with pretty high interest rates.
I work in the Walmart parking lot for hours this afternoon. I work so long that my phone runs out of its charge twice and I eventually just plug the USB cord into the car charger.
Around six o'clock this evening, I have almost everything I need. I even open a day trading account with Robin Hood, an online stock trading app. I buy some blue-chip tech stocks like Amazon, Facebook, and Apple and then start reading forums and doing research on other promising companies.
I haven't been involved in stock trading in years and I have forgotten how interesting and stimulating it is to make these bets. Stock trading is basically legalized gambling except if you lose one day, you don't have to realize those losses. You could just let them ride and hope that the stock price goes up in the future.
Around nine p.m., I head back into the Walmart and buy a notebook and some pens along with some fruit and another coffee. I've been eating the junk food that I took from the cabin, but now I’m craving something nutritious and healthy.
When I get back to the car, I transfer over all of the notes that I took on my phone and continue doing research well into the night. I need to go back to the campsite, but the reception will probably be bad there and I'm on a roll. The cup of coffee keeps me going well into the night.
Eventually, I crash.
I don't have the energy to drive all the way back so I just stay here in the parking lot, setting an alarm for three hours ahead of time to make sure that I wake up before any security guards make their rounds.
When I do rise again, this time I'm not tired or sore. I open my eyes and immediately remember to reach for the journal to go through all of my notes.
The stock market has already opened in New York and I'm up about $200.
I sell the stocks and realize the gains.
Then I go through my notes and make new purchases.
This was how I got started all those years ago. This is how you day trade.
You buy in the morning and you sell in the afternoon. You hope that things are good and the losses aren't bad.
After a while, $200 here, $400 there, that sort of thing. It's a slog to do it every day.
Day trading is a job just like any other except you have an actual quantitative value by which to assess the quality of your day.
The next afternoon I go to a motel.
I use my fake ID, the old one, the new one that I just got from the dark web isn't going to be delivered to the PO Box that I had just set up for another couple of days. I decide that I won't stay here more than two days, but it's good to have a roof over my head.
I try to relax and even watch television, but my mind keeps racing. I had forgotten the rush that I got from working all the time. It's exhilarating and addictive.
It makes me forget to eat, rest, and relax. It was always something that I hated before, but now it puts me at ease. Now, I can just bury myself in my work and I don't have to feel the pain that Isabelle has caused me.
I did this once already. I used my savings to grow my nest egg to something worth millions of dollars.
I did it once, I can do it again.
The following day, I have a setback. I was $500 under or rather, I would lose $500 if I were to sell the stocks. I don't.
I put in limit orders and wait for them to go up. I will only sell them when they reach the limit where I make a little bit over breaking even. I turn my attention to other stocks and other companies and read everything that I can find on who runs them, what they do, and the culture within the company.
The next day, I'm up $300 and the one after that I'm up another $700.
After a week, I become used to the ups and downs of this business. The money no longer represents something that I can use to buy things, but rather they are just numbers on a page.
I want the numbers to keep increasing until… I don't know until when. A while ago, I thought that I would just