically said there is an immediate need for someone with your skills at one of our customer locations.  I was like, okay.  She was like, the customer is in Doha Qatar.  I was like “Doha Qatar” what?   I had never heard of it, despite working in Kuwait for a few weeks.  She basically gave me a day or two to think it over.  Honestly, it was similar to the military feeling of being voluntold.  I felt like I had no choice if I wanted to keep my job.  So, I accepted the challenge.  

Another move!

I immediately put things in motion.  Started selling all my furniture and planning to move again.  I only had 1 week to pack all my things, move from Maryland back to Colorado.  I packed up everything and towed a small U-haul  trailer with my SUV.  When I arrived in Colorado, I put all my stuff in storage and then drove directly to Commifornia to put my car in my mom’s garage.  I spent a little time with my mom prior to flying out the very next day to Florida.  When I arrived in Florida I was suppose to be there for a week to get paperwork signed and get some training done.   That didn’t happen.  I literally was on a flight that night to Dulles and then directly to Qatar.  Let’s just say it was a long day to say the least.  

HARD WORK

I really didn’t know what to expect when I started working at my new position in Qatar.  Here I was, fresh off the plane, jetlagged, and sleep deprived.  Luckily, I was able to get some sleep prior to going into work the next day. I got a quick wham, bam, thank you ma’am job turnover.  Once that was over, I was on my own.  At first it felt overwhelming to be in charge of all the storage equipment in the datacenter.  There was a lot too!  Millions and millions of dollars of responsibility and no one else to turn to for help.  It was exactly the perfect role for me!  I’m a curious guy, and I love learning new things.  Besides, there really wasn’t much to do besides work anyway.  The job required 60 hour work weeks.  I decided to work 6 10-hour days from 2PM to 12AM.  I wanted to be somewhat on USA time so I could use this opportunity to learn more about the stock market.  

HEAD FIRST INTO THE STOCK MARKET

Okay, I admit prior to 2011, I had traded stocks before.  In fact, I think I started trading back in 2001 briefly.  I had no idea what I was doing.  I also traded very briefly from 2007 through 2010.  Nothing real serious.  It wasn’t until 2011 when I started taking stocks and trading more seriously.    Once I had my job on automatic by running some daily scripts to check health of all the systems etc, I started to focus on learning more about stocks and the stock market.  At the time, I was using Scottrade (which has now become TD Ameritrade).  It wasn’t long before I quickly outgrew Scottrade and that is when I discovered Interactive Brokers (IB).  I quickly opened an account and I was on my way to inexpensive trades.

Pro TIP: See the Resources page for more information about the brokerages I use daily

 

Stock Market – First real attempt to learn

I dabbled in just about everything at first. Options, Futures, Equities, and Forex.  For a while I was day trading options on APPL. I was doing well until I lost 10K in a week.  I made the money back, and then lost another 10K.  Okay, perhaps this wasn’t working.  I was making around 240K a year while I was working in Qatar.  So, I started dumping nearly everything I was making into my new IB account.  I don’t know if you remember, but, 2011-2013 was very volatile in the markets. I started trading mostly equities and selling covered calls.  That was working, but it was no get rich quick scheme, but I was okay with that.  Most people blow up a few accounts when they are learning to trade stocks.  Thankfully, I didn’t.

Stock Market – Large Losses

A friend of mine I met while working in Qatar had a different approach to trading.  I liked a lot of base hits, he liked home runs.  So, he’d put 50K upwards to 100K into just one stock.  I tried that a few times and it work out well for me too, at first.  I also remember both him and I putting a large sum of money into FNMA (Fannie Mae).  We both lost a large sum of money in a matter of 10 minutes.  I lost 30K just like that!   He lost 75K!!!   That was a learning experience to say the least.  These are the things that you learn from and also set you up to stomach losses and face fears.   I’ll go more into stocks and my current trading habits in a future post.

OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME

Was this an opportunity of a lifetime?  YES!  Here it was July of 2013 and I decided to leave Qatar. I had enough of the long 60 hour work weeks and it was time to come home.  I really enjoyed my time out in Qatar despite the 140 degree summers and dust everywhere.   When I was there I got to visit Abu Dhabi,  Thailand, Australia, and Dubai. It really was a good experience, I met some amazing people, made some great friends, and saved nearly 300K in about 20 months.  I learned a lot about my industry, acquired several certifications, learned more about the stock market in those 20 months.   I’d definitely say that was an opportunity of a lifetime!    This really propelled me forward and gave me a lot of new options when I arrived back in the states.   Have you had any opportunities of a lifetime?  Did you take them?   Did you regret your decision?   Cheers, HF