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Matt Frailey
I graduated with a degree in Chemistry and Mathematics from the University of Illinois. After graduation, I worked at Solutia/Astaris as a research chemist for 3 years. My job entailed research and development of new products, as well as support for existing products. After this, I became the Lead Plant Chemist for a chemical production plant owned by Astaris. I starting buying stocks while in college, but made lots of mistakes during this time. It wasn’t until after I discovered technical analysis along with money management techniques that my trading vastly improved. I now consider myself a master at technical analysis. My background in Science is a perfect fit for technical analysis because of its technical nature of interpreting data, which is what I do as a Scientist all the time.
Currently, I still work as the lead Chemist for the plant and trade part time during the day. People ask me all the time, “Matt, why are you still working and not trading full time”? The answer is quite simple: If I leave the company at this time, I will not receive the ‘vested” portion or the amount the company has contributed to my 401k retirement plan. To receive this, I cannot leave before 5 years of employment. If I quit now, I will lose all that contributed money (from the company) to my 401K. The company contributes 6% of my income a year. As of now, it would be quite a bit to lose. Anyway, that's why I'm still at my job, besides the fact that I also enjoy my job and do quite well trading on the side. This is also one the reasons I have a partner to handle half the responsibilities of the website.
My contribution to this website will be to contribute some of the stock picks (though most of the picks will be contributed by Keith), as well as writing the newsletters, contributing sections on money management, chart education, etc. I am basically the ‘Scientist’ of the site and will introduce new ideas and trading theories over time.
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Keith Kern
I graduated with a degree in business finance and management from The Defiance College and was the owner of a small business for 5 years during and shortly after college. Upon graduation, I went to work for a major brokerage house as a financial consultant for a year and then transferred to a competitor and worked there for 2 years. It was during this time that I began to discover how major investment firms really work. Companies/Brokerage firms follow certain investments and stocks and give their brokers incentive to sell these "certain" investments with little regards to the small investor. For example, the company was pushing us hard to get our clients into Lucent because the company's analyst had recently rated Lucent as a strong buy. At the time, Lucent was over $50, and many of my colleagues put their clients into Lucent because of the higher commissions they would receive and because of the recent 'buy' recommendation. We all know then what happened to Lucent. Situations like this are all to common and it really makes one question why certain upgrades/ downgrades take place. As a result, I began to research for myself which specific investments, particularly stocks, really were good buys. It is then, through my own research, I began to notice certain patterns in charts, also known as technical analysis, that really struck me. I refused to push junk companies to my clients and decided to use a more technical approach to investing with my clients to much success. Shortly thereafter I quit my job and decided to trade full time for myself. I’ve now been trading 2 years. I am married and have a son who is 1.
My main responsibilities for BreakpointTrades will be the contribution of daily stock picks. Also, because I trade full time for a living, I’ll be here during the day to highlight charts and alert you of trade setups as they occur, as well as to answer any questions you may have during the day via the message board.
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