My name is Chris Perruna and I am 29 years old. I am an individual investor that currently resides in New Jersey with my beautiful wife and great dog but was born and raised in NY (still my favorite place). I graduated college with a degree in Architectural Engineering and went to work for a historic preservation firm in Manhattan. I started as an intern with the firm while still in college and worked on several high end projects around the corner from Wall Street. It wasn’t until I was about to graduate that I knew I wanted to work on Wall Street and trade the markets professionally (rather than personally). I currently consult for a fortune 500 big builder as an architect (listed on the NYSE), run an independent equity research firm MarketStockWatch.com and trade my own accounts for capital appreciation.
I am a trend trader looking for gains of 25% or more and losses no larger than 10% (preferably smaller). You must understand that this 10% loss is calculated into a position sizing spreadsheet that only risks a maximum of 1% of total capital. My foundation is rooted in CANSLIM philosophies but I developed my system with detailed position sizing calculations and money management rules from Dr. Van Tharp. I was inspired to enter this field after I started to read the books by the greatest speculators on Wall Street throughout American history. This blog is not affiliated with Wall Street brokerage firms, companies, newspapers, publications or any other financial institution. This ensures that all information and analysis will be unbiased as I answer to no one. However, all views and analysis are based on my beliefs and opinions and are not fact of what can and will happen in the market.
I have decided to start this blog to expand on my original website where I am the founder and president of equity research (MarketStockWatch.com). I have been a student of the market for 10 years with my passion in life torn between architecture and the stock market. The stock market will win in the end.
I open my first brokerage account as a sophomore in college and have not stopped trading since. I first gained an interest in trading from my father who owned restaurants and traded heavily in the 1970’s and 1980’s. I still trend trade heavily based on his 200-day moving average plays. I started tracking stocks when I was a teenager but didn’t become “obsessed” until college. I started college when the 1990’s market was starting to really boom and I benefited greatly over the first couple of years – it was all luck, pure luck.
As I explained in a recent interview, my worst horror story was trading Extreme Networks. It moved from $50 to $100 on several occasions and I thought I was invincible. I placed an enormous amount of money into the stock in my senior year (about 80% of my account at the time) around $55. The stock quickly ran towards $70 and I loved every minute of it of the so-called “easy money”. Without getting into details, I learned the biggest lesson of my life and sold just above $15 per share. To make matters worse, I had money from both my mother and sister in the account.
After the crushing blow to my portfolio, I wondered how some people made consistent profits in the market. Why were the analysts always wrong? Aren’t they the professionals that know the secrets of Wall Street?
I set out on a venture to learn how some people make consistent profits in the market without losing their shirt. While surfing the internet, I came across an advertisement about Investor’s Business Daily, the newspaper owned by William O’Neil. They were offering a free two week trial, so I decided to give it a try.
This was the turning point in my investing life. After reading the books written by William O’Neil, I started to realize that a personalized system was an intelligent way to invest in the market. A system with both fundamental and technical analysis was the answer, not tips on the early AOL chat boards. Understanding basic company fundamentals and studying chart patterns is the proper way to buying and selling stocks. This was only the first piece of my system as I later found (the hard way) that I needed a strong money management plan that employed position sizing and expectancy calculations.
From the O’Neil books, I was pointed in the direction of Jesse Livermore, Gerald Loeb, Nicholas Darvas, Victor Sperandeo, Martin Schwartz, Stan Weinstein, The Market Wizards, Van Tharp and many others. The story about Jesse Livermore has inspired my investing life more than any other Wall Street figure to date but in a way you may not expect. Livermore didn’t use basic money management to prevent his blow-ups. Simple risk calculations could have prevented his demise. He could have been the greatest ever but fell short because of one simple tactic.
Using O’Neil’s CANLSIM style of investing, I developed my own similar method of investing that tied directly into my personality and emotional state. As the bear market wore on, I started to test my new trend trading style of investing with some decent results. The profits weren’t as quick as ones from pre-bust days but respectable compared to the major indexes. I decided to devote more and more time into the study of my own philosophy with detailed money management rules. I spend many hours a week studying the technical side of stocks and use computerized fundamental screeners while compiling a huge database of my own. I joined several discussion boards looking for a way to teach and learn at the same time and used an old college nickname “Piranha” and started to post. Blogs came along and I started my original blog on the blogger platform but have now decided to switch to WordPress.
Here, I primarily talk about the market but have other interests in life such as poker on a competitive level, a men’s flag football league in the fall and a softball league in the spring. It drives my wife nuts but I like to compete in most things I do so sports, poker and the market feed that craving. I also enjoy traveling, attending professional baseball and football games and dining at great restaurants. Del Frisco’s (NYC) gets the nod here!
Overall, I see myself as a husband (one day a father), a trader, an entrepreneur, a great friend and someone that loves to talk “stock” – pun intended!
Enjoy the Blog!
“As you make your rise to the top, never forget about the important things, especially your most important ‘true love.’” – Christopher Perruna
Dedicated to my wife, the most beautiful woman in the world.
And it all started here…
Posted March 7, 2007 
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